Muromachi turned sword making into an industry: the uchigatana rose with massed infantry warfare, Osafune and Seki produced bundle swords beside custom orders, and the Ming trade carried Japanese blades abroad by the tens of thousands.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatch宇多平國は室町中期の明応、文亀頃の越中国の刀工。その頃、越中国守護の畠山政長、尚順父子は、足利義澄を十一代将軍に擁立する細川政元に対し、十代将軍足利義材(義稙)を支援して越中に招いている(越中公方)。義材を戴いた畠山家の武士のために鍛刀したのが宇多國宗や平國。戦国期の宇多物は「肌は荒く板目肌立ち、特に地色が黒く」(『日本刀大鑑』)とされるが、一方で「地板目流美し」と評される長享元年紀の宇多國宗の平造刀(藤代義雄『名刀図鑑』)のような優品も多いことから、近年、宇多派の刀の優秀さが再認識されている。 表題の宇多平國の短刀も上級武将の需で精鍛された一口。身幅、重ね、長さは尋常で、僅かに内反りが付いてふくらの枯れた、古風で凛とした美しい姿格好。板目鍛えの地鉄は刃寄りにうねる柾肌を配して鍛着面が詰み、しかも晴れやかな鉄色で透明感が高く、輝きの強い粒状の沸が厚く付いて沸映りが立つ。匂口締まりごころの直刃の刃文は小沸が付いて明るく、打ちのけ、備中青江の如き段状の湯走り、喰い違い、小形の金線が掛かり、刃中には匂が立ち込めて澄む。焼の深い帽子は掃き掛けて小丸に返る。茎の保存状態は良好で、銘字が堂々と刻され、国構えの中の「或」も宇多独特の形。特別の需による作であろう、出来が優れている。
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Wakimono · Etchu · around 1492-1501
Fujishiro Jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 49%
1 piece on the market now
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Wakimono · Etchu
Phase: Uda宇多· 1390–1596
25 pieces on the market now
Where Ko-Uda closes with the Nanbokuchō generations, the chapter that follows opens in early Muromachi and runs to the end of the period. The setsumei draw the boundary plainly: works that descend no later than Nanbokuchō are called Ko-Uda, while everything thereafter is referred to simply as Uda. This later phase is the long Muromachi continuation in Etchū, where the Kuni-named line that began with Ko-Nyūdō Kunimitsu of Uda District in Yamato extends across successive generations sharing single names. Kunihisa, read by the meikan as son of Kunifusa and active from the Ōei era, runs through several generations down to the close of Muromachi; Kunimune carries from Nanbokuchō into Muromachi with dated pieces around Bunmei; and the later registers add Kuninaga, Kuniyoshi, Hirakuni, Sanekuni, Kunikiyo, Tomohisa, and Kunitsugu, names the sources place from Eikyō through Tenshō. Because individuals individuate little, a signed blade of this phase is appraised as the manner of its dated moment rather than the hand of one smith. The steel of the later phase keeps the school's northern foundation while standardizing its expression. The setsumei describe itame mixed with mokume, the grain overall standing (hada-dachi) and tending to flow (nagare), with ji-nie adhering and chikei entering; the jigane leans blackish, and a shirake-utsuri stands distinctly in the ji, sometimes with ji-madara mottling. Over this the temper most often opens as a suguha-based or chū-suguha line into which ko-gunome runs continuously from base to point, ashi and yō entering, ko-nie adhering along a bright nioiguchi, with sunagashi and occasional kinsuji.
A second, more agitated face mixes gunome, ko-notare and pointed togariba with thick nie, yubashiri and tobiyaki that on a Kuninaga wakizashi tend toward hitatsura. Against the earlier Ko-Uda this reads more regularized: where the early generations stayed close to their Yamato and Sōshū models with archaic ji-ha, the later hands settle into the elongated Ōei tantō form (broad for its width, with uchizori) and, in the katana, the wide sun-nobi sugata of advancing Muromachi. The Kunitsugu katana shows this drift toward coarseness directly, its itame standing and rough, the nie uneven and the temper darkening at the edge. To separate later Uda from Ko-Uda is to read the steel before the temper. The whitish, standing jigane with its blackish cast and shirake-utsuri returns a blade to this phase even when a nie-laden midare recalls Sōshū at first glance, and a tightly forged ko-itame may, as with the better Kunihisa pieces, approach Rai Kunimitsu or Rai Kunitsugu before the dark northern grain brings it home. Distinctive markers recur across the named smiths: the bōshi that becomes pointed and is tempered down with a long kaeri, the flaring (susodoshii) nakago-jiri, somewhat coarse rounded nie mixed within the ha, and the particular shaping of the character kuni in the signature. Dated and signed pieces anchor the chronology, from a Kunihisa tantō of Ōei 7 to a Kunimune wakizashi placed around Bunmei and Hirakuni and Sanekuni works set near Tenbun. Provenance for the phase tends toward settled holding, with examples recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection rather than circulating. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kunihisa國久 | 1394-1428 | 10 |
| Kunimune國宗 | 1429-1479 | 5 |
| Tomotsugu友次 | 1381-1384 | 3 |
| Kunimune國宗 | 1394-1428 | 3 |
| Kunitsugu國次 | 1469-1487 | 3 |
The Muromachi period (1392 to 1573)
Muromachi turned sword making into an industry: the uchigatana rose with massed infantry warfare, Osafune and Seki produced bundle swords beside custom orders, and the Ming trade carried Japanese blades abroad by the tens of thousands.
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.
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