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.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchNBTHK Hozon Token Mumei Uda Kunifusa Kunifusa is a representative swordsmith from Kouda. This sword was made in the last of the Nanbokucyo period.(About 670 years ago) Then this sword is a most suitable sword for a collection. 「体配 style」 鎬造り庵棟、身幅重共尋常、反りやや浅く中鋒。茎は磨り上げられ、鑢目は切り茎尻は一文字に切られる。 「地鉄 jigane」 板目肌が流れ肌立ち、地沸付き、棒映り立つ。 「刃紋 hamon」 直刃調に小互の目・小乱れ交じり、小足入り、小沸付き所々砂流しがかかる。釯子はのたれ調に入り小丸に返る。 「特徴 detailed」 越中国宇多一派は、鎌倉末期の文保(一三一七~一八年)頃に大和国宇陀郡より越中国宇津に来住した古入道国光を祖 とし、南北朝期には古入道の子とされる国房、国宗、門下の国久、国次、友次らが活躍、以後同銘が継承され、室町時 代には北陸道最大流派として栄えました。南北朝期を下らない作を古宇多、それ以降を宇多と総称しています。 国房は銘鑑等では初代を康安(一三六一~六二年)、二代を応永(一三九四~一四二八年)頃とし、以降室町末期に掛 けて同銘後代の名が挙がっていますが、本作はその極めより、流祖古入道国光の子と伝わる初代国房の貴重な現存作で す。同派中最も卓越した技術を示す刀工と言えば、迷わず国房の名が挙がる程、国房の技量の高さは、識者の間でも古 くから認められていることであり、同派の作で重要美術品に認定されている4口全てが国房の作であることも、それを 如実に物語っています。 「拵 koshirae」 ハバキ(habaki) :素銅地銀着一重の腰祐乗。 鍔(tsuba) :鉄地甲冑師鍔、桜影透かし。 縁頭(fhchikashira) :鉄地桜金象嵌。縁頭、コジリ、鯉口、栗形は一作金具。 コジリ(kojiri) :鉄地桜金象嵌。 鯉口(koikuchi) :鉄地桜金象嵌。 栗形(kurikata) :鉄地桜金象嵌。 目貫(menuki) :龍の図 柄(tsuka) :鮫は親粒が付き、柄巻は正絹卯の花色の諸摘み巻。 鞘(saya) :黒堆朱の貝粉が散りばめられる。 「刀身の状態 condition of blade」 研:概ね良好です。 傷:欠点に成るような傷は有りませんが、肌立っています。
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Wakimono · Etchu · around 1394-1428
Fujishiro Chu-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 18%
1 piece on the market now
Where Kunifusa stands among comparable artisans: across all of nihontō, and within tradition, era, and period. The tiers (Foremost · Leading · Major · Notable) weigh official designations from the NBTHK and Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, together with historical honors of lasting repute such as the Sansaku and Meibutsu-chō.
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Years he was demonstrably active, proven by signed-and-dated blades
Wakimono · Etchu
Phase: Ko-Uda古宇多· 1310–1394
9 pieces on the market now
Ko-Uda (古宇多) names the founding stratum of the Uda school, the work that does not descend later than the Nanbokucho period and so stands before the long Muromachi continuation that the same studio names would carry. The setsumei place the origin in Yamato: around the Bunpo era at the close of Kamakura, the monk-smith Ko-nyudo Kunimitsu left Uda District in Yamato and settled at Utsu in Etchu, and from him the lineage took root. His sons Kunifusa and Kunimune are recorded, and across the Juyo and Jubi explanations the active founding hands are listed together as Kunifusa, Kunimune, and Kunitsugu, the generations that worked through the Nanbokucho period before the name-bearing successions ran down into late Muromachi. A signed Ko-nyudo Kunimitsu is hard to fix among several smiths who used the name; the Tokuju tachi is read as the founder precisely because it shows the most archaic character of the surviving examples, earlier even than the Kunifusa pieces taken for Nanbokucho. The early steel is the school read at its source. The forging is itame mixed with mokume and running nagare-hada that tends to stand (hada-dachi), ji-nie adhering with chikei, and over it a whitish shirake-utsuri or, on the founder's own work, a nie-utsuri; the jigane carries a blackish, golden-toned cast that the explanations call a northern-province feeling. The temper sits in narrow to chu-suguha, opening into ko-notare, ko-gunome, ko-midare, and togariba, with ko-ashi and yo and ko-nie well set; along the habuchi the Yamato signature of hotsure and kuichigai-ba appears, while kinsuji and sunagashi run through.
Against the later Uda generations, the Ko-Uda face is the purer one. The Tokuju founder is appraised as workmanship entirely like Yamato; the Hie Shrine and Kurokawa tachi by the shodai Kunifusa hold a tight, clear nioiguchi and a bright forging, and the nie in the best stands strong and rounded where the later hands run coarser and more provincial. A Soshu lean exists, traced to the study of Norishige and Go, yet in this phase the steel and nioiguchi keep returning the blade to Yamato roots rather than dissolving into them. To kantei a Ko-Uda blade is to catch the standing, whitish jigane with its masame tendency and utsuri beneath a suguha that might otherwise recall Yamashiro, and to bring a nie-rich, chikei-laden example home from Soshu by the dark steel and the subdued (shizumi) nioiguchi. The named early hands recur across the corpus: the shodai Kunifusa, fixed against dated pieces no earlier than Koo 1 (1389) and the calligraphy of the lattice-broken 国; the signed Ko-Uda Kunimitsu and Ko-Uda Tomonori of around Meitoku; and the rare Tomoshige and Tomonori, smiths of few survivals through whom the phase's reach is gauged. Because signed early work is uncommon, the phase leans on mumei attributions read off forging and temper, several entered as den Ko-nyudo Kunimitsu. Provenance settles into shrine and institutional holding, the Hie Shrine and Kurokawa Institute tachi serving as the calibrating standards against which other early Kunifusa are judged, and the dated examples valued as documentary footing for the study of how Yamato workmanship took its northern form. 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.
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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