SHODAI MASAHIRO - 1st Gen Masahiro

Masahiro dai-mei for Shodai Tadahiro

1600+
 HIZEN KUNI MASANAGA

1624-25*
 HIZEN KUNI JU FUJIWARA TADAHIRO
 [Dai-mei for Shodai Tadayoshi]

Nov 1625+
 HIZEN KUNI SAGA JU MASAHIRO

1628 (1641?)
 HIZEN KUNI KAWACHI DAIJO FUJIWARA MASAHIRO

LATER
 HIZEN KUNI KAWACHI no KAMI FUJIWARA MASAHIRO
 HIZEN KUNI KAWACHI no KAMI TOSHI MASAHIRO
 HIZEN JU MUSASHI no KAMI FUJIWARA MASAHIRO

BORN: 1607 in Saga, Hizen
DIED: 5th February 1665 (age 59)
NAME: Hashimoto Sadenjiro
FATHER: Hashimoto Sadenjiro Tadayoshi

Masahiro dai-mei for Shodai Tadahiro

The following work is adapted from an article written by Barry Hennick for the Toronto Token Kai in May 1993, and is reproduced below with his kind permission. Barry is an avid collector and researcher of Hizen swords, and specializes in works by Masahiro.

Tadayoshi 1st had a daughter, who married Yoshinobu the swordsmith, and this couple went on to have a son called Masahiro who was born in the year 1607 in Saga in Hizen Province (Yoshinobu was born in 1587 and lived until April 29, 1633). From this mainline of Hizen Tadayoshi School swordsmiths, Masahiro went on to start his own line of smiths. References state that Tadayoshi 1st was childless in his early stage of life despite having a daughter [this author thinks childless should be read as without a male heir], and he therefore adopted both Yoshinobu and Masahiro. Because Masahiro's mother was the daughter of Tadayoshi 1st and Yoshinobu was the son-in-law of Tadayoshi 1st, Tadayoshi was in fact Masahiro's biological grandfather on his mother's side, legally on his father's side, and also his stepfather. Fujishiro gives Masahiro a Jo saku rating, Yoshinobu a Jo saku rating, and Tadayoshi a Saijo saku rating which is good genetics by any standard. Tadayoshi 1st probably adopted Yoshinobu and later Masahiro with a view to them carrying on the Tadayoshi school, but unfortunately for Masahiro, Tadayoshi remarried and had a son - Tadahiro 2 (Omi Daijo), who later went on to take over the family business. It would also appear from references that Tadayoshi went on to have several other sons [see Tadayoshi lineage chart page 27].

Both Tadayoshi 1st and Yoshinobu taught Masahiro, and like Tadayoshi, Masahiro was favored by Nabeshima (who was the Daimyo residing in the Castle town of Saga, and incidentally, the 11th largest family). Nabeshima gave Masahiro the "Hiro" character to his name and he also gave him a stipend of 20 koku of rice, which could support 20 people. Masahiro could therefore support up to 20 followers, workers and students...

...continued in "The School of Tadayoshi, Saga, Hizen, Japan,1598 - 1871"

Japanese music piece entitled 'Tsuki'