Awataguchi School Lineage — Yoshimitsu & the Six Kuni

粟田口

The Yamashiro Awataguchi School

The aristocratic school of early-Kamakura Kyōto. From a workshop near the Awataguchi gate, a family of brothers — Kunitomo, Hisakuni, Kuniyasu and their kin, the so-called Six Kuni — forged the most refined jigane in Japan, a tradition that culminated in Tōshirō Yoshimitsu and Shintōgo Kunimitsu.

Era

1180 — 1320

Members

Kokuhō

Jūbun

Jūbi

Tokujū

Jūyō

113

For Sale

68smiths9Kokuhō44Jūbun40Jūbi48Tokujū113Jūyō

Branches— schools this lineage shaped

正宗MasamuneSoshu · Teacher → Student · certain 則重NorishigeSoshu · Teacher → Student · certain 行光YukimitsuSoshu · Teacher → Student · certain 國廣KunihiroSoshu · Father → Son · certain 國光KunimitsuSoshu · Father → Son · probable 大進房DaishinboSoshu · Father → Son · probable+5 more branches

The Yamashiro Awataguchi School (粟田口) Lineage

The The Yamashiro Awataguchi School (粟田口), active 1180–1320 in Yamashiro Province across 68 documented smiths: 9 Kokuhō (National Treasures), 44 Jūbun, 40 Jūbi, 48 Tokubetsu Jūyō, 113 Jūyō.

