After the Ōnin War broke the Ashikaga order, a century of Sengoku warfare armed nearly every province in Japan. The era rewards a discriminating eye: routine work exists in quantity, and beside it stand custom blades of the first rank.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatch九州豊前の宇佐八幡宮は応神天皇、比売大神、神功皇后を祀って尊崇篤く、奈良時代に野心ある怪僧道鏡を失脚させる神託を勅使の和気清麻呂に授けた話は有名。この聖地の近くで、室町期に作刀したのが了戒能真、能定、重能、能助など。工名に了戒を冠する彼らは鎌倉期の山城来國俊門の僧門鍛冶了戒の末裔で、応仁の大乱時に豊前に来住して栄え、筑紫了戒の呼称がある。洗練味のある姿と精良な鍛え、端正な直刃出来の作は本国山城を彷彿とさせるものがある。 表題の短刀は、能真と同じ文明頃の了戒光重の作で、幅広く重ね厚く、寸が延びて僅かに内反りが付き、ふくらがやや枯れて凛とした品位の高い姿。地鉄は板目に杢、刃寄りに柾を交え、地景が太く入って地肌美しく起ち、刃寄り深く澄み、厚く付いた地沸の粒子が光を反射して映りが立つ。細直刃の刃文は九州古作同様に刃区上で焼き落しから始まり、小沸が付いた焼刃は匂口きりりと締まって明るく、打ちのけ風の湯走りが掛かって処々二重刃となり、先へ行って僅かに焼幅を広めて大きな喰い違いを交え、匂で澄んだ刃中に金線、砂流しが微かに掛かる。帽子は掃き掛けて小丸に返る。茎の保存状態は良好で、太鑚の銘字の横画に逆鑚が用いられ、能真の銘字に近似(注1)している。高位の武士の腰間にあったとみられ(注2)、静穏で古色ある優品である。 注1...文明十八年二月日紀の脇差がある(『銀座情報』八十六号)。了戒法師慶尊能真と銘した短刀(『銀座情報』二十三号)は杢目肌が顕著で、刃文は匂口締まった細直刃が焼かれ、本作と極めてよく似ている。 注2...時代のある金着ハバキに徳川家の丸に三葉葵紋が刻されている。
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Yamashiro-den · Yamashiro
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The Ryokai school (了戒) took shape in the late-Kamakura capital of Kyoto, in Yamashiro Province, around the smith Ryokai, who worked through the era names Shoo, Einin, Kagen, Enkyo and Ocho at the turn of the fourteenth century. The old account makes him a son or a pupil of Rai Kunitoshi, and one version has him adopted into Kunitoshi's house; because his dated blades place him almost level with Kunitoshi, however, the NBTHK reads him more naturally as a contemporary (an aitedeshi, a fellow disciple) who formed his own line within the wider Rai circle. Whichever account one follows, his is the Rai Yamashiro hand softened by a degree, and from him the Ryokai name descended for several generations, his son Ryo Hisanobu (久信) following as the second master, with a Kyushu branch, the Chikushi Ryokai of Bungo and Buzen, forming by the Nanbokucho and Muromachi eras. What the members hold in common is a quiet manner read against, and just apart from, the Rai parent. Over a packed itame or ko-itame that flows toward masame and stands a little open, fine ji-nie clings and faint chikei enter, while a whitish shirake-utsuri rises in the ji; this paler, drier utsuri, against the clear midare- or jifu-utsuri of Rai proper, is the first thing that separates a Ryokai blade from its source. The temper is a calm chu- or hoso-suguha, mixing here a little ko-choji, ko-gunome or ko-midare, with ko-ashi and yo entering and sometimes a Kyoto reverse ashi; kinsuji and sunagashi run within a tight nioiguchi that grows austere and, in places, clouds into urumi, the moist soft quality the published sources name again and again as a Ryokai point. The boshi closes sugu into a small ko-maru, often brushed with a touch of hakikake. The school stands so close to Rai Kunitoshi that the two are confused at sight; the attribution settles not on any single feature but on the softer ji and ha, the standing masame, the whitish utsuri and the clouding line, the judges noting that compared with Kunitoshi the activity within the temper runs lonelier and the nioiguchi one degree tighter.
Against the sister Enju school the distinction is the boshi: where Enju turns a large deep o-maru and leaves the line bright, Ryokai closes a small ko-maru and clouds into urumi. The masame and the whitish cast carry the line a step toward Yamato and Yamato-den, and downstream toward Nobukuni and the Soshu-shaded work that followed. To kantei a Ryokai blade is to recognize the Rai air of wa-zori and refined steel, then to read the tells that part it from the parent: the jihada leaning to masame and standing where Rai stays smooth, the shirake in place of bright utsuri, and the tight, clouding nioiguchi. Among the members the founder, Ryokai, holds first standing, rated Jo-saku by Fujishiro and represented by slender ubu tachi and tanto signed with a boldly cut two-character mei, several carved with bonji and suken, alongside the bulk of his attributed record in osuriage mumei katana given to him on the hand; one such tanto the published sources call altogether elegant and a representative work, the signature itself of the archetypal type. Hisanobu, the second master, rated Jo-jo saku, carried the father's suguha on with little change, his rare signed tachi and kodachi prized as documentary evidence, one dated piece establishing through his given name that an earlier nationally designated tachi once read as the father's sole work is in fact a joint work of father and son; the remaining members and the later Kyushu generations continue the manner generically. Provenance follows the founder above all: blades passing through the Isahaya, Date and Maeda families, one preserving a tradition that it was a sword worn by Miyamoto Musashi, and the finest pieces held and studied in long-standing public and private collections including the Tokyo National Museum, the Sano Art Museum and Monobe Jinja. A signed ubu Ryokai blade in particular is among the scarcer things a collector of Kyoto Kamakura work will meet, coming to hand only with patience. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Ryokai了戒 | 1288-1305 | 103 |
| Nobumasa信正 | 1345-1350 | 0 |
| Nobuyoshi宣能 | 1444-1449 | 0 |
| Nobumasa信正 | 1390-1394 | 0 |
| Yoshizane能眞 | 1469-1487 | 0 |
The Muromachi period (1392 to 1573)
After the Ōnin War broke the Ashikaga order, a century of Sengoku warfare armed nearly every province in Japan. The era rewards a discriminating eye: routine work exists in quantity, and beside it stand custom blades of the first rank.
Certifies a genuine blade worth preserving: a signature confirmed correct, or, if unsigned, an era, province, and school that the NBTHK can reliably identify.
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 siteIf, due to our fault, the item differs significantly from its proper condition, the item may be returned. Cooling-off is within one week of the item's arrival.