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.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchThis blade is attributed to Nioh (二王). The Nio school was a group of swordsmiths that flourished mainly in Suo Province (present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture) from the mid-Kamakura period through the late Muromachi period, with its tradition continuing into the Edo period. Based on the characteristics of this blade, we believe that the attribution indicates an early work of the Nio school, most likely dating from the late Kamakura period (13th–early 14th century), approximately 700 years ago. The Nio school is traditionally said to have been founded by Nio Taro Kiyotsuna (二王太郎清縄) in Suo Province. According to surviving works, one of the oldest dated blades associated with Kiyotsuna was forged in 1265 and is preserved at Itsukushima Shrine in present-day Hiroshima Prefecture. Tradition holds that Kiyotsuna may have begun forging swords around 1205, during the early Kamakura period. Successive generations of Nio swordsmiths continued the tradition established by Kiyotsuna. Many smiths of the school inherited the character Kiyo (清) from the founder’s name, as seen in names such as Kiyofusa (清房) and Kiyonaga (清長). This practice reflects the continuity of craftsmanship and lineage within the school. During the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, Todaiji Temple, one of the most influential Buddhist temples in Nara, controlled a number of estates in Suo Province. Because of this historical connection, it is believed that the Nio swordsmiths had close contact with swordsmiths associated with the Yamato tradition in Nara, allowing techniques and stylistic influences to be exchanged between the two regions. As a result, Nio blades generally show a strong influence from Yamato-den, one of the five major traditions of Japanese swordmaking. Their workmanship is often characterized by a relatively straight and restrained sugata (overall blade shape), a prominent masame-hada (straight-grained forging pattern) mixed with other grain patterns, and a suguha-based hamon (straight temper line). These features give many Nio blades a practical, dignified appearance that reflects the influence of the classical Yamato tradition. At the same time, the Nio smiths developed their own regional characteristics over generations, establishing a distinctive swordmaking tradition in western Japan. There are several theories regarding the origin of the name Nio (二王). According to a well-known legend, a temple containing statues of the Nio, the two guardian deities commonly placed at the entrance of Buddhist temples, once caught fire. A tachi forged by Kiyotsuna, the founder of the school, was reportedly used to cut a chain attached to one of the Nio statues, allowing the statue to be rescued from the flames. According to this tradition, Kiyotsuna and his descendants subsequently became known as the Nio swordsmiths. Another theory suggests that the name derives from a geographical origin rather than the legend. The swordsmiths are believed to have lived in or around an estate known as Nio-no-Sho (二保庄) in Suo Province, and the name of the school may have developed from this place name. Regardless of its exact origin, the Nio school maintained a remarkably long tradition of swordmaking in Suo Province. Its blades represent an important regional development of the Yamato tradition and provide valuable insight into the transmission of swordmaking techniques between Nara and western Japan during the medieval period. *Please keep in mind that there are a couple of Kitae Kizu on the blade. Fuchi-Kashira This Fuchi-Kashira features the motif of a water dragon (水龍, Suiryū), a mythical creature believed to control water and bring protection in Japanese tradition. The dragon itself is an imaginary creature composed of the characteristics of various animals and is traditionally depicted with a body covered in fish-like scales. On this Fuchi-Kashira, however, instead of conventional scales, the dragon’s body is ornamented with shell-like forms resembling utsubogai (turban shells), highlighted in gold. Near the dragon’s head, additional shell motifs further emphasize its close association with the sea. Tsuka and Menuki The theme of the Menuki is the dragon (龍, Ryu). Initially, the dragon is an imaginary creature found in ancient Chinese traditions or myths. Furthermore, it is regarded as a symbolic beast of auspicious signs. Its body is likened to nine animals: antlers are deer, the head is a camel, eyes are demons, the neck is a snake, belly is Mizuchi (蛟, mythical animal in Japan which looks like a snake and have a horn and four legs), scales are fish, claws are falcons, palms are tigers, and ears are cows. It was thought that the dragon would reign at the top of all animals because of its odd-looking appearance. Also, in Japan, there is a belief that worships dragon as a water god and is called Ryujin Shinkou (竜神信仰). Since rice cultivation flourished in this country, water is always an essential resource. Therefore, the dragon motif has been familiar to Japanese people since a long time ago. Tsuba and Habaki The insect depicted on this tsuba, engraved among aquatic plants, is most likely a bee (hachi, 蜂). In Japan, bees and their hives have long been regarded as auspicious symbols of prosperity and protection. Beehives were traditionally believed to ward off misfortune and attract success in business, and in some regions they were even displayed near the entrance of a home as protective charms. A well-known folk saying states, “If a beehive is built beneath the eaves, the house will be spared from fire,” reflecting the longstanding belief that bees bring safety, good fortune, and harmony to the household. Saya It seems that this Saya is decorated with the Kin Mushikui Nuri (金虫食い塗). It is one of the lacquer techniques in which gold leaf is applied to an irregular undercoat with irregularities like insect bite marks, then lacquer is applied over the surface and polished. The appearance is similar to the works decorated with the Wakasa Nuri (若狭塗). Authentication Paper They authenticated the blade on May 13th in the 48th year of Showa (1973). They appraised it as Tokubetsu Kichou Touken, an old form of the certificate.
