National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

　This tachi (a sword made to be worn with the cutting edge down) retains its original form well as the cutting edge is long and the blade is wide with an extended kissaki (the tip of the blade). The jigane (ground metal) shows a close wood grain pattern with bo-utsuri (a straight white misty formation that runs parallel to the hamon in the ground metal). The hamon is in the suguha (straight) style with a narrow nioiguchi (the dividing line between the hamon and the ground). Although there was another Moritsugu in the Aoe school of the mid-Kamakura period, the Moritsugu who made this sword was a swordsmith of the Aoe school in the Northern and Southern Courts period.