This famous smith of the early Shinshinto period who resided in the province of Satsuma was a scion of a line of swordsmith dating to the early 17th century. The Oku family, an old Satsuma family that served the Shimazu family for centuries traces it's descent from the Emperor Kenmu 737-806 and have been an ever  faithful low ranking family of retainers for the Shimazu since their founding. The first notable member of this family was Oku Tadashige who studied in Osaka with Sukehiro and later received the title Izumi no kami. However the family's destiny lay not in the Osaka Shinto Sukehiro style but rather the unique Mino Naoe Shizu Soshu den. Starting with Oku Kunihira who learned this method before the Kyoho period, was eventually matured by Motosada, the grandfather of Motohira, going on to Motonao, and then finally to Motohira and his two brothers, Mototake and Motoyasu. However, will concern myself with Motohira as his brothers worked very closely in style. I will now discuss his two chief styles which he kept for the rest of his life. 

The Inoue Shinkai style of Naoe Shizu was his early style and indeed refined this style so well that it was said that it was very difficult to tell between his copies and the original. His Lord, Shimazu Shigehide and later Narinobu admired his work so much that they petitioned Iga Kami in Kyoto to grant him a title which he duly did on 12th month, 1st day of the 1st year of Kansei (November 28th 1789) of Yamato Kami. 

The styles as noted were a 'rather stout and large dimensioned sugata with a shallow sori, a wide and slightly tapering mihaba, a thick kasane and plenty of hiraniku. The more elegant shapes of his later years are the exception. The shinogi-ji remains relatively narrow despite the wide mihaba. His jigane is very dense, compact itame and the distinctive Satsuma gane. Ji-nie is rough, black and yubashiri appears. I refer readers to Tanobe sensei's entry of Satsuma smiths and to Dr. Fukunaga's book on Satsuma's smiths.