Phase 1 · The Yamashiro Awataguchi School (粟田口) · 1180 – 1320

68 smiths · 9 Kokuhō · 44 Jūbun · 40 Jūbi · 48 Tokujū · 113 Jūyō

Major smiths

Yoshimitsu (吉光) — Mainline · 1259-1260. Kokuhō, Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Toshiro Yoshimitsu of Awataguchi in Yamashiro, active in the mid to late Kamakura period, is introduced by the published sources with one recurring sentence: he is the smith who crowns the close of the Awataguchi school[[c:1]], and he stands together with Shintogo Kunimitsu of Sagami as "a master of the tanto and a virtuoso of suguha"[[c:2]]. The same notices record that in the Edo period he was celebrated with Masamune and Go as the Three Great Works under Heaven (天下三作), and that among the three he was "placed foremost and most highly treasured"[[c:3]]. His teacher is held to be Kuniyoshi, and the published record anchors the filiation in the work itself: the varied forms of his tanto correspond entirely to shapes found in Kuniyoshi, and the connection, the NBTHK writes, is readily accepted. Fujishiro grades him Sai-jo saku. The forms of his tanto are remarkably varied: blades broad and somewhat compact, slender yet elongated, broad and long, and of standard proportions, nearly all hira-zukuri with uchizori. Within that variety the hand is constant. His celebrated temper is suguha, often a narrow *hoso-suguha*, laid in fine bright *ko-nie* under a bright, clear *nioiguchi*. Small *ko-gunome* are aligned in the lower half toward the *yakidashi*, and the tempered width narrows around the *fukura*. *Ashi* enter, delicate *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* work through the edge, and at times the line carries a *nijuba* effect. The *boshi* turns back in a calm *ko-maru*, and beneath it on the *sashi-omote* the notices repeatedly mark a linear dropping of *nie* into the *ji*, the so-called kuisagari of nie[[c:4]], a habitual trait of his hand. Beneath the temper lies the Awataguchi jigane at its full refinement, and the published sources recognize two forging modes in it. One is a *ko-itame* so tightly packed that it is called nashiji-hada (梨子地肌), the pear-skin surface; the other an *itame* of somewhat larger pattern in which the hada stands a little. In both, fine *ji-nie* adheres thickly and evenly, fine *chikei* enter, and a *nie-utsuri* rises in the *ji*. The steel itself, notice after notice, carries a moist luster (潤い) and is conspicuously clear. Nearly everything he made is a tanto; beside them stand a few *ken*, the National Treasure *ken* of Shirayamahime Jinja among them, slender and well-proportioned over a finely forged nashiji-hada and called "a famous ken rarely seen"[[c:5]], and a signed ken of Atsuta Jingu is an Important Cultural Property, as is the meibutsu Honebami Toshiro of Toyokuni Shrine, a mumei blade in naginata-zukuri attributed to him. Of longer blades the published record long held that the only survivor was the meibutsu Ichigo Hitofuri (一期一振藤四郎), the tachi once in the collection of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and since retempered; in recent years a signed wakizashi became known, regarded as an early form of the uchigatana[[c:6]], formerly of the Naruse family of Inuyama and published in the Kozan Oshigata. Its signature placement agrees exactly, the sources record, with the ubu tang of the Ichigo Hitofuri as drawn in the Kotoku sword albums. He signed his work: forty-four pieces of record carry a mei against four without, the standard form a large two-character mei cut below the mekugi-ana of an ubu nakago. The calligraphy is itself an object of scholarship. The published sources value the fluent brushwork of his mei as "unrivaled through the history of sword inscriptions"[[c:7]]. The comparative judgments in the published sources are concrete. Of a small tanto with narrow mihaba and exceptionally thick kasane, they write that such a construction is hardly to be seen in the Rai school, that it belongs to the varied shapes of Awataguchi, and that compared with Rai works "the nie of ji and ha is a degree thicker, and felt more strongly"[[c:8]]. Toward his teacher Kuniyoshi the relation is continuity: the slender, elongated silhouette of certain pieces is the same manner seen in the teacher's work. Within his own school, the notices add, his individuality can be grasped clearly through the *gunome* near the base, the narrowing toward the *monouchi*, and the dropping of *nie* beneath the *boshi*. His signed ubu tanto are in turn the standard against which every Yoshimitsu attribution is measured. Forty-nine designated works stand on record. Four are National Treasures and nine are Important Cultural Properties, patrimony preserved in museums, shrines and long-held collections. Eleven more are Juyo Bijutsuhin, and four are recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, the Ichigo Hitofuri and the Hirano Toshiro among them. Beneath them stand seven Tokubetsu Juyo and fourteen Juyo, twenty-one blades in those tiers. The Kyoho Meibutsu-cho lists sixteen of his blades headed by the Hirano Toshiro (平野藤四郎), and with its fire-lost and supplementary sections the count reaches thirty-eight. The blades that survive carry their histories openly. The Nabeshima Toshiro (鍋島藤四郎) passed from Nabeshima Naoshige through the Ikeda to Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, and was thereafter handed to each shogunal heir at his coming of age; the Asakura Toshiro (朝倉藤四郎) is named for Asakura Yoshikage of Echizen; one tanto was given by the shogun Iemitsu at the birth of his son Tsunashige and later worn by the sixth shogun Ienobu; another was received by Kyogoku Takatsugu from Tokugawa Ieyasu in Keicho 5. In all, thirty-five blades carry recorded provenance, running through the Ashikaga shoguns, the Imperial Family, Matsunaga Hisahide, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the Owari and Kishu Tokugawa, the Maeda, the Kuroda and the Asano. The National Treasure and Important Cultural Property examples stand permanently outside the market, and of recorded whereabouts twenty-three works rest with institutions, among them the Tokugawa Art Museum, the Tokyo National Museum, the Kyoto National Museum, Atsuta Jingu, the Maeda Ikutokukai and the Sano Art Museum, against eleven in private hands. A Yoshimitsu coming into the open is among the rarest events in the field; for most collectors he is a smith to be studied in the great collections rather than possessed.
Kunimitsu (國光) — Mainline · 1293-1322. Kokuhō, Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. In the tenth month of Einin 1 (1293), a blade left the Kamakura forge of Shintogo Kunimitsu bearing the long signature Kamakura junin Shintogo Kunimitsu saku[[c:1]], the oldest of his dated works. The published sources count Awataguchi Kunitsuna and the Bizen smiths Kunimune and Sukezane as the pioneers of Kamakura sword-making, settlers from older centers; the first smith of Sagami itself, who cut his Kamakura residence and his dates into the nakago, was Kunimitsu[[c:2]]. His designation texts open with one standing sentence for half a century: he is the de facto founder of the Soshu tradition, and the raising of the three masters Yukimitsu, Masamune and Norishige is counted his great achievement[[c:3]]. Tradition makes him the son of Awataguchi Kunitsuna and a pupil of Bizen Saburo Kunimune, a transmission the sources say still leaves room for study. His dated work runs to Gentoku 3 (1331), and a tanto of Showa 4 (1315) signed with the Buddhist name Koshin is read as late work, beside the dates of Kagen and Tokuji. What survives is, before all else, the tanto: hira-zukuri and mitsu-mune, of ordinary width with uchizori, ubu and signed with the two-character mei. The sources state his formula in a single sentence: at a glance the work suggests Awataguchi, but the conspicuous chikei and kinsuji expressed in ji and ha point to this smith[[c:4]]. He excels in suguha across its whole range, ito, hoso, chu and hiro[[c:5]]; as a master of the tanto he is paired with Toshiro Yoshimitsu, the two named twin peaks (短刀の名手として藤四郎吉光と双璧). The temper is bright with small nie, crossed by fine kinsuji that flicker; the appraisers have called this play the old man's whiskers (翁の髭) from of old and count it the great point of his work. Honma adds a habit of the hand: the temper ordinarily hardens down past the machi toward the mune; a few authentic pieces instead drop the yaki slightly there. The boshi runs sugu to a calm ko-maru, at times lightly