Kurihara Nobuhide (栗原信秀) was born in Bunka 12 (1815) in Tsukigata Village, Nishikanbara District, Echigo Province. In Bunsei 12 (1829) he went to Kyoto and became a mirror-maker; however, around Ka'ei 3 (1850) he entered the school of Minamoto Kiyomaro in and became a swordsmith. In Keio 1 (1865) he received the court title no Kami. After the Haitorei, he returned to his hometown of in Echigo, where he forged only a small number of blades and produced a sacred mirror for Yahiko Shrine in Meiji 10 (1877). He died in Meiji 13 (1880) at age sixty-six. The judges his skill as "the most outstanding within the Kiyomaro lineage," noting that "some of his works approach the level of his master Kiyomaro."
Nobuhide's is typically mixed with flowing grain and , with adhering well and entering, "presenting a characteristic " with a strongly steely aspect. His is a distinctive in which angular , pointed -like elements, and round-headed are intermingled; long enter well, adheres thickly, and and extend at length. A recurring diagnostic feature is in the lower half, "where adjacent clusters of adhere closely and appear as though the temper has dropped out--an oft-observed habit of this smith." The typically enters in with a pointed tendency and . His blade carvings--rendered in a shallow yet delicate manner--are a particular specialty: motifs of Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto amid auspicious clouds and branch cherry blossoms "are seen from time to time in his work," a proficiency rooted in his earlier training as a mirror artisan and later study under Kano Natsuo.
The affirm that Nobuhide's "manner of work is the closest to that of his teacher" among the Kiyomaro disciples, and one blade without carvings is praised as being such "that it could be mistaken for that of his teacher Kiyomaro." Though his martial spirit is said not to fully reach Kiyomaro's level, his workmanship is "unmistakably skillful," and late works from Meiji 9--one year before his final dated inscription--convey "an extraordinary fighting spirit."