The Shintō era was largely invented in Kyōto: Umetada Myōju’s workshop trained the movement, Horikawa Kunihiro raised a generation, and the Hon’ami appraisers, who held no forge, governed the meaning of famous blades.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchDewa Daijo Fujiwara Kunimichi is a master smith of Yamashiro province during the Shinto period, thought to have been born in Tensho 4 (1576) based on extant works inscribed with dates and his age. His first mei was Kunimichi (國道), changing it to Kunimichi (國路) from around Keicho 14 (1609), and he later received the title of Dewa Daijo. Counted as a high-ranking disciple of Horikawa Kunihiro, who is famous as the founder of Shinto, he is known as a swordsmith who demonstrated top-tier skill and a wide range of styles even among the Kunihiro school; meanwhile, he is also thought to have had deep relations with the Mishina school including Iga no Kami Kinmichi, leaving behind works rich in variation that add the power of Mino-den to Soshu-den. His sword-making period spanned over half a century from Keicho to the early years of Kanbun, and he is ranked as Jojo-saku and listed as Wazamono in terms of sharpness evaluations, making him a master who combined the beauty of the ji and ha with the toughness of practical use. This work is a wakizashi in hira-zukuri with iori-mune and a nagasa of 44.11 centimeters, possessing an imposing sense of volume with a moto-haba of 33.1 millimeters and a moto-kasane of 7.8 millimeters; because it maintains a width of 30.15 millimeters and a kasane of 6.3 millimeters even at the monouchi, the difference in width between the moto and saki does not stand out, and combined with the somewhat strongly applied sori, it shows a grand sugata that condenses tension and power within its short dimensions. The healthy tsukurikomi that leaves plenty of jitetsu can be seen from the naked blade weight of 480 grams, and a major highlight of this work is the way Kunimichi's characteristic scenery of the ji and ha develops grandly across the relaxed hirachi unique to hira-zukuri, which lacks a yokote. The jitetsu is a well-refined ko-itame mixed with mokume, covered in ji-nie and becoming somewhat hada-tachi, and by weaving in fine chikei, the depth of the kitae-hada emerges quietly depending on the angle of the light. The hamon has a bright and clear nioiguchi, mixing gunome into a notare tone richly cloaked in ko-nie; ashi enter the hachū, and several lines of sunagashi work along the habuchi to prevent monotony, allowing one to enjoy the Soshu-den colored dynamism typical of Kunimichi as one follows the different undulations on the omote and ura. The boshi continues that momentum, becoming midare-komi and returning maru at the tip, and the nie-deki yakiba developing across the thick kasane and wide hirachi adds a bright, clear dignity amidst the grandeur. The nakago is ubu with one mekugi-ana, and a powerful nagame reading "Dewa Daijo Fujiwara Kunimichi" is chiseled on the sashi-omote. The fact that a Tokubetsu Hozon Token Kanteisho from the Nippon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai is attached serves as reliable support that it has received a higher level of evaluation including not only the mei and deki but also the state of preservation, and the point that one can collect this work of Kunimichi with confidence cannot be overlooked. While it is an easy-to-handle wakizashi with a nagasa of just over 44 centimeters, it is a highly collectible blade that condenses the charm of the Horikawa school, allowing one to fully appreciate the impact created by the 33.1 millimeter moto-haba and thick kasane, the well-refined jitetsu, and the hamon where sunagashi and ashi work actively in a bright nioiguchi, further complete with a suaka-ji kin-paku-niju habaki and shirasaya.
