A Good Yoshii School Wakazashi, Likely Muromachi, Signed Yoshii Mitsunori

A good, antique, wakazashi signed Yoshii Mitsunori

The Yoshii (吉井派)school was active in Yoshii, near Osafune, beginning in the Nanbokuchô period 1336-1392. Tamenori (為則) is said to have been the founder, followed by Kagenori (景則), Sanenori (真則), Ujinori (氏則), Yoshinori (吉則), Mitsunori, (光則), Morinori (盛則), Naganori, (永則) , Kanenori (兼則), and others. Later generations of smiths used the same names and those who moved to Izumo province are known as the Unshu Yoshii (雲州吉井)smiths.
Most of the Yoshii (吉井)blades were produced during the Muromachi {室町時代,} era, 1336 to 1573.This wakazashi was made during this era.

Their workmanship shows its own distinctive traits and is an unorthodox variation of the Bizen tradition.

By the end of the Muromachi period, the first Europeans had arrived. The Portuguese landed in Tanegashima south of Kyūshū in 1543 and within two years were making regular port calls, initiating the century-long Nanban trade period. In 1551, the Navarrese Roman Catholic missionary Francis Xavier was one of the first Westerners who visited Japan. Francis described Japan as follows:

"Japan is a very large empire entirely composed of islands. One language is spoken throughout, not very difficult to learn. This country was discovered by the Portuguese eight or nine years ago. The Japanese are very ambitious of honors and distinctions, and think themselves superior to all nations in military glory and valor. They prize and honor all that has to do with war, and all such things, and there is nothing of which they are so proud as of weapons adorned with gold and silver. They always wear swords and daggers both in and out of the house, and when they go to sleep they hang them at the bed's head. In short, they value arms more than any people I have ever seen. They are excellent archers, and usually fight on foot, though there is no lack of horses in the country. They are very polite to each other, but not to foreigners, whom they utterly despise. They spend their means on arms, bodily adornment, and on a number of attendants, and do not in the least care to save money. They are, in short, a very warlike people, and engaged in continual wars among themselves; the most powerful in arms bearing the most extensive sway. They have all one sovereign, although for one hundred and fifty years past the princes have ceased to obey him, and this is the cause of their perpetual feuds."

Code: 25993