swept; suken, bonji and gomabashi are carved on many blades, and the kanmuri-otoshi construction recurs. The jigane is where his Awataguchi schooling shows. He forges a ko-itame or a tightly knit itame, and lays over it ji-nie thick and often mijin, minutely fine; chikei enter incessantly, the steel is clear, and nie-utsuri frequently stands. The standing hada that came to mark the mature Soshu tradition is almost wholly absent in his own blades, and grows only by degrees in the men after him; the sources note it chiefly in his rare midare work, while the norm is a surface so refined it passes for Awataguchi until the chikei and kinsuji betray it. The ha-nie of these quiet lines is singled out as well, the light-beautiful nie the texts call particular to the upper rank of Soshu work[[c:6]]. From this refined, nie-laden suguha his three pupils drew out the nie-midare of the mature tradition. Tachi are another matter: the sources repeat that the tachi are rare and nearly everything extant is tanto[[c:7]]; the survivors are slender, with high koshizori, funbari and a compact point, forged exactly as the tanto. The signed tachi that the sources assign by their signature to one of his sons, the meibutsu Mutsu Shintogo among them, are recorded under the later-generation Kunimitsu. The osuriage mumei katana attributed to him belong here too, and the sources are explicit that such a judgment names Kunimitsu and his three sons collectively[[c:8]]. One such blade carries a Kyoho 7 (1722) origami of Hon'ami Kochu at seventy gold pieces. A small minority departs from the suguha norm altogether: a Juyo Bijutsuhin tanto tempers its lower half in a large midare, the text stating plainly that his midareba is scarce and this piece well made. Honma reads in that scarcity the proof of the school: midareba exists, if rarely, in Kunimitsu, and suguha, if most rarely, in Masamune, the two together confirming the relation of master and pupil. A single katakiriha tanto, retempered, is the only one of its construction in his work. The name ran on past the founder. The old registers give him three sons, Kunihiro, Kunishige and Kuniyasu, all said to have signed Kunimitsu later, and only Kunihiro is met with under his own name; since the hands cannot yet be divided by workmanship, the sources divide them by the mei. Three signed tanto recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection carry mei unlike the Aizu Shintogo, yet the entry finds no taint of a false signature in any of them and suggests that the sons may best be seen as daisaku-daimei hands for their father[[c:9]]. The founder's two-character signature follows the rule the appraisers call saji kitakanmuri (左字北冠), the interior of the kuni character cut in the left-hand manner with the crown set toward the mune, in both a fine and a thicker chisel, and the texts admit rare authentic exceptions. On tachi the mei sits on the haki-omote toward the mune; an ubu signed odachi of 96.1 cm is read as Kunihiro's Kunimitsu mei from its workmanship and deep, bold carving, and so belongs to Kunihiro. The carving is itself a legacy: the layered horimono later seen in Sadamune is judged to begin with Shintogo, and the work on his blades is connected with Daishinbo Yukei, transmitted as his pupil and a master of the chisel. Much of this oeuvre is patrimony. Three blades hold the rank of National Treasure and ten more are Important Cultural Properties, preserved in museums, shrines and long-held collections; seven are prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin, among them tanto of the Seikado and the Kurokawa Institute. The provenance roll runs deep. The meibutsu Kojiri-toshi Shintogo passed from Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Osaka treasury through the fire of the summer siege, was retempered by the first Yasutsugu, and descended in the Tokugawa shogun house; his tanto are handed down in the Uesugi of Yonezawa, the Echizen Matsudaira, the Satake, the Hosokawa and the Ogasawara, and one blade entered the collection of W. A. Compton in recent times. Fujishiro rates him Sai-jo saku, and sixty-nine designated works stand on record, the great majority signed, most often with the two-character mei in an ubu nakago, the long signature met only a few times. What a private collector may realistically encounter is the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tier, seven and thirty-nine blades, forty-six in the two tiers together, most of them signed tanto of the classic refined manner. Such pieces are held closely and reach the market only rarely; when one does appear, it carries the signed work of the smith in whose forge the Soshu tradition began.
Kuniyoshi (國吉) — Mainline · 1275-1278. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Nearly every published designation text on Awataguchi Kuniyoshi cites the meibutsu Narukitsune, the Crying Fox, a large hira-zukuri wakizashi bearing his long signature Sahyoe-no-jo Fujiwara Kuniyoshi[[c:1]], and newly judged blades are still read against its manner. Kuniyoshi is recorded as the son of Norikuni, by some accounts his pupil, and a grandson of Kunitomo, eldest of the six Awataguchi brothers of Yamashiro; his younger brother was Kunimitsu. Transmitted as either his son or his student is Toshiro Yoshimitsu, the celebrated master of the tanto. A tanto dated Koan 3 (1280) survives, and the sword drawings of the old books preserve dates of Kenji 4 (1278), Koan 6 (1283) and Koan 10 (1287); by these the published sources confirm the traditional sequence of the Awataguchi generations and fix him in the middle Kamakura period. The published record describes his manner in a settled formula: a finely kneaded *ko-itame* rich in *ji-nie*, beautiful in effect, and a *suguha* in well-attached *ko-nie* mixing *ko-midare* and *ko-gunome*, the *ji* and *ha* together judged "a degree stronger than the Rai works"[[c:2]]. Above everything stands the *nijuba*, the doubled line that runs conspicuously along the *ha* and is cited again and again as his greatest point. The Kaifunki already names it his habit: "as a habitual mannerism there is often *nijuba*, and silver often floats in the *ji* as in a cast object"[[c:3]]. At times the line trebles into *sanjuba*, often formed of *yubashiri* strung along the edge, and on more than one blade it carries into the *boshi*. *Ashi* and *yo* enter frequently, *kinsuji* and fine *sunagashi* work through the *ha*, and the *nioiguchi* is repeatedly described as bright and clear. The *boshi* is typically straight with a refined *ko-maru* turnback. The *jigane* carries the school's name. He forges a *ko-itame* mixed with *ko-mokume*, kneaded extremely tight, over which *ji-nie* sits dust-fine and thick with delicate *chikei*, until the steel takes on the so-called *nashiji-hada*, the pear-skin steel of the Awataguchi idiom. *Nie-utsuri* stands over it, at times with a faint *jifu*-like tone mixed in. The Kokon Meizukushi praises the taste of his steel as a gleam deep in the color of the *ji*, "like the silver of a tenmoku bowl dusted with ash"[[c:4]]. His certain signed tachi number only two. One has long been an Important Cultural Property; the second surfaced only at its Juyo designation in 1997, a slender, elegant blade of high *koshi-zori* with *funbari*. A third, shortened, with a two-character mei low on the tang, was admitted at its Tokubetsu Juyo designation as extremely close to those two. The tanto are comparatively many and carry most of his signatures, the ken number several, and the Narukitsune stands apart as the single great wakizashi. The tanto shapes, stubby and wide like a kitchen knife, ordinary, slender and elongated, or wide and elongated, in *uchizori* or without curve, are called "remarkably diverse"[[c:5]] and opposed to the uniformity of the Rai school; like Yoshimitsu he often works the temper down over the *machi*, and *gomabashi* or *bonji* are carved on many. Among the unsigned blades *o-suriage* katana predominate, of wide *mihaba* and shallow *wa-zori* with the *chu-kissaki* pulled in *ikubi* fashion, where the *suguha* grows busier with *ko-choji* and *gunome*, *ashi* and *yo* thick. On these the *nijuba* is the point on which the judges anchor the attribution, and one *ayame-zukuri* katana is judged to give the very impression of a Narukitsune enlarged[[c:6]]. The ken are elegant, the point not flaring, often in *hoso-suguha* with the *boshi* *yakizume*, and "the ken of this maker often show strong *nie*"[[c:7]]. The signature is