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Overview·Kantei·Designations·Blade Forms·Signatures·Lineage·School
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  3. Kuniyasu

Shinto Kuniyasu

國康

Jūyō
Vol. 68, No. 55 · Katana

Shinto Kuniyasu

國康

7 ranked works

ProvinceSettsuEraKanbun (1661–1673)PeriodEdoSchoolOsaka ShintoTraditionShintoGeneration1stToko Taikan300(top 60%)TypeSwordsmithCodeKUN1732
7Jūyō Tōken

Overview

no Kami Kuniyasu, commonly called Genzaemon, signed his blades with a five-character and was the third son of the first-generation Kawachi no Kami Kunisuke of Osaka, the younger brother of the second generation whom the published sources call Naka-Kawachi. He worked in Settsu during the years of the early period, in the wing of the Osaka school. That line descends through Kunisuke from the Ishido tradition, which had revived the in new-sword steel, and Kuniyasu carries the manner one remove from its second-generation peak. The published record places him in skill just below his elder brother, observing that comparatively few of his works reach Naka-Kawachi in the quality of both and , while granting that the best of them approach him closely. On one the judges go further, finding the work so fully his own that it is 「中河内と選ぶところがない」, a piece that may be chosen without distinction from Naka-Kawachi.

What marks his hand first is the and the fist-headed clove set within it. Over a that opens the temper above the , the rises into a mixed with , and into the pattern Kuniyasu sets the , the clenched-fist heads that the second-generation Kunisuke had made the ornament of the line. On more than half his designated blades the judges name this feature as the point that exhibits his characteristic work, and on his richest the crests align further into and admit the large-tasselled o-busa-, the temper running tall with marked rises and falls. The straight at the base is the quiet tell that separates this from the old it otherwise recalls, an Osaka convention rather than a habit. enter the well, are sometimes mixed in, adhere, and through the pattern run and , the staying bright and clear.

The is a tight , closely forged and laid with , here and there opening into a patch of larger . On his finest work the gathers fine and thick with delicate , a forging the published sources call 「如何にも大阪新刀らしい」, thoroughly characteristic of Osaka , beautiful and clear. The and cut on one blade, and the double grooves on another, are the carving of a careful late hand. Over so animated an edge the stays restrained, running straight and turning back in a small rather than following the into the point, the calm finish the Osaka smiths favored. The is the - build, the slightly wide with little taper from base to tip, the somewhat thick, the shallow and the compact; one long extends past two six in a dignified and well-balanced whose thick gives a real sense of weight in the hand.

The corpus the published record preserves is small and remarkably consistent: seven designated , all but one signed, all on carrying the five-character no Kami Kuniyasu signature near the of the . There is no or problem to untangle and no dated survival to anchor a chronology, so the rests entirely on the work, and the work is of one settled manner seen at two settings. At the everyday setting the is regular and the intermittent; at the best, on the late Reiwa-designated pieces, the temper broadens, the kobushi heads cluster and align, and the judges reach for their fullest praise. The phrase they apply to his most worked blade is exact: it is a 「拳形丁子乱れを焼いた典型作」, a quintessential example of his work in which the fist-shaped is tempered above a placed at the base.

Within the Kawachi-no-kami line Kuniyasu is the chief hand carrying the manner alongside and just beneath his brother. The resemblance the judges draw is to Naka-Kawachi, again and again, and it is a true one, grounded in the shared , the dense and the bright the two brothers worked from the workshop. His own blades are told within that closeness by degree rather than by a different feature: where his temper holds its rises and falls and avoids the rigidity into which the fist-shaped can stiffen, the result gains a natural texture and a depth of taste, and on one the published sources find his technical level revealed in 「殊更に拳形丁子を交えた華やかな丁子乱れに国康の技術の高さ」, the high skill shown in the gorgeous with its fist-shaped heads. They call that blade a superior work that approaches Naka-Kawachi, 「中河内に迫る優品」.

In the connoisseurship he is a smith of the middle tiers rather than the summit, his record one of seven blades that have reached , none yet raised to and none standing in the higher designations above it. None of the seven carries a recorded provenance or a named former owner, so his blades are encountered for the quality of their workmanship rather than for the houses they passed through. That makes him an accessible point of entry into the Osaka manner: a signed, sound by Kuniyasu comes to the serious collector with some regularity, far more readily than the rare survivals of his father or the prized work of his brother Naka-Kawachi, and it offers the line's distinctive on a blade that the judges themselves at their warmest set beside the second generation. The published sources give his common name as 「源左衛門」 and fix his place as the third son of the first Kawachi no Kami Kunisuke; the seven on record carry that lineage in steel, a careful and at moments brilliant hand working the brightest of the early Osaka school.

Kantei

A single coherent Kanbun-Shinto manner in Kuniyasu's own cast, read off his signed katana: the Osaka taihai (slightly wide, thick-kasane, shallow-sori, compact chu-kissaki), a tight ko-itame with dense ji-nie, a suguha yakidashi rising into a choji-midare in which the kobushi-gata choji is the recurring tell, and a sugu boshi with ko-maru. The corpus is overwhelmingly signed five-character mei on ubu nakago, so there is no mumei or daimei register to separate; the phase model is one prime hand seen at two settings, the everyday choji blade and the best blades on which the ha broadens into o-busa-choji and juka-choji and the work nears his brother's.