Nio School二王派
Offered by Samurai Museum
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As written by the shop
Wakimono · Suo
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The Niō school (二王) worked in Suō Province along the San'yōdō, the western reach of the country where heavy concentrations of temple estates, including lands of Tōdai-ji, drew the province into exchange with the Yamato heartland. The members describe the line as beginning in tradition around the Hōen era (1135 to 1141) with a Kiyozane or Kiyohira, but they agree that no securely attributable work by either survives, so Kiyotsuna is regarded in effect as the school's founder. His oldest dated piece, a tachi signed in a written-out inscription, "Bun'ei 2, third month, Kiyotsuna" (1265)[[c:1]], is preserved at Itsukushima Shrine and serves as the touchstone against which the first generation is read; after it the same signature continues without interruption through the Muromachi period and into the shintō era, the name borne by generation after generation, with a tantō signed "Bōshū Kuga-shō Kiyotsuna" of Kenmu 2 (1335) marking the line's passage into the Nanbokuchō. The members tie the appellation most persuasively to residence in Niho-shō within the province, one tradition deriving it instead from a first Kiyotsuna who cut a chain to free the Niō Guardian Kings from a temple fire, a pun the name carries. Later hands continue the manner, the Ōei-era Kiyonaga representative of the sue-Niō generations and a Kiyosada recorded through Kakitsu, Daiei, and Tenbun. Across the generations the members converge on one coherent manner. The kitae is itame mixed with mokume and nagare, the grain flowing overall and in places strongly toward masame so that the hada stands finely; minute ji-nie adheres and fine chikei enter, the steel sometimes carrying a slightly whitish tone. The temper rests on a narrow suguha, often slender, mixed with ko-gunome, ko-midare, and a shallow ko-notare, with ko-ashi and ko-nie attached and kinsuji and sunagashi moving along it; along the habuchi the members note hotsure, uchi-noke, and kuichigai-ba, and the bōshi runs straight and turns back in a small ko-maru, the tip at times showing hakikake.
What the members single out as the school's own individuality, the features that separate Niō from the Yamashiro and Yamato suguha it otherwise resembles, are two paired effects: a shirake-utsuri, a whitish hazy reflection standing in the ji toward the mune, and an urumi, a moist softly clouded quality in the nioiguchi where the bright line of Rai and Tegai gives way to something more subdued. Divergences across the line are matters of degree rather than kind: the early signed work reads quiet and controlled with a brightened nioiguchi, the later sue-Niō hands lean toward gentle notare with active yo, and the late generations add kurikara and Niō-guardian carvings in ranma-sukashi and relief within hitsu recesses. To read Niō work the members return to the same tells. The tachi sugata is the elegant late-Kamakura form, slender and high in the shinogi, the kasane somewhat thick, with pronounced koshizori, a small or medium kissaki, and taka-no-ha file marks that confirm the Yamato connection; the tantō is hira-zukuri with slight uchizori. At a glance the workmanship is suggestive of Yamato proper, yet the members observe that the flowing grain is not as conspicuous as in Yamato blades and the nie is comparatively restrained, while the shirake-utsuri in the ji and the urumi in the ha, taken together and not either alone, are the pairing that fixes the attribution against both the Yamato heartland and the brighter Yamashiro suguha of Rai; this same moist, whitish register, paired with the masame-leaning standing hada, also sets the school apart from the clearer steel and jifu of Aoe. The best of the signed first-generation pieces are judged to express not only Kiyotsuna's own hand but the characteristic traits of the school, signed examples with ubu-nakago prized as documentary material given how few survive. Provenance, where recorded, is distinguished: an Important Art Object tachi now in the Sano Art Museum was held at its prewar recognition by Tokugawa Iesato, another signed tachi descends to the Seikadō from the Ōsaka collection of Kajima Isao, and the dated touchstone remains at Itsukushima. Most of what survives is held in shrine and institutional hands rather than traded, so a signed Kiyotsuna with its file marks and old two-character mei intact is among the rarer things a collector of provincial Kamakura work might encounter. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kiyotsuna清綱 | 1293-1299 | 10 |
| Masakiyo方清 | 1661-1673 | 0 |
| Naokuni直國 | 1848-1854 | 0 |
| Masakiyo方清 | 1688-1704 | 0 |
| Kazukiyo一清 | 1441-1444 | 0 |
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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¥1,500,000