normally the two characters Kuniyoshi, the chisel running from fine to ordinary to thick, a variety ascribed to difference of period. On his relation to Yoshimitsu the published sources reason from the dates. Kuniyoshi has the Koan 3 tanto and the dated drawings of the old books; Yoshimitsu has no dated work at all, extant or recorded. Both made few tachi and excelled in tanto of unusually varied shape, and from this the judges find it reasonable to see the two not as father and son but as master and pupil of comparatively small age difference[[c:8]]. One text states plainly that together with Yoshimitsu of his school he produced many tanto, both displaying superior technique. The *nijuba* appears on about a third of his records, only occasionally in Yoshimitsu's, and never in those of his father Norikuni; the *sanjuba* is met in his work alone among them; and the texts name the *nashiji-hada* outright on several of his records, against a single one of Yoshimitsu's. Fujishiro rates him Sai-jo saku, and fifty designated works stand on record. There are no National Treasures among them, but six blades are Important Cultural Properties, his long-known signed tachi at their head. Among them the Tokyo National Museum holds the blade signed Sahyoe-no-jo Fujiwara Kuniyoshi, catalogued as a *hira-zukuri* work with a *mitsu-mune*, *ko-itame* and *suguha*, 54.0 cm long, the long signature the published sources give to the Narukitsune. Five more are prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin, one a tanto formerly of the Aoyama viscount family of Sasayama. Eighteen blades hold the Tokubetsu Juyo rank and twenty-one the Juyo, thirty-nine in the two tiers together. The provenance roll is in keeping. A signed tanto with an origami of Hon'ami Koon descends in the Matsudaira house of Iyo Saijo, and a mumei tanto in the Reizei house of court poets; the Tokubetsu Juyo two-character tachi was owned by Okubo Ichio and passed to the Iwasaki house; a signed ken belongs to the Owari Tokugawa Reimeikai; and one signed tanto, by its scabbard inscription, was presented by Todo Takamutsu at a birth celebration in the Tokugawa house. Of recorded whereabouts today, examples rest in the Tokyo National Museum, the Tokugawa Art Museum, the Kyoto National Museum and the Hikone Castle Museum, with others in private hands. For the collector, Kuniyoshi is by Awataguchi measure not wholly beyond reach. The Important Cultural Properties are patrimony preserved outside the market, but the thirty-nine blades of the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers are where a private example is met, many of them *o-suriage* *mumei* katana whose attribution rests on the doubled line along the *ha*. Such a blade comes to market only rarely, and is an event when it does; a signed tanto is rarer still, and a signed tachi, of which two certain examples exist, is among the rarest encounters the school affords.
Hisakuni (久國) — Mainline · 1190-1199. Kokuhō, Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Awataguchi Hisakuni worked at the foot of the Awataguchi slope in Yamashiro in the early Kamakura period, and he is the second of the six Awataguchi brothers, the smith who used the personal name Tojiro (藤次郎). The published record sets the family out plainly: the founder is given as Kunika, and his sons were the six brothers Kunitomo, Hisakuni, Kuniyasu, Kunikiyo (国清), Arikuni (有国) and Kunitsuna (国綱). That a community of smiths already stood at Awataguchi is attested in the early-Kamakura tale collection Uji Shui Monogatari[[c:1]], so this is a forge with a documented place in the literature of its own century, not a later reconstruction. Hisakuni's standing inside that famous house is the first thing to recognise. The 14th Tokubetsu-Juyo entry calls his manner the most refined and dignified within Awataguchi work[[c:2]], and the 42nd Juyo entry ranks him foremost of the lineage in both technique and refinement of spirit. He is repeatedly named among the bangaji whom the Retired Emperor Go-Toba (後鳥羽院) summoned to forge on rotation at the cloistered court, and one record goes further and transmits him as a teacher to the sovereign (帝王の師). The history is not decoration here. It is the reason a slender tachi with so quiet a temper carries the authority it does. Recognise his hand by the pure Yamashiro register. Over a tightly packed ko-itame, finely worked and dense with ji-nie, he tempers a quiet suguha that leans into a shallow notare, with small gunome and a little ko-midare mixed in, ko-ashi and yo entering, the nioiguchi tight and bright, and kinsuji and sunagashi running in the ha. The boshi is a calm ko-maru, and very often it sweeps with hakikake; one Tokubetsu-Juyo katana records it exactly as a straight tip that brushes into a yakizume-like finish[[c:3]], and the same swept tip recurs across his katana and his tanto. The forging itself draws a recurring word from the appraisers, the so-called tataki-tsume look of a thoroughly consolidated jigane, and the Awataguchi steel praised of old as blue in colour with a white edge[[c:4]]. Among the brothers the connoisseurs single him out for nie. The 24th Juyo entry calls him the smith whose ji and ha carry nie most strongly, sometimes with a slightly coarse nie mixed in, while the 22nd Juyo tachi names him outright the most skilful forger of the six[[c:5]], its tight ko-itame and deep, faintly urumi nioiguchi recalling his younger brother Kuniyasu. His tanto show the same clarity in miniature: the wide, slightly curved Juyo-Bijutsuhin tanto is flagged as an unusual shape for Awataguchi, and the Honma note attached to it draws the very line that separates this house from its successors, the occasional eccentric proportion among Awataguchi tanto being a point of distinction from the Rai school. His place in the wider road of Yamashiro steel runs through that contrast with Rai. The refined nie-suguha he and his brothers fixed at Awataguchi is the wellspring the Rai masters drew from, and through them the eastern Soshu smiths after; one of the katana grouped with him even carries a gold-inlaid attribution to Rai Kunitsugu, a reminder of how closely the early Yamashiro and later Rai hands sit in the eye. Signed work survives in the smallest numbers, a few tachi and tanto, most of them the bold two-character mei cut now with a thick chisel and now with a finer one, with the rare long Tojiro Hisakuni signature confirmed against the old sword books Kotoku Toezu[[c:6]] and Kozan Oshigata (光山押形). The blades carry the names of the great houses: the Kishu Tokugawa[[c:7]] and the Date (伊達家), the Matsudaira of Saijo and the Akimoto, with one tanto authenticated by a Hon'ami Kotsune origami dated Enpo 9. For the collector the arithmetic is severe. A National Treasure and a small group of Important Cultural Properties stand to his name, several of them held in institutions, the Tokyo National Museum and Nikko Toshogu and Itsukushima Jinja among the recorded holders, where they can never trade. Only a handful sit in the Tokubetsu-Juyo and Juyo tiers, and those are spoken for by old daimyo provenance. A Hisakuni in private hands is therefore among the rarest things a student of the early sword can hope to meet, and when one appears it is the quiet, dignified, nie-laden suguha of the imperial forge, not the spectacle of a later age, that the buyer is acquiring.
