Tsunemitsu– his first name was Izaemon (伊左衛門) was one of the most outstanding st

Tsunemitsu– his first name was Izaemon (伊左衛門) was one of the most outstanding students of Tsunekatsu. This might be the reason why some counted him as his actual successor and 2nd gen. of the Kikuchi Family. His strong points were excellently carved and elegant kebori. He used the Gō Seirandō (青藍堂) and it is said that in his early years he signed his name with the characters (常光). He had one son who followed him as 2nd gen. Izaemon Tsunemitsu. The Bamen school goes back to the Armourer Family of the same name which was, according to transmission, a branch of the famous Myōchin Family (明珍). Bamen was written with the characters (馬面) and (馬免). The origins of the Bamen-katchūshi lie in Toyohara (豊原), in Echizen province, namely at the time of Oda Nobunaga (織田信長, 1534-1582). When the latter burned down the local Toyohara-dera (豊原寺) in 1575, the family moved in the following year to the nearby village of Maruoka (丸岡).Towards the end of the Edo period and with the strongly decreasing demand for newly produced armours and helmets, many of the Bamen members had to change jobs. Some of them became gunsmiths (teppō-shi, 鉄砲師), others arrow smiths, and Tsunemasa – whose first name was Ichijūrō (市十郎) – entered an apprenticeship with Kikuchi Tsunekatsu. However, Tsunemasa did not continue the kinkō craft of his master but continued the tradition of the Bamen Family, being the forging of iron and the opening of ji-sukashi. He was strongly influenced by the then very popular sukashi-tsuba of the Akasaka School (赤坂) and the fine ito-sukashi of the Itō School (伊藤). Tsunemasa was born in the first year of Kanpō (1741) but his year of death is unknown. On the basis of pieces signed with his age we can say that he was at least active until the age of 75, which means at least until the Bunka era (1804-1818).