Awataguchi Kunimitsu

A small hira-zukuri tanto designated Juyo in 2003 fixes Awataguchi Kunimitsu in time. On the omote of its ubu tang the date Koan 11 (1288) is cut with a rather thick chisel, on the ura the fifth month, first day, and beneath it the two-character name Kunimitsu. The published sources identify him as the son of Norikuni and the younger brother of Kuniyoshi, a smith of the Awataguchi school of Yamashiro in the late Kamakura period. Secure examples of his work are exceedingly rare. Beyond this tanto they know only a few, among them two tachi designated Important Cultural Properties and a ken whose inscription includes the title Saemon no Jo. Of the dated blade they write that its ji and ha fully display the virtues of Awataguchi work1, and that "above all, the documentary value of the Koan 11 date is beyond measure"2. Because the name is cut on the sashi-ura, they add, the tanto may have been made as a metezashi, worn at the right side.

The published sources describe his manner in a few consistent words. On an o-suriage katana designated in 1970 they write that he "signed in two characters, Kunimitsu, his jigane fine, excelling at suguha and highly skilled"3. On a katana designated in 2019 they put it more fully: his work is marked by a jigane that is "tightly forged, with ji-nie attaching in fine particles, beautiful, and he excelled at a calm suguha"4.

The jigane is ko-itame, tightly forged, with fine ji-nie and chikei. On the 2019 katana the ji-nie attaches in fine particles, chikei enter well and a faint nie-utsuri rises. On the dated tanto the ko-itame is mixed with flowing grain and masame, the ji-nie attaches well with fine chikei, and the colour of the steel is called exceptionally bright and clear. The 1970 katana is forged in an itame that flows overall, with ji-nie attaching well.

The temper is a hoso-suguha. On the 2019 katana a few ko-ashi enter, nie attaches well, hotsure appear in places in the upper half, a slight nijuba-like effect runs on the ura and kinsuji enter here and there, the nioiguchi bright and clear. The 1970 katana mixes hotsure and kuichigai-ba into its hoso-suguha, the nioiguchi tending to tightness, with ko-nie and some slightly coarse nie and kinsuji. On the tanto the suguha undulates shallowly, mixed on the ura with small gunome, the nioi deep and the ko-nie thick. The boshi runs straight to a ko-maru on all three, turning back rather short on the 2019 katana and somewhat long on the tanto.

The shapes vary with the form. The 2019 katana is of standard width, tapering clearly, with a shallow koshizori and a chu-kissaki, and bo-hi carved kaki-nagashi on both faces. The 1970 katana, o-suriage and shallow in curvature, has a compact chu-kissaki inclining to ikubi. The tanto is slender, thin and small, with uchizori, and keeps traces of a suken on the omote and of what are taken for goma-bashi on the ura. Its two-character signature, the published sources note, shares points with that of the Important Cultural Property tachi. Of the 2019 katana, whose tang carries a red-lacquer attribution, they single out the well-refined jigane and call the blade, with its gentle form and bright, orderly suguha, "an excellent example of this smith's attribution, possessed of a dignified and elevated character"5.

Five designated works on record carry his name. Two are Important Cultural Properties, both signed Kunimitsu, shinogi-zukuri with a maru-mune, forged in ko-itame and tempered in hoso-suguha: a tachi of 73.3 cm at Yoroji in Gifu, which the published sources name as his best-known representative work, and a tachi of 80.3 cm at the Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures in Hyogo. They are heritage held by a temple and a research institute. The other three are Juyo blades: the dated tanto and the two katana. He has no National Treasures. Fujishiro ranks him Jo-jo saku. A Juyo blade by Kunimitsu reaches the market only rarely, and a signed one, given how few survive, is among the scarcest things a collector of Awataguchi work could encounter.