Kuniyasu (國安) — Mainline · 1199-1201. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Awataguchi Kuniyasu worked at Awataguchi in Kyoto in the early Kamakura period, third of the six brothers, Kunitomo, Hisakuni, Kuniyasu, Kunikiyo, Arikuni and Kunitsuna, who made the school famous, and was called Tosaburo (藤三郎). The published sources count him, with his elder brothers Kunitomo and Hisakuni, among the goban-kaji of the Retired Emperor Go-Toba, and the sword references place his activity around the Jokyu era (1219 to 1222). His surviving signed works are tachi, comparatively numerous for so early a smith; the single signed tanto, recognized at Juyo session 31, is for that reason called "extremely precious"[[c:1]]. Fujishiro grades him Sai-jo saku. His blades keep the figure of their day, slender, with high koshizori and a small kissaki, the curve settling faintly toward the point; one source reads the bearing as a gentle taoyame grace. On this figure he tempers a small-patterned ko-midare in ko-nie-deki, mixing ko-choji and ko-gunome over a suguha base, with kinsuji and fine sunagashi in the ha. The intervals of the midare press close, for "many examples show the spacing of the midare drawn tight"[[c:2]], and where the small gunome run linked in series the judges go further, writing of one unsigned katana that by this linked tendency "even within the school it should be possible to specify Kuniyasu"[[c:3]]. The nioiguchi, "as with Kunitomo, characteristically clouds into urumi"[[c:4]]; yubashiri gathers above the yakigashira, where one source finds "this smith's habitual hand"[[c:5]] plainly discernible; on another blade the forked, karimata-like uchinoke at the yakigashira reveals the same characteristic features. The boshi runs sugu to a small ko-maru, at times yakizume, the tip lightly brushed with hakikake. The jigane divides in two, and the published sources state the split outright: in his forging "there are two kinds, one with standing hada and one tightly knit"[[c:6]]. The tight register is packed ko-itame, ji-nie adhering in fine dust, slender chikei woven through, at times a faint nie-utsuri rising toward the shinogi; the surface takes on the pear-skin texture the sources call "the school's characteristic nashiji-hada"[[c:7]], and blades of this kind are read as "the manner closer to Hisakuni"[[c:8]]. The standing register shows itame with the grain raised, jifu mingled in and chikei conspicuous, and the published record ties it to his signed work: "among this smith's signed pieces those with prominently standing itame are comparatively many"[[c:9]]. The two registers sort loosely by signature: most unsigned attributions are of the refined nashiji type and travel on Hon'ami judgments, a kinpun-mei of Hon'ami Koson, a kinzogan of Hon'ami Mitsutada, an origami of Hon'ami Koyu dated Genbun 3 (1738). The scholarship is candid about his softest quality: an early text judges of the shadowed dullness that often settles in his edge that "rather than a point of appreciation it is instead a defect"[[c:10]], while later texts call the urumi "one of this smith's notable features"[[c:11]]. His two-character signature was cut both large and small, and "in either case the character An shows its distinctive features"[[c:12]], its cursive abbreviation always the same, a major point in judging his mei. Honma notes of the attributed pieces that "among the kiwame-mono there are occasionally wide ones like this sword"[[c:13]], robust blades apart from his usual slender build. Within Awataguchi he is the midare brother. The school's later course runs through Norikuni to Kuniyoshi and Yoshimitsu and settles into bright suguha, while Kuniyasu holds to the compressed ko-midare of the founding generation and its clouded nioiguchi. His sugata follows Hisakuni, and his tightest jigane approaches that brother closely; yet the linked ko-gunome within the ha is the trait the judges name for picking him out within the school, and the pressed intervals and the urumi are the marks they say he shares with Kunitomo. Against the later generations the judgment entered on his signed tanto is direct: "compared with Norikuni and Kuniyoshi the interior of the ha works well"[[c:14]], fully showing, the same text concludes, the depth of flavor of Awataguchi work. Twenty-three designated works stand on record: three Important Cultural Properties, all signed tachi, with five Juyo Bijutsuhin, two Tokubetsu Juyo and twelve Juyo, fourteen blades in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers together, and one signed tachi recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection; ten pieces in the record are signed against nine unsigned. Nine blades carry recorded provenance, through the Owari Tokugawa house, one a gift of the shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi to Yoshimichi, fourth lord of Owari, and through the Tsugaru, Nanbu, Matsudaira, Mizoguchi and Hosokawa families. Of recorded whereabouts his blades rest with the Tokugawa Art Museum, the Tokyo National Museum, the Sano Art Museum and the NBTHK itself. The three Important Cultural Properties are patrimony, preserved where they stand; fourteen blades of recorded rank sit in the tiers that may lawfully change hands, and most are held rather than traded. The published record remarks that signed tachi by Kuniyasu are encountered from time to time, and that is the honest measure of him: a goban-kaji of Go-Toba whose work a patient collector may still hope to meet, though each appearance of a Juyo example is an occasion.
Norikuni (則國) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Kokuhō, Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. The record of Awataguchi Norikuni centers on a slender signed *tachi* that preserves its original tang, with an old scabbard whose document of provenance states that Kitabatake Akiie received the sword from Emperor Go-Daigo; it passed Juyo in 1998 and rose to Tokubetsu Juyo in 2000. Norikuni, called Toma no Jo, was the son of Kunitomo, the eldest of the six Awataguchi brothers, and the father of Sahyoe no Jo Kuniyoshi; his dates are given as around Katei (1235 to 1238), the bridge generation between the *goban-kaji* age of his father and uncles and the *tanto* age of Kuniyoshi and Yoshimitsu. A prewar designation record adds the tradition that he served as a *goban-kaji* on Oki[[c:1]], the island of the exiled Retired Emperor Go-Toba, and the National Treasure commentary counts him among the *goban-kaji* of the Retired Emperor Go-Toba. On one point the published sources never vary: surviving works with secure signatures, *tachi* and *tanto* alike, are very few. His *tanto*, the greater part of what survives, are *hira-zukuri* with *mitsu-mune*, of standard width, with *uchizori*. The *jigane* is a tightly knit *ko-itame*, the *ji-nie* dust-fine and thick, with fine *chikei* woven through. Over it he tempers a calm *suguha* in *ko-nie*, deep in *nioi*, taking in *ko-gunome* or a shallow *notare* with small *ashi*. Fine *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* run within the *ha*, and the *boshi* turns back in a refined *ko-maru*, at times lightly swept. On the *omote* and *ura* he cuts *gomabashi*, often paired with a *suken*; the grooves are spaced narrowly and set close to the *mune*, a placement the published sources call "a habit common to the craftsmen of the school"[[c:2]]. The Kuroda *tanto* that bears his rather large two-character signature is judged sound in *ji*, *ha* and form alike, "one of the foremost works of this smith"[[c:3]]. The steel itself carries the school's name. Of the *ubu* unsigned *tachi* of Juyo session 46 the published sources write that the *ko-itame* is extremely tightly knit, the minute *ji-nie* giving "a moist, pear-skin surface"[[c:4]], with *nie-utsuri* standing and the steel clear. The signed *tachi* shows instead an *itame* mixed with *mokume*, somewhat large in texture yet thoroughly worked and warm, displaying, as the same sources put it, the celebrated virtues of Awataguchi *jigane*[[c:5]]; over it a faint *jifu-utsuri* rises. The published sources divide his manner by form. Among the *tachi* there are works in a *suguha*-based temper mixing *ko-midare*, but for the *tanto* "a calm, graceful *suguha* is general"[[c:6]]. The signed *tachi* register is the rarer one: a slender blade of high *koshizori* with *funbari*, closing in a small point, the temper dropped in a slight *yakiotoshi* just above the *machi*. Its activity gathers from the middle down through the lower half, in *ko-midare* with *ko-choji* and *ko-gunome*, while the upper reaches run a calm *suguha* and the *boshi* ends nearly straight with a *yakitsume* tendency. The thin, short *koshi-hi* on its *omote* is what the old texts call the *wasure-bi* (忘れ樋), the forgotten groove often met on Kamakura *tachi*. The *mei* is of two characters, and the form of the character kuni is noted as close to his son Kuniyoshi's, a point of attention in appraising his signatures. Hon'ami appraisals run the length of the record: an origami of Koon dated 1639 on the Matsudaira *tanto*, an origami of Kochu dated 1713, and a *shu-mei* thought to be the hand of Tadaaki, the nineteenth master; these are attributions by later appraisers, not signatures. So too the *katana* on which the late Edo smith Ishido Unju Korekazu cut an inscription recording that he had shortened a work of Norikuni, a document the judges call greatly treasured as source material[[c:7]]. Within the family his place is fixed by two observations that run in opposite directions. His *tanto* manner is common to Kuniyoshi and Yoshimitsu, but the published sources