Sukekuni is the Kokubunji-group smith of Bingo Province, his career fixed by a run of dated blades that carry the eras Tokuji, Genko, Karyaku, Gentoku and Kenmu, placing him from the close of the period into the years. His is one of the standing province problems of the room. Because even his long signatures cut the province only as Bishu (備州), and the -period swordbooks read that single character as , he was transmitted for centuries as a Kokubunji smith, and the Kokon Meizukushi named him the founder of the Hokke lineage. The published sources now correct this to Bingo for three reasons: late- and Bingo work customarily cut the province as Bishu, with Bingo no appearing only from the period; the Meizukushi Taizen records his residence at Anna Tojo, and the Bingo Kokubunji stood in that Anna district; and the genealogies set this Kokubunji line apart from the group. The recognition of his hand rests not on shape but on the and , for his construction stays orthodox, without the broad and high by which old announces itself.
His hand is best read as one smith working in three registers that the published sources name again and again. The first and most characteristic is a or fine carrying a strong Yamato temperament, and the commentary states it plainly, that 'his style, like that of works, possesses a Yamato temperament'. Over an that flows and tends to , the grain standing, with adhering and a whitish rising, he tempers a narrow whose frequently frays into , with and entering, and running, and well laid. The -gakari of his steel is the tell that ties him to and holds him apart from the pure of mainstream , and a reverse inclination, the that slants his and toward the base, runs through the temper from his earliest dated work.
The is where his two traditions meet. Across the -toned pieces the steel is an flowing to , the grain raised, with and the whitish of Bingo; but on the -leaning blades the throws up a mottled, -like that the published sources liken to the Unrui group, 'work in a manner with a reflection that calls to mind the Unrui of '. That is the single trait that distinguishes him within the Yamato-influenced Bingo schools. The runs straight to a or finishes in a -toned sweep with , and on the the published sources find a steel of somewhat dark tone, with entering on the better-forged examples.
The third register the commentary names is a somewhat more decorative , a feature it notes is scarcely seen in old . Into the base he mixes , , angular and pointed elements, widening in places to a , the whole running with , and frequent, well laid and appearing, with and within the . The dated works anchor these registers in time: the Genko 3 of 1323 shows the -toned at its clearest, while the rare Karyaku 2 of 1327 carries the hand at small scale. The published sources read the more animated against the school directly, observing that this mixing of many kinds of teeth into a base 'corresponds closely to the Gentoku-dated ' and is 'a stylistic mode showing a -ba scarcely encountered in Ko-'.
What sets him apart from his neighbours is exactly what the judges name. He stands within the Yamato-influenced Bingo orbit beside the old smiths, sharing their and standing , yet held apart from them by the more decorative and by the -like recalling Unrui. The published sources describe his working domain as one 'in which - and Yamato- are intermingled', with the characteristics of Kokubunji Sukekuni shown in both and , and for that reason they affirm his many attributions. Even where a piece at first glance recalls Ko-, the commentary takes care to note that the construction differs, being orthodox rather than the broad- shape; of one such it concludes that its appearance, which 'at first glance recalls old , expresses one facet of Sukekuni's style'.
For the collector Sukekuni is a name encountered seldom and held with care. Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo . He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his record runs instead through the tier, where twenty of his blades are designated, and through the prewar Bijutsuhin, which holds three more, among them the Gentoku 1 and a Karyaku 2 . Signed works are extremely few, most of them , and the published sources call surviving by this smith exceedingly rare, 'examples by this maker in form being exceedingly rare', so a dated piece is prized as research material. His blades have passed through long-held private collections rather than museums: the Bijutsuhin were held by Saito Makoto and by Takashima Tatsunosuke, and the by Okajima Kichiro, while one Bijutsuhin blade is recorded as having been 'presented as a memento among the belongings of Hirobumi'. Held mostly in private hands and seldom traded, a signed and dated Kokubunji Sukekuni comes to light only from time to time, a quiet but well-documented witness to the Yamato-influenced swordmaking of late- Bingo.
