The effects of underlayer materials Cr;ri, V and Cu on the magnetic properties such as coercivity and the microstructure of Co85Sm15 film deposited onto these underlayers were investigated. The coercivity as high as 3600 Oe was obtained in the Co85Sm15 him with a 100 nm thick Cr underlayer, but it was about 1800-2600 Oe in the cases of Ti, V and Cu underlayers with the same thicknesses. The cross-section TEM observation revealed that a clear columnar structure is formed for Cr underlayer but not clearly for the other underlayers. The high resolution TEM observation indicated that the CoSm film with Cr underlayer consists of the amorphous columns and the crystalline boundaries' surrounding those columns. It was considered that this heterogeneous structure gives rise to the large coercivity in the case of Cr underlayer.