Hasebe Kunihira was a swordsmith of the Hasebe group, active during the Nanbokucho 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 Sagami under the influence of the Soshu-den, and that it ultimately settled in Kyoto. Alongside the Soshu smiths Hiromitsu and Akihiro, the Hasebe group displayed a brilliant and flamboyant manner centered on hitatsura 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 wakizashi typically exhibit wide mihaba, thin kasane, and slightly extended proportions, displaying the bold sugata of the Nanbokucho period. The kitae shows itame-hada with standing grain and a tendency toward nagare and masame, with ji-nie and chikei forming throughout. In his characteristic mode, the hamon features angular gunome alternating with notare, developing into hitatsura through yubashiri, tobiyaki, and muneyaki. His tachi, by contrast, presents a suguha-based temper intermingled with small midare, well covered in nie with sunagashi and kinsuji -- an extremely rare form within the Hasebe group as a whole.
The NBTHK observes that Kunihira's workmanship shares an "unbroken kinship" with Kuninobu, particularly in the handling of the hamon, and that his pieces make known "the high level of this smith's skill." His tachi is noted as possessing "high documentary value" for its resemblance to the tachi 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.