state that his *nie* is comparatively stronger[[c:8]]; of the *shu-mei* *tanto* they write likewise that "the *nie* within the *ha* is strong"[[c:9]]. Yet that strength never disorders the line. His *hamon* does not break into minutely complex small patterning, and the judges make this restraint itself the thread of appraisal, writing of the unsigned *tachi* of session 46 that the way the *hamon* does not become so intricately disordered in small patterns "is what connects it to the signed works of this smith"[[c:10]]. The *midare* hand of the school belonged to his uncle Kuniyasu; Norikuni's own *ko-midare* appears only on his *tachi*, and only in the lower half. The Kuroda *tanto* of Tokubetsu Juyo session 20, *suguha*-toned yet shallowly undulant with *ko-gunome* mixed in, is singled out as the exception, good material for knowing the breadth of his work. Fifteen designated works stand on record. Of his rare signed *tachi*, three were designated Juyo Bunkazai, Important Cultural Properties, and one of these has since been elevated to Kokuho, a National Treasure; with them stand three Tokubetsu Juyo, six Juyo and three prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin. The Toko Taikan values him at 3,000 against a ceiling of 3,500, the figure of a Kamakura master of the first rank. The National Treasure and the Important Cultural Properties are patrimony, preserved beyond any market; among the recorded holders of his work are Atsuta Jingu, Kondaya Hachimangu and the Kyoto National Museum. The National Treasure, held by the Kyoto National Museum, is a slender *tachi* with a small point, its *ko-itame* most finely knit, its *hoso-suguha* bright and deep in *nie* with *kinsuji* running frequently; the commentary judges it one of the finest works of the Awataguchi school[[c:11]]. The Kondaya Hachimangu *tachi* carries a gold-inlay dedication by Ohashi Nyudo Shikibukyo Hoin Ryukei. The provenance roll is of the same order. The signed *tachi* carries the old legend of Emperor Go-Daigo and Kitabatake Akiie; the Kuroda house of Chikuzen held the signed *tanto* whose *aikuchi* *koshirae* is scattered with the family's fuji-tomoe crest; the Matsudaira lords of Iyo Saijo kept the *tanto* with its 1639 origami; Mori Motomichi held both prewar Jubi *tanto*; the Ikeda family appears as well. For the private collector the arithmetic is severe: nine blades stand in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, and most have rested long in the same hands. A work of Norikuni reaching the open market is a rare event, and a signed example would be among the rarest encounters the field affords.
Kunitsuna (國綱) — Mainline · 1240-1264. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Awataguchi Kunitsuna worked in early Kamakura Kyōto as the youngest of the six Awataguchi brothers, the eldest being Kunitomo, and he styled himself Tōroku Sakon. The published sources transmit that he later went down to Kamakura, summoned by the Hōjō, and there, together with Kunimune and Sukezane of Bizen, became one of the smiths who opened the way for the Sagami tradition. They also concede how little of his hand survives: genuine signed works that can be accepted with confidence are recorded as extremely few[[c:1]], the celebrated Onimaru Kunitsuna standing as the representative piece. He worked under the name 国綱, and a long ōdachi survives signed in full 鎌倉住藤六左近国綱 and dated 建長五年八月日, the only dated trace of the Kamakura years. The published sources draw a sharp line between him and the rest of the school. Awataguchi work is generally an earnest, classical elegance, but his shape, his forging and his temper are called distinctive: a tachi with high koshizori that does not droop toward the tip, a forging in which the itame stands large and prominent over thickly laid ji-nie, and a wide, varied temper in which the ha-nie is conspicuously strong[[c:2]]. The way both ji and ha are vigorously animated, the sources say, is precisely the hallmark of his art[[c:3]]. Against the generally elegant Awataguchi manner, his strong nie leans toward the bold Sagami manner he is said to have helped found. Over that jigane runs a suguha base in shallow notare, mixed with ko-midare, chōji and ko-gunome, with thick ashi and yō, the nioi deep and the interior of the ha thickly covered in nie; kinsuji run frequently, sunagashi hangs, and in places the habuchi shows hotsure with uchinoke and yubashiri. The jigane is the tight Awataguchi steel carried thick with ji-nie and chikei, often standing into ō-itame, with a mizukage rising from the togidame that connects into a jifu-utsuri-like midare-utsuri, an aspect the sources note as often seen in his work. The bōshi is rarely a calm ko-maru alone. On the Tokubetsu-Jūyō tachi it runs straight into a ko-maru with a slight kaeri and the point sweeps a little hakikake[[c:4]], and on the kinzōgan-mei katana it sweeps straight in hakikake toward a yakizume tendency[[c:5]]; elsewhere it enters midarekomi with a pointed turn. That swept, nie-broken point is as much his tell as the standing grain. The published sources are explicit that he has two faces. There are pieces in the orthodox Awataguchi manner, and there are works of a different cast, robust in form with a standing jihada[[c:6]]. The Onimaru belongs to the second, robust group; many of the surviving signed tachi belong to the first, where the forging tightens to a finer ko-itame, the temper a calmer suguha base, the whole quieter and more obviously of the court tradition. The two faces share the same features: the conspicuous ha-nie, the busy kinsuji and sunagashi, the midare-utsuri, and the swept hakikake bōshi. On the quieter tachi the nioiguchi is subdued and sunken; the openly strong nie and the standing grain set him apart within the generally elegant Awataguchi school. The Onimaru is the heart of his fame and the reason a smith of so few blades is known to every collector. Its later transmission reads as a history of power, passing through the great houses and into the Imperial collection, where it survives as an Imperial heirloom and one of the Five Great Swords, shown to almost no one. The published record names, beside it, a Tokubetsu-Jūyō tachi once held by the Viscount Nishitakatsuji family and an Important Art Object once owned by the Aizu Matsudaira house, and three signed tachi by him are Important Cultural Properties, preserved at Hie Shrine, at Iinoya-gū and in the Tokugawa Art Museum, their plates recording a *midare* or *ko-midare* over *itame* or *ko-itame*. The kinzōgan and kinpun attributions on several of the shortened katana, cut by Hon'ami Kōson and his line, show how seriously the Hon'ami house took a Kunitsuna ascription. For the collector this is among the rarest of the Awataguchi names. Fujishiro grades him Sai-jō saku, and his finest signed work descends through houses of the first rank: the Tosa Yamanouchi family held one kinzōgan-mei katana, and the Sendai Date family received another tachi from Konoe Motohiro and kept it as a treasured heirloom. Eight of his blades stand in the Tokubetsu-Jūyō and Jūyō tiers and three are Important Cultural Properties, while the masterpiece itself can never leave the Imperial collection. A signed Kunitsuna in private hands is therefore one of the scarcest things a student of the early Kamakura sword can hope to meet, and the very scarcity is part of why his Sagami descent, by tradition the bridge that ran on to Shintōgo Kunimitsu and the Sōshū line, carries the weight that it does.