Offered by Toushin
64 on the market
As written by the shop
Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors ·
Shinto · Yamashiro
64 pieces on the market now
At Ichijo Horikawa in Kyoto, from Keicho 4 (1599), Horikawa Kunihiro gathered the pupils whose work the published sources name with his own as the opening of the shinto age. Kunihiro himself reached forging late and by a roundabout road. Born Tanaka and serving as a warrior under the Ito of Obi castle in Hyuga, he wandered the provinces after that house fell, forging where he stopped, his earliest dated blade cut in Hyuga in Tensho 4 (1576); his itinerant Tensho-uchi looked to late Soshu and late Seki, often run toward a hitatsura-like effect over devotional carving. The settlement in Kyoto changed that. There his stated aim, the sources write, lay in the revival of the Soshu-den tradition, the leaning strongest toward Shizu, and around that ideal he trained the men who carried his manner forward: Dewa no Kami Kunimichi, Kuniyasu, Osumi no Jo Masahiro, Echigo no Kami Kunitomo, the elder Kunisada and Kunisuke, with later and minor hands reaching Settsu, Echizen and Edo. Many of them, born like the master at Obi, followed him from Hyuga to the capital. The shared vocabulary is read first in the steel. The school forges an itame mixed with mokume that stands up, the grain raised into the loose, granular surface the commentaries name outright, the zanguri hada particular to Horikawa work, with ji-nie lying thick and chikei entering; on many blades a mizukage rises obliquely from the machi. Over that ground the prime manner is the Keicho-shinto sugata, wide with little taper and an extended chu-kissaki or o-kissaki, the build likened to a Nanbokucho odachi cut down, tempered in a notare and gunome with thick nie, sunagashi and long kinsuji, the nioiguchi often sinking into shizumi. Within that frame the pupils diverge sharply.
Kunimichi runs the flamboyant Shizu copy fully out and turns his boshi pointed in the Mishina manner, the Sanpin boshi the school otherwise does not show. Masahiro keeps the same Soshu-den worked at lower temperature, his temper calm and his mokume conspicuous; Kuniyasu and Kunitsugu stand closest of all to the master and signed for him. Kunitomo turns alone toward late Seki, his gunome round-headed and his chisel the finest in the group, and the elder Kunisada and Kunisuke carry the zanguri steel south into Osaka, the latter keeping the Ishido clove he was born to. Hiroyuki holds suguha over a blackish steel that recalls old Yamato, and the two Echizen Kunikiyo forge a dark, dense hokkoku-gane under a calm chu-suguha. A collector seeks Horikawa because the school stands at a hinge: Kunihiro is read as the first hand of the new-sword age, and the line he taught runs forward into the Osaka tradition through Kunisada and Kunisuke and into Echizen through Kunikiyo. To kantei the work, read the steel first, the standing zanguri surface and the oblique mizukage, then the sinking nioiguchi and the Soshu-revival notare with its sunagashi and kinsuji; the individual hand declares itself in the departures, Kunimichi's pointed boshi, Kunitomo's Seki gunome and compact tang, Kuniyasu's reversed file marks and two-character mei, Hiroyuki's kiri-yasuri. The founder and his closest pupils sit at the top of the line, Kunihiro signing almost everything he made, the large kata-ochi two-character mei beside his long residence signatures; because Kuniyasu, Masahiro, Kunitsugu and Hiromi worked as his daisaku, a share of the blades signed Kunihiro are in fact theirs. Provenance runs through the houses of the founder's own story and of the country, the Hyuga Ito he had served, the Shimazu of Kagoshima, the Imperial Family and Toyotomi Hideyori, with the tachi Kunihiro dedicated to the Hataeda Hachimangu still in the shrine's keeping. A signed Horikawa blade reaches a private collection only from time to time, carrying on its nakago the hand with which the new sword begins. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kunihiro國廣 | 1573-1613 | 147 |
| Kunimichi國路 | 1615-1624 | 75 |
| Kunisada國貞 | 1624-1646 | 87 |
| Kunitomo國儔 | 1596-1615 | 27 |
| Masahiro正弘 | 1596-1615 | 16 |
Kyōto: the revival workshop
The Shintō era was largely invented in Kyōto: Umetada Myōju’s workshop trained the movement, Horikawa Kunihiro raised a generation, and the Hon’ami appraisers, who held no forge, governed the meaning of famous blades.
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 siteAs a rule we do not accept returns, except when we have sent a different item from the one ordered or when there is a significant discrepancy between the description and the item. If you wish to return an item, please contact us within 3 days of its arrival and then send it back.
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