Two courts, sixty years of war, and the most dramatic silhouettes in the sword’s history: broad blades, extended points, true ōdachi later cut down into the majestic katana collectors prize. The Sōshū manner was the style of the age.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchUda Kunifusa (宇多国房) was an important swordsmith of the Etchū Uda School, whose lineage flourished from the Nanbokuchō period into the early Muromachi period, including the Ōei era (1394–1428). The Kunifusa name was carried by successive generations, representing an important continuation of the early Uda swordmaking tradition. The Uda School traces its origins to Yamato Province, where its founder, Kunimitsu (国光), is traditionally believed to have originated before establishing his school in Etchū Province, present-day Toyama Prefecture. Kunifusa is traditionally regarded as a son of Kunimitsu and was among the principal smiths responsible for developing the distinctive workmanship of the early Uda School. Although rooted in the classical Yamato tradition, the Uda smiths gradually incorporated elements of Sōshū-den, a development particularly evident in the workmanship associated with Kunifusa. The Kunifusa lineage represents an important chapter in the evolution of the Etchū Uda School, preserving its Yamato foundations while embracing the dynamic influences of Sōshū workmanship. This combination of traditions gives Uda swords their distinctive character and enduring historical appeal. The blade is constructed in shinogi-zukuri with an iori-mune, and is particularly distinguished by its asymmetrical horimono, featuring two different styles of grooves on either side of the blade. One side displays a single broad bo-hi, while the reverse features a narrower arrangement of parallel grooves, creating an interesting contrast. The jigane displays a prominent itame-hada with areas of flowing masame, together with darker patches and variations in the steel characteristic of the Uda tradition. The hamon is predominantly suguha-based, exhibiting gentle irregularities with small undulating formations and visible activity along the tempering boundary. The koshirae features a glossy black lacquered saya decorated with delicate cloud motifs distributed along its length. The tsuka is covered in white samegawa and wrapped in black silk, with ornamental menuki visible beneath the wrapping. The mounting is complemented by a black shakudō tsuba and dark metal fittings with subtle decorative accents. Particularly attractive are the accompanying kozuka and kōgai, both featuring finely executed designs with contrasting gold and silver details, including a graceful flowering branch motif on the kozuka and flowing cloud-like patterns on the kōgai. A deep burgundy sageo completes the mounting, providing a pleasing contrast against the black lacquer and creating a refined, harmonious appearance. Uda Kunifusa Wakizashi with Antique Koshirae – A Distinguished Smith of the Etchū Uda School
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Wakimono · Etchu
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The Ko-Uda school (古宇多) carries its origin in its own steel, a Yamato craft transplanted into the northern provinces. Its story begins with the monk-smith remembered as Ko-Nyūdō Kunimitsu, held by tradition to have come from Uda District in Yamato and to have settled at Utsu in Etchū around the Bunpō era of the late Kamakura period. From that migration the school took its name and its grounding manner. Kunimitsu is the founder and the hinge of the whole attribution, for almost no securely signed first-generation work survives, and his earliest pieces are read instead by their strong Yamato-den character. Through the Nanbokuchō period the line sent out the smiths gathered under the Ko-Uda name, among them his sons Kunifusa and Kunimune, together with Kunitsugu and Tomonori, who reused the house names down the generations as the school flourished toward the Muromachi. Within that long descent the term Ko-Uda is reserved for work of the late Kamakura through the Nanbokuchō, the formative early phase before the later Uda manner settled. A shared vocabulary binds the early generations, set first by the Yamato root the school never lost. The kitae is an itame, frequently mixed with mokume and a flowing nagare grain that tends to stand rather than lie flat, often standing into masame toward the edge, the surface carrying ji-nie with dark chikei entering. The steel takes a blackish, kanairo cast and grows hazy and standing in places, and where the forging tightens a shirake-utsuri stands clearly in the ji; this northern color is the feature the appraisal turns on, the character distinctive to works of the north.
Over it the smiths temper a suguha or quiet ko-midare, mixing in ko-gunome and shallow notare, the hardening running in nie more than nioi, the nioiguchi tending to sink rather than to glow. Into the habuchi they work the Yamato activity the school keeps as its own: fine hotsure, crossing kuichigai-ba, crescent uchinoke, with sunagashi streaming and kinsuji entering, and a bōshi that runs straight into a ko-maru or sweeps off in hakikake. A second, Sōshū-leaning manner runs beside the first, traced to the Uda study under Etchū Norishige with the smith called Gō set beside him as a model; here the temper opens into notare and gunome dense with nie, calling the Sōshū tradition to mind, though none are of purely Sōshū construction. What separates Ko-Uda from the later Uda is this early concentration of Yamato hataraki and the darkened, dry-standing steel, with Kunifusa seen in a tightly forged jigane and Kunimune more often in a standing grain. To kantei Ko-Uda is to return a nie-laden blade to the northern provinces by its jigane and its sinking temper, since a piece dense with nie, kinsuji and sunagashi that reads at first as a high Sōshū hand is held to Uda by its blackish, standing steel and its rounded ha-nie, the resemblance stopping at construction. The published commentary divides the Sōshū debt itself, assigning the finely forged bright-steeled work to the current of Yoshihiro and the standing-grain blackish-steeled work to that of Norishige. Among the best members Kunifusa and Kunimune stand as representative hands, with the founder Kunimitsu read through both the archaic Yamato face and the bolder Nanbokuchō shapes, and Tomonori ranked among the more able of the line, his quiet whitish suguha and his nie-laden hitatsura work sorting by the presence or absence of streaming nie. The school's record is overwhelmingly mumei and ō-suriage, appraised to the group rather than to a single hand, so that a signed blade of any of these names is already a document and a signed early piece rarer still. Recorded provenance is thin, the work held rather than traded, descending through such hands as the Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures and passing only seldom through the market; for the student of how the Yamato and Sōshū currents met in the north, the Ko-Uda blades are the place where that meeting can actually be seen. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kunifusa國房 | 1368-1405 | 17 |
| Kunimitsu國光 | 1362-1368 | 9 |
| Tomonori友則 | 1390-1394 | 4 |
| Kunitsugu國次 | 1356-1361 | 1 |
| Kunimitsu國光 | 1317-1319 | 2 |
The Nanbokuchō period (1333 to 1392)
Two courts, sixty years of war, and the most dramatic silhouettes in the sword’s history: broad blades, extended points, true ōdachi later cut down into the majestic katana collectors prize. The Sōshū manner was the style of the age.
A Hozon-certified blade judged to show notably superior workmanship and a better state of preservation. The bar is higher: re-tempered blades and most unsigned Muromachi/Edo works are excluded.
The NBTHK (Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai, the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords) is a public-interest incorporated foundation founded in 1948 and supervised by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkachō); it is based at the Japanese Sword Museum in Tokyo. Its expert panels physically examine each submitted work (shinsa) and issue a certificate (kanteishō) ranking it by artistic and historical merit. NBTHK papers are the most widely recognized standard of authentication for Japanese swords and fittings.
NBTHK official siteWe offer a three-day inspection period. To initiate a return, you must notify us within three days of the package being delivered. Once we confirm your request, you have seven days to ship the item back to us. The item must be returned in its original condition, including all accompanying documents, certificates, and packaging materials. The buyer is responsible for covering the shipping costs and insurance for the return shipment.
¥600,000