Kunitomo (國友) — Mainline · 1185-1190. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū. Awataguchi Kunitomo is a smith of the early Kamakura period and, by the published account, the senior figure of his house. Awataguchi lay on the highway running from Kyoto toward Ōmi, where many smiths had resided since early times, and Kunitomo is transmitted as the eldest of the six brothers who made the school's name: the published sources record that "Kunitomo was the eldest of the six brothers of the famed signed Awataguchi smiths, and is said to have styled himself Tōbayashi Saemon"[[c:1]]. His younger brothers were Hisakuni, Kuniyasu, Kunikiyo, Arikuni and Kunitsuna, and together with Hisakuni and Kuniyasu he was summoned as a *ban-kaji*, a smith in monthly attendance, to the cloister of the retired sovereign Go-Toba (Go-Toba In). The *meikan* call him the eldest son of Kuniie and place him around the Jōkyū era (1219 to 1222). His signed tachi carry a *suguha-chō* mixed only with slight *ko-midare*, the calm and restrained line of early Awataguchi, into which enter *ko-ashi* and *yō*. The *nioiguchi* lies deep with *ko-nie*, *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* run through it, and here and there the line softens toward *urumi*. The interest of such an edge lies in the activity within rather than in the height of the pattern. *Kinsuji* is the constant note, named on every blade described in full, three of his four, the bright lines running through his deep-*nioi*, *ko-nie* temper; the fourth, the Atsuta Jingū tachi, is known here only from its Important Cultural Property plate, which records a *suguha*. The *jigane* is the school's signature. He forges a tightly packed *ko-itame* that on the Tokubetsu Jūyō signed tachi takes on a *nashiji*-like refinement, in places mixed with flowing grain and patches of larger *hada*, with fine *ji-nie* well adhered and the steel clear. On the prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin tachi the record gives *itame* mixed with *mokume*, and on the mumei tachi the close *ko-itame* shows *chikei* entering the ji. The *bōshi* answers the quiet temper. It runs straight to a *ko-maru*, its *nioiguchi* a little subdued on the first-session Jūyō blade, or straight to a *yakizume*-like point; on the mumei tachi the tip shows *hakikake* with *kinsuji*. A *koshi-hi* is carved on the *omote* of the signed tachi. His record divides cleanly into two faces. The first is the ubu, two-character signed tachi, the signature finely cut on the *omote* toward the *mune*, slender with high *koshizori*, marked *funbari* and a small *kissaki*, the elegant tachi shape of the period preserved in its original tang. The Atsuta Jingū tachi, signed Kunitomo, is a *shinogi-zukuri* blade with *mitsu-mune*, forged in *ko-itame* and tempered in *suguha*, 75.8 cm long. The second face is the ubu mumei tachi appraised as his work, slender with high *koshizori* and a dignified form, its forging a finely worked *ko-itame* and its temper a *ko-midare* base with *ko-gunome* and *ko-chōji* mixed in. Securely signed examples are the heart of the scholarship around him. The published sources state plainly that "extant works securely bearing his signature are exceedingly few"[[c:2]], and the Tokubetsu Jūyō commentary counts his reliable works as the Atsuta Jingū tachi and the blade before it. The yardstick the published sources reach for is the Atsuta tachi. Of his finest signed piece they judge that "in overall workmanship as well as in the manner of the signature it is extremely close to the example at Atsuta Jingū"[[c:3]], and they call it a work in which "the merits and elevated dignity of the early Awataguchi school are superbly displayed"[[c:4]]. What sets him apart is his own grounded manner: the slender, high-*koshizori* tachi with a small *kissaki*, the tightly packed *ko-itame* of *nashiji*-like refinement, and a *suguha-chō* with slight *ko-midare* bright with *ko-nie* and *kinsuji*. Within his house he stands at the head of the brothers, beside Hisakuni and Kuniyasu, at the beginning of the exacting Awataguchi line. The Toko Taikan places him high among rated smiths. He has no National Treasures. Four works are designated on record: the Important Cultural Property tachi at Atsuta Jingū, two tachi at the Tokubetsu Jūyō rank, and a prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin, of which the published commentary says it is "valuable as one of the few signed works"[[c:5]]. The Atsuta Jingū tachi remains in the shrine as patrimony, and the Jūyō Bijutsuhin tachi is held by the Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures. The two Tokubetsu Jūyō blades, the signed tachi and the mumei one, are the pieces of recorded whereabouts in private hands. With only two blades in the Tokubetsu Jūyō and Jūyō tiers and securely signed works numbering only a handful, a signed Awataguchi Kunitomo comes to market only very seldom, and a privately held example is among the rarest things an early-Awataguchi collector could encounter.
Kunikiyo (國清) — Mainline · 1201-1204. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. Kunikiyo was the fourth of the six brother-masters of the early Awataguchi school in Yamashiro, working in the opening years of the Kamakura period. The published sources set him in that celebrated company. He was a son of Kuniie, with Kunitomo, Hisakuni and Kuniyasu as his elder brothers and Arikuni and Kunitsuna as his younger, and all six are recorded among the goban-kaji, the smiths who forged in rotation for the cloistered court of Go-Toba-in (後鳥羽院). Very little of his work survives with a signature. One Juyo entry states plainly that "extant signed pieces are few, numbering only two"[[c:1]]. Those two signed *tachi* are known: the Aoyama-family *tachi*, designated an Important Cultural Property, and a *tachi* from the Unshu Matsudaira house recognized as a Juyo Bijutsuhin before the war. Beside them his name is carried by a small group of *o-suriage*, *mumei* katana judged to him. His hand is the bright, quiet manner of early Awataguchi. The *jigane* is a closely forged *ko-itame*, in places running a little or mixed with larger grain. It carries abundant *ji-nie*, and on the Tokubetsu Juyo katana *chikei* appear frequently. The published sources call that steel notably bright[[c:2]], and on one blade a faint *midare-utsuri* stands. Over this *jigane* he tempers a *suguha*-toned *ko-midare*, shallowly *notare* in places, worked with *ko-choji*, *ko-gunome* and *gunome*. *Ashi* enter, the *nioiguchi* is deep and bright, and the *nie* is well adhered, with fine *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* running through. The *boshi* goes straight to a *ko-maru* or an *o-maru* and returns. Within that *suguha*-based edge the published commentary singles out one piece of scenery on the Tokubetsu Juyo katana. Patches of *yubashiri* toward the *monouchi* gather there into a *nijuba*-like double line, recorded on both its Juyo and its Tokubetsu Juyo entries. It is a restrained feature, in keeping with a smith whose whole character is calm rather than showy. The published sources read Kunikiyo closest to his brother Kuniyasu. On the signed *tachi* of the Unshu Matsudaira house the commentary finds the temper "on the whole resembling Kuniyasu"[[c:3]]. The two signed *tachi* differ in the cut of their signatures, yet both carry a dignified *sugata*, and Honma adds that blades attributed to Kunikiyo can almost all be appraised as Awataguchi work. On one of the *o-suriage* katana the tightly packed intervals of the *midare* and an *urumi* tendency of the *nioiguchi* are held to share "a thread of affinity with Kuniyasu"[[c:4]]. That affinity, set on the bright Awataguchi *ko-itame*, carries the attribution where the signature is gone. The sources affirm such a blade as work that "at a glance can be appraised as Awataguchi of the early Kamakura"[[c:5]]. Kunikiyo is graded *sai-jo saku* by Fujishiro. He has no National Treasure. Four designated works stand on record: the Aoyama-family Important Cultural Property *tachi*, the prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin *tachi*, one Tokubetsu Juyo katana and one Juyo katana. The Tokubetsu Juyo katana descended through the Sakai house of Himeji, and the published sources call it a superior blade whose "glittering *nie* within the temper is especially magnificent"[[c:6]]. Of recorded whereabouts, one blade is held by the Fukuyama Art Museum. With so few works on record and most of them long held, a signed Kunikiyo comes to light only rarely, and a privately held example of either his signed *tachi* or his attributed katana is among the rarest things a collector of early Yamashiro could encounter.
Kunimitsu (國光) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Jūbun, Jūyō. 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 work[[c:1]], and that "above all, the documentary value of the Koan 11 date is beyond measure"[[c: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"[[c: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*"[[c: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"[[c: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.
Arikuni (有國) — Mainline · 1299-1302. Jūbun, Jūbi. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Tadayoshi (忠吉) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Jūbun. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Kuniie (國家) — Mainline · 1190-1199. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.

