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応仁の乱の原因の一つに、越中守護畠山氏の家督を巡る政長と義就の兄弟の確執があり、争いは畿内近国に広がった。政長の軍勢に加わった越中刀工宇多國宗が文明十五年十二月に京都にて鍛刀しており、その様子が三条西実隆卿の日記(注)に記録されているのは興味深い。播磨、備前、美作の守護赤松政則に長舩勝光、宗光が近しく仕えたように、國宗とその一門も畠山家中の武士に従い、戦火の狭間で鎚を振るったのである。 この刀は、國宗一門で室町中期の明応、文亀頃の宇多平國の作。身幅が広く両区深く、腰反りに先反りが加わって姿に張りがあり、鎬地の肉が削ぎ落されて鎬筋屹然と立ち、刃の通り抜けの良さと力強さを感じさせる戦国期の刀らしい造り込み。地鉄は板目に流れ柾を交えて肌起ち、地景が太く入り、地沸が厚く付いて鎬筋寄りに沸映りが立ち、地色が黒味を帯びて迫力ある肌合い。小互の目乱の刃文は、小丁子、片落ち風の刃、宇多らしい牙のような鋭い刃を交えて僅かに逆がかり、純白の小沸で明るい刃縁に小形の金筋が躍動し、匂で澄む刃中に足、葉が入る。帽子は浅く乱れ込み、突き上げて小丸に返り、僅かに棟を焼き、飛焼と相俟って物打付近が皆焼調となる。短い茎は片手打に適し、鑚圧強く刻された銘字に上身の出来への自信が窺える。宇多鍛冶の特色が顕著で出来が優れ、戦国武将が一命を託した刀の全貌を今に伝えている。宇多鍛冶の作は平造脇差や短刀のみ多く、健全な刀の遺例は極めて少ない。 注...『実隆公記』文明十五年十二月十二日条。
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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)
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.
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 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.