Power sat in Kamakura, but taste was still made in Kyōto. The Awataguchi school’s pear-skin steel became a byword for perfection, and the Rai line supplied dignified tachi to the court, senior warriors, and the great temples alike.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatch（本阿弥光遜折紙付） 出ました出ました山城来国行の名刀が出ました。本刀は愛刀家の伊藤巳代治伯爵旧蔵品として伝わった来国行の名刀です。伊藤巳代治伯爵は長崎生まれの大政治家で伊藤博文に認められ明治憲法の制定に参画し、伊藤博文内閣の書記官長、農商務相を歴任、後に東京日日新聞社（現在の毎日新聞）社長、枢密顧問官となった元勲です。本刀の来国行は国宝1点重要文化財15点重要美術品11点が国に指定されている日本の刀の宝の中の宝物です。来国行は来派の始祖鎌倉時代正元頃（1259年）（765年前）刀剣界では横綱中の横綱として皆様大変良くご存知です。本刀は今だに健全で元は2尺7寸程の大太刀を後世に短くした刀で元重ね厚く元身幅と先身幅の差の有る鎌倉時代の太刀姿を現し、地金は板目肌に鍛え地には地沸がつき、地には元から山城の来派の沸映りを現し見事です。彫りは表に棒樋と添え樋中心の中に梵字、裏は二筋樋と中心に梵字を彫り上手です。刃紋は匂い出来に沸の付いた直刃調で浅くのたれて、山城の逆丁子刃や互の目刃や丁子刃、小丁子刃、を交え来国行の典型的な刃を焼いて見事です。本太刀には本阿弥光遜の折り紙も付いています。鞘書きの意訳は伊藤巳代治伯爵の筆で子孫に残し伝えるようにとの事でしょうか。伊藤巳代治伯爵の蔵刀は昭和の時代に3回に分けて売り立て入札される位多くの名刀が有りました。この度古い御御数寄者様から後進の方に何かのお役に立てばとお預かりしました。是非お楽しみ下さいませ。
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Yamashiro-den · Yamashiro
30 pieces on the market now
A calm, lustrous steel is the first thing the connoisseur's eye is meant to settle on with the Rai school: a finely forged ko-itame (小板目) worked until it is dense and refined, over which the ji-nie lies thickly in minute particles, fine chikei (地景) enter, and a nie-utsuri rises in the ji. This bright, refined jihada, the surface the trade reads as Rai-hada when its softer, looser patches intrude, is the constant beneath every manner the house produced. The school took shape in Kyoto in the mid-Kamakura period around the workshop of Rai Kuniyuki (來國行), the de facto founder of the line, whose chronology is reckoned from the Koan 1 (1278) tachi of his transmitted son. From Kuniyuki the Yamashiro-den tradition of late Kamakura was built, carried by Niji Kunitoshi, the two-character 國俊, traditionally his son and the nearest of the house to his hand; by the three-character Rai Kunitoshi, the first to crown his name with the character Rai, a practice all who followed took from him; and onward through Rai Kunimitsu (來國光), Rai Kunitsugu (來國次) and the lesser names Kunizane, Tomokuni, Kunihide and Mitsukane into the early Nanbokucho period. Whether the two Kunitoshi are one smith or two remains the classic open question of the school, argued from a span of dated work running about forty years from Koan 1 to Genko 1 (1321). What unites the house is a temper of restraint and activity at once, its life carried in the nie rather than in the height of the pattern. Against Kuniyuki's wide, suguha-toned ha and against the refined chu- or hoso-suguha of the three-character line, the smiths mix ko-choji, ko-gunome and small midare; ashi and yo enter densely, often as the Kyoto-style kyo-sakaashi (京逆足) that slants back toward the nakago, the opposite of the Bizen direction; the nioiguchi runs deep and bright, ko-nie attaches thickly, and kinsuji and sunagashi move through the body of the ha. The boshi is the school's most misjudged trait: a ko-maru drawn out by hakikake, the brushed nie of the point continuing the work of the ji below, often falling into midare-komi with a pointing tip. Muneyaki along the back recurs often enough that the records name it a habit of the Rai hand, and carving in the groove, suken or gomabashi with an added side hi, is a practice the texts call peculiar to Rai work. The strength of the nie within the ha, the utsuri rising as a nie-utsuri, and the kyo-sakaashi are precisely the marks that part Niji Kunitoshi's choji-dominant midare, which the old books said resembles the Bizen Ichimonji, from the Ichimonji itself.
Where the early masters keep this calm Kyoto register, the late line bends toward Soshu-den: Kunitsugu, counted among the Ten Brilliant Pupils of Masamune and named Kamakura-Rai, shows the strongest nie of ji and ha in the whole school, a notare mixed with gunome the earlier Rai never had. For a collector the house style is the recognition tool. An unsigned, o-suriage katana settles to Rai when the packed ko-itame, the fine nie over it, the standing utsuri and the kyo-sakaashi read together; the named smith is then fixed by degree. Niji Kunitoshi and the three-character Kunitoshi, both graded Sai-jo saku by Fujishiro, anchor the canon, the latter unusually approachable because his signed work is abundant and roughly half of it tanto, late Yamashiro work in its purest form. Kunimitsu, the most prolific and most versatile of the house, gives the impression of surpassing his father in force; Kunitsugu, graded Jo-jo saku, is the Soshu-facing edge whose signed tachi are scarce. Mitsukane, the Chudo Rai who withdrew to forge on Mt. Hiei, stands apart as the strong pole, his ji-nie laid thicker than Kunitoshi's or Kunimitsu's and likened upward to Awataguchi Yoshimitsu; the smaller Kunizane, Tomokuni and Kunihide carry the jigane a step into the Nanbokucho. The provenance roll is of the first rank, with blades worn by Ieyasu and held beside the Honjo Masamune, meibutsu such as the Aizen Kunitoshi, the Torikai Kunitsugu and the Midare-Mitsukane, and descent through the Owari and Kishu Tokugawa, the Maeda, Uesugi and Shimazu houses. Much sits locked as National Treasure and patrimony, yet the Juyo tier of the major names, and the whole record of the minor hands, remains a goal a serious collector can actually reach. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kunitoshi國俊 | 1278-1288 | 99 |
| Kuniyuki國行 | 1259-1260 | 126 |
| Kunimitsu國光 | 1326-1351 | 262 |
| Kunitsugu國次 | 1311-1327 | 65 |
| Kunitoshi國俊 | 1288-1319 | 193 |
Yamashiro in the Kamakura period
Power sat in Kamakura, but taste was still made in Kyōto. The Awataguchi school’s pear-skin steel became a byword for perfection, and the Rai line supplied dignified tachi to the court, senior warriors, and the great temples alike.
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.
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