Yamamasa 山正 ・ 森高正宗

Yamamasa 山正 is the name collectors use for the mark 山山 over 正 — two peaks above the character 正. The trade directories give this mark to the Moritaka house of Osaka and its brand 森高正宗 ・ Moritaka Masamune. On many blades the 正 is partly ground away by generations of sharpening.

In the trade directories:
In 1912 a trade guide to Kyoto and Osaka lists Moritaka Narakichi at the Kami-Yamato bridge as the thirteenth-generation Masamune razor master, with the trademark registration number 23766. In 1913 a credit directory prints the mark for 森高正宗 at Ōsaka-shimonochō, Tennōji, and for Moritaka Narakichi at the Kami-Yamato bridge, who sold Masamune razors, barbers' tools and Honyama whetstones and called himself the thirteenth-generation Masamune razor master. The 1931 barbers' supply catalogue shows Moritaka Masamune razors on its plate 89 and lists Moritaka Renjirō's shop at Ōsaka-shimonochō 20 as razor maker and wholesaler — the address of the Teramasa razor works.

The registration behind that number is in the trademark register: No. 23766, registered 15 July 1905, for razors (剃刀), owner Moritaka Narakichi, Yamato-chō 116, Minami-ku, Osaka. The mark printed there is the 山山 over 正 of the Yamamasa blades.

Marks and words found on Yamamasa blades:
山正 ・ Yamamasa ・ the brand
山山 ・ yama-yama ・ the double-mountain mark
正 ・ masa ・ second part of the brand name
請合 ・ ukeai ・ guaranteed
登録 ・ tōroku ・ registered
登録商標 ・ tōroku shōhyō ・ registered trademark
上 ・ jō ・ top grade
頂 ・ itadaki ・ top

Some Yamamasa blades also carry two small marks, a circle and a crescent. On one blade in our stock they stand beside the 山山正 mark, so they belong to the same production; what they stand for is not documented.

One blade on this page is signed 傳三郎 ・ Denzaburō and does not carry the 山山正 mark. A link between Denzaburō and the Moritaka house is not documented.

The full source entries, with transcription and plates, will appear in our book on the history of the kamisori.

The brand name 森高正宗 was registered as a trademark on 25 December 1917, No. 90216, for cutting and pointed tools — not by a Moritaka but by 友田任三 ・ Tomoda Ninzō, an Osaka dealer in barbers' instruments (Utsubo-kita-dōri 1-6, Nishi-ku), who had registered the Goromaru mark in 1912.

The earliest Moritaka found so far: in 1895 森高馬太郎 ・ Moritaka Umatarō of Kōzu 10-banchō, Osaka, exhibited razors at the fourth National Industrial Exhibition. How he relates to the later Moritaka houses is not documented.