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.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchIt has appeared, it has appeared, a famous sword has appeared that will truly surprise everyone. This katana is a work by the master smith Uda Kunimune of Etchu from around the Meio era (Meio 1492) (532 years ago) of the Muromachi period. It is a very, very old work from around the time of the 11th Shogun of the Muromachi Bakufu, Ashikaga Yoshizumi. It is a sword from exactly the same time that the first generation Kanemoto was active in Seki. The Uda smiths moved from their home province of Uda in Yamato to Etchu (Toyama Prefecture) around the Bunpo era (Bunpo 1317) (707 years ago) at the end of the Kamakura period, and the mei of Uda Kunimune was succeeded for generations by the children of the first generation Kunimitsu. The sugata of this katana shows a high shinogi, wide motohaba, and wide sakihaba, presenting a grand sword sugata; the jigane is a strong jigane forged with itame hada mixed with masame hada, and the hamon is a bright, high o-gunome midare with nie attached to the nioi from the moto to the saki, with ashi of gunome entering the ha, and the boshi is tempered deeply down to the mune, making it a magnificent famous sword with a wonderfully spirited ha. It has been said since ancient times that the famous swords of Uda stand shoulder to shoulder with the famous swords of Bizen Osafune, and this katana is truly a grand, famous sword that surpasses the famous swords of Bizen Osafune. On this occasion, because we received this on consignment from an old connoisseur who said they have grown old and wish to pass it on cheaply to the next generation, we are offering it at a special, exceptionally low price.
Certificate reading — 銘 宇多國宗作（後代）
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As written by the shop
Machine translation from the shop's Japanese · may contain errors ·
Wakimono · Etchu · around 1394-1428
Tōken Taikan top 37%
1 piece on the market now
Where Kunimune 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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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.
This work carries older NBTHK “Kichō”-era papers, which the NBTHK no longer issues and largely disavows today. To confirm the attribution, submission to an official Japanese examination body (such as the NBTHK or NTHK) for modern certification could be considered.
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