NihontoWatchThe Tegai school, one of the five Yamato schools, is called Tegai because they resided in front of the Tengaimon, the western main gate of Todaiji in Nara, and were subordinates to Todaiji. It was the largest in scale among the five Yamato schools, prospering greatly from the Kamakura period through the Muromachi period, and is famous for its stable skill; the lineage remains today in place names such as Tegai-cho and Kanenaga-cho. The founder of the Tegai school is said to be Kanenaga around Shoo (1288) in the middle of the Kamakura period. Famous works by this smith include the Meibutsu "Chigashira-kashiwa" (destroyed by fire in the Great Kanto Earthquake of Taisho 12), a National Treasure in the Iwasaki family collection, and six other Important Cultural Properties; these designated items are suriage with a niji-mei remaining at the nakago-jiri. Other famous swordsmiths of the Tegai school include Kaneyoshi, Kanekiyo, Kanetomo, and Kanetoshi, and it is said that Kaneuji (initial mei Kaneuji), one of the Masamune Jittetsu, also belonged to the Tegai school. Furthermore, it is said that Kaneuji, Kanetomo, and Kaneyoshi later moved to Mino and changed the character "Kane" (包) to "Kane" (兼), calling themselves Kaneuji, Kanetomo, and Kaneyoshi respectively. Among the long-prospering Tegai school, works up to the Nanbokucho period are collectively called "Tegai," and works from the Muromachi period are called "Sue-Tegai"; they are characterized by having the strongest nie among the five Yamato schools and a clear jitetsu. This katana, which is mumei but received a kiwame as Sue-Tegai, has a mitsumune, and what catches the eye the moment one first sees it are the koshibi and gomahashi carved in the center of the mihaba of the toshin. The jitetsu is ko-itame hada, packed with the masame characteristic of Yamato near the ha, with chikei wriggling in the depths of the ji, and the way the thickly applied jinie particles reflect light and shine is truly like gazing at a galaxy. The hamon is suguha, with yakikomi below the ha-machi, bright with konie on the habuchi, and the hachu is also bright, filled with nie and nioi. The boshi is sugu and returns in saki-komaru. Although it is a short length, the jiba is beautiful and worth seeing, and since it has been given a saijo-kenma by a leading master polisher of the modern era, you can fully enjoy the entirety of the high quality of a Yamato-mono in your own hands. You may feel the price is higher than other shops, but if you hold this tanto directly, you will surely realize that it is by no means a high price setting. The accompanying koshirae uses a reddish-brown urumi-nuri saya, with a well-made hyotan-zu on the fuchi-kanagu, and iron awabi set as the menuki. The kozuka is iron with a kakejiku-zu, and the form assembled with a kuridashi-tsuba radiates a certain presence despite being small. Furthermore, the fact that an ubu tako-sageo is included is very desirable, further enhancing the atmosphere of the period. Both the hyotan and awabi are known not merely as decorations but as kissho designs entrusted with wishes important to samurai families, such as health, prosperity, martial luck, etiquette, loyalty, and longevity, adding an elegant air of good omens to the entire koshirae. There is no rattling in the tsuka and it is robust, but since tsuba-nari is observed, please apply sekigane and cherish it for a long time to come.
