Bizen Province (Okayama Prefecture) has a long history and tradition as a typical region for the production of Japanese swords from the Heian period to the current day. The area produced many excellent craftsmen, particularly in the Heian, Kamakura, Nanboku-cho and Muromachi periods. In the foreground, the master craftsmen Mitsutada and Nagamitsu appeared in the late Kamakura period, in the early days of the Nagafune school. They were active from the late Kamakura to the Nanboku-cho period. The style of the early Nagafune school included tachi in the broad ikubi (“boar’s neck”, a short and wide point) style, allowing the simple and strong ethos of the warriors of the time to prosper. One of their characteristics included tempering a standard clove-shaped midare (a kind of hamon) temper line over a beautiful itame- or mokume-hada texture.