Higo no Kami Kuniyasu, commonly called Genzaemon, was the third son of the first-generation Kawachi no Kami Kunisuke and the younger brother of the second generation, the smith the published sources call Naka-Kawachi. He works in the Kanbun-Shinto Osaka manner: a slightly wide, thick-kasane, shallow-sori sugata tapering to a compact chu-kissaki, a tight ko-itame jigane laid with dense ji-nie that the judges name thoroughly characteristic of Osaka shinto, and a suguha yakidashi at the base rising into a choji-midare. Like his elder brother he excels in choji, and into that pattern he sets the kobushi-gata choji, the fist-headed clove that is the line's own ornament. The published sources rank him in skill as second only to Naka-Kawachi, noting that few of his works reach his brother's level in the quality of both ji and ha, yet that among them are pieces which approach Naka-Kawachi and even one chosen without distinction from him.

Diagnostic discriminators

the kobushi-gata choji, the clenched-fist-headed clove originated by the second-generation Kunisuke and carried as the Osaka line's signature ornament, is set into Kuniyasu's choji-midare on more than half the corpus (4 of 7) and named by the judges as the very point that exhibits this smith's characteristic work, on one blade the temper aligning further into juka-choji with o-busa-choji

five of the seven blades begin with a straight yakidashi above the hamachi before rising into the choji-midare, the Edo Osaka convention that separates his choji from the koto Bizen choji it otherwise recalls

every blade in the corpus forges a tight ko-itame with ji-nie; on his best the ji-nie grows fine and thick with delicate chikei, a forging one Explanation calls thoroughly characteristic of Osaka shinto

over a flamboyant choji ha the boshi stays quiet, running sugu and turning back in a small ko-maru on six of seven blades rather than following the midare into the point, a restraint typical of the Osaka manner

Observation by phase

His prime hand: the Kanbun-Shinto Osaka choji-midare set with kobushi-gata choji

All seven designated blades are signed katana on ubu nakago carrying a five-character Higo no Kami Kuniyasu mei (one with a long signature), so the kantei runs entirely on the work itself: the Kanbun-Osaka taihai, the dense ji-nie ko-itame, the suguha yakidashi, and above all the kobushi-gata choji set into the choji-midare.

The sugata is the Kanbun-Shinto Osaka taihai, slightly wide in the mihaba with little taper from base to tip, a somewhat thick kasane, a shallow sori and a compact chu-kissaki; one long katana extends past two shaku six sun with a dignified, well-balanced taihai. Over a tight ko-itame, here and there mixed with patches of o-hada, the ji carries dense ji-nie that on the best blades grows fine and thick with delicate chikei, a forging the published sources call thoroughly characteristic of Osaka shinto. The hamon begins with a suguha yakidashi above the hamachi and rises into a choji-midare mixed with gunome, into which the kobushi-gata choji is set; ashi enter well, yo are sometimes mixed in, ko-nie adhere, and sunagashi and kinsuji play through, the nioiguchi bright and clear. On the richest blade the temper broadens, the midare crests align into kobushi-gata and juka-choji, o-busa-choji enter, and the ha runs tall with marked rises and falls. The boshi closes sugu to a ko-maru. The nakago is ubu with a ha-agari kurijiri and sujikai yasurime, and on the omote toward the mune a five-character signature is cut.

Sugata 姿
Jigane 地鉄
Hamon 刃文
Bōshi 帽子
Scholarship

The published sources give his common name as Genzaemon and his standing as the third son of the first-generation Kawachi no Kami Kunisuke and younger brother of Naka-Kawachi, the second generation.

On his most fully worked katana the judges describe the jihada, a closely packed ko-itame with plentiful ji-nie and delicate chikei, as thoroughly characteristic of Osaka shinto, and the kobushi-gata choji-midare above it as a quintessential example of his work.

Designations

Kokuhō—
Jūyō Bunkazai—
Jūyō Bijutsuhin—
Gyobutsu—
Tokubetsu Jūyō—
Jūyō Tōken7

Elite Standing

0.05 across 7 designated works

Top 22% among smiths

Blade Forms

Distribution across 7 ranked works

Signatures

Signature types across 7 ranked works

Currently Available

Lineage

Kuniyasu
Student
  1. 1.Kunisuke國助3 for sale9designated

Osaka Shinto School

Other artisans of the Osaka Shinto school

  1. 1.Shinkai真改11 for sale79designated
  2. 2.Tadatsuna忠綱2 for sale53designated
  3. 3.Kanesada包貞9 for sale78designated
  4. 4.Kanesada包貞3 for sale10designated
  5. 5.Kunisuke國助3 for sale9designated
  6. 6.Kuniteru國輝4designated
  7. 7.Sadanori貞則3designated
  8. 8.Kunihira國平1designated
  9. 9.Kiho紀峰1designated
  10. 10.Suketaka助隆1 for sale2designated
  11. 11.Kuniteru國輝1designated
  12. 12.Munetsuna宗綱1designated