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As written by the shop
Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors ·
Yamato-den · Yamato
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Outside the Tegaimon (転害門), the western great gate of Todai-ji, a lineage of smiths forged for the temple through the closing decades of the Kamakura period, and from that monastic ground rose the Tegai school (手掻), one of the five branches of the Yamato-den. The published commentary of the NBTHK names Kanenaga (包永) its founder, placing his activity around the Shoo era (1288 to 1293) while reading his own workmanship, and a tanto by an early hand of his circle dated Karyaku 4 (1329), as evidence of a beginning reaching back further into middle and late Kamakura. The school took its name from the gate by which it worked, and the long Nanto-ju and Tegai-ju signatures cut by its later smiths keep that Nara setting on record. Among the five Yamato traditions Tegai was the largest in scale, and as the Muromachi years advanced it appears to have absorbed the others so that it alone effectively continued, a span the surviving generations of Kanenaga, Kanekiyo (包清), Kanetsugu (包次), Kanetoshi (包俊), Kanesada (包貞), and Kanemasa (包真) carry from the late Kamakura into the Eisho and Kyoroku eras. A Tegai blade is read first in the steel and then along the edge. The forging is itame mixed with mokume that flows into nagare and inclines toward masame near the ha, standing open in a hada-dachi character, with thick ji-nie, chikei entering frequently, and at times a whitish shirake utsuri toward the mune. Over that ground runs a suguha base, seldom left plain, taking in shallow notare, ko-midare, and ko-gunome; the habuchi frays into hotsure, with uchinoke, kuichigai-ba, nijuba, yubashiri drifting into the ji, and sunagashi and kinsuji sweeping through. The boshi answers in kind, swept with hakikake and finishing yakizume or turning back in a small ko-maru. Within this shared vocabulary the corpus divides along the Ko-Tegai and Sue-Tegai axis.
The founder's hand, the Ko-Tegai prime, carries the strongest nie among Yamato works, round and lustrous, over a bright and clear jigane, with many tachi holding a dignified, high-toned bearing; the Meibutsu Konotegashiwa Kanenaga even tempers omote and ura differently. The later Sue-Tegai generations part company, the steel turning whitish, the nioiguchi tightening toward ko-nie, and the temper broadening at the last toward ogunome and a hitatsura tendency near Muramasa, as in the late Tegai-ju Kanekiyo blades. To kantei a Tegai blade is to place it within Yamato and then along its own line. Against Senjuin, Shikkake, Taima, and Hosho, all working the same standing masame-inclined grain under fraying suguha, Tegai is told by the strength and brightness of its nie; Honma noted of the first generation a sparkle at times recalling Awataguchi Hisakuni, and one Tokubetsu Juyo tachi was read as rivaling the upper Soshu masters. Where Hosho runs a near-pure masame and a plain edge, and where Shikkake Norinaga strings his ko-gunome into connected rows, Kanenaga holds the suguha-cho through its shallow notare and lets yubashiri, uchinoke, and nijuba play above the habuchi with unusual freedom; the Rai suguha of Yamashiro, by contrast, runs clean over a close ko-itame. Rated Jo-jo saku by Fujishiro, Kanenaga stands at the head of the school, his signed tachi (the character Kane compressed, the second vertical of Naga drawn out long) unusually numerous for so early a smith, though most survive suriage and the o-suriage mumei attributions ride on the quality of the nie. The provenance is deep, running through shrines, the Tokugawa, Date, and Hachisuka families and, formerly, the Imperial Family, with recorded holders including the Tokyo National Museum and the Tokugawa Art Museum. The later names hold mainly to the Juyo register and to private and designated hands, valued as fixed reference points for the Yamato-den, where the founder's bright, heavy nie over standing Yamato steel remains the measure by which the whole school is judged. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kanenaga包永 | 1288-1312 | 66 |
| Kanekiyo包清 | 1362-1370 | 8 |
| Kanetsugu包次 | 1317-1333 | 4 |
| Kanetoshi包俊 | 1381-1384 | 4 |
| Kanekiyo包清 | 1429-1441 | 3 |
Yamato in the Muromachi period
The monasteries that had sustained Yamato lost ground through the Muromachi period, and the schools thinned with them; Sue-Tegai kept the old masame manner alive in quantity. The burning of Tōdaiji’s Great Buddha hall in 1567 closed the temple 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.
NBTHK official siteAs a rule we do not accept returns, except when we have sent a different item from the one ordered or when there is a significant discrepancy between the description and the item. If you wish to return an item, please contact us within 3 days of its arrival and then send it back.
¥550,000
Certificate reading — 無銘（末手掻）