Hasebe Kunihira was a swordsmith of the Hasebe group, active during the period. He has traditionally been regarded as a son of the first-generation Kunishige and a fellow disciple of Kuninobu. The residence of the Hasebe smiths is conveyed as Gojo Bomon Inokuma in Kyoto; however, no extant works bear the inscription "resident of Yamashiro Province." Recent scholarship advances the view that the group's original province was Yamato, that it reached full maturity in under the influence of the -, and that it ultimately settled in Kyoto. Alongside the smiths Hiromitsu and Akihiro, the Hasebe group displayed a brilliant and flamboyant manner centered on workmanship, and within this lineage Kunishige and Kuninobu stand as the representative figures. Surviving works by Kunihira are extremely few, with dated examples from the Enbun and Joji eras.
Kunihira's typically exhibit wide , thin , and slightly extended proportions, displaying the bold of the period. The shows with standing grain and a tendency toward and , with and forming throughout. In his characteristic mode, the features angular alternating with , developing into through , , and . His , by contrast, presents a -based temper intermingled with small , well covered in with and -- an extremely rare form within the Hasebe group as a whole.
The observes that Kunihira's workmanship shares an "unbroken kinship" with Kuninobu, particularly in the handling of the , and that his pieces make known "the high level of this smith's skill." His is noted as possessing "high documentary value" for its resemblance to the by Kuninobu in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum. Each surviving work is described as especially precious for being a rare extant example, and the dated pieces further enhance their significance as reference material for the Hasebe lineage.