Other smiths

Kunisada (國定) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Kunisada of the Awataguchi school is known through two signed tachi, both designated Juyo Bijutsuhin on the same day in 1936. The published sources place him in one sentence: 「国定は山城国粟田口派の刀工国延の弟子で、文永[[c:1]]頃に丹波に移住したと伝え、作風は粟田口派の伝統を受け継いでいる」 (Kunisada was a pupil of Kuninobu of the Awataguchi school of Yamashiro, is said to have moved to Tanba around the Bun'ei era (1264 to 1275), and his workmanship carries on the Awataguchi tradition). The longer of the two tachi, with a blade of two shaku six sun eight bu, shows that tradition plainly. Its jigane is *itame* with abundant *ji-nie*; the temper is a *suguha* mixed with *ko-midare*, with *ashi* and *yo* entering freely and a suggestion of *nijuba* running through it. The published sources sum it up: 「一見さすがに京物らしい品格がある」 (at first sight it has, as one would expect, the dignity of Kyoto work). The second tachi, shorter at two shaku one sun eight bu, leans in another direction. Of it they write 「この国定の刃文には綾小路定利風の丁子ごころ、また二重刃ごころがある」 (the temper of this Kunisada has a *choji* feeling in the manner of Ayanokoji Sadatoshi, and again a suggestion of *nijuba*). The *nijuba* links it to the first blade; the *choji* points toward the neighbouring Kyoto line of Sadatoshi. The sword is recorded as 「田安徳川家伝来という」 (said to have been handed down in the Tayasu Tokugawa house), and appears in the Kozan Oshigata and other older albums of sword rubbings. With only these two works on record, Kunisada is read through his teacher's school: a quiet Kyoto *suguha* in one blade, a touch of *choji* in the other, and in both a suggestion of *nijuba* within the temper.
Kagehisa (景久) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Kunimitsu (國光) — Mainline · 1299-1323. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Kunimitsu (國光) — Mainline · 1229-1232. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Kuninobu (國延) — Mainline · 1259-1260. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Arikuni (有國) — Mainline · 1213-1219. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Arikuni (有國) — Mainline · 1235-1238. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Arikuni (有國) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Arimitsu (有光) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Arimitsu (有光) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Arimitsu (有光) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Arimoto (有元) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Arimoto (有元) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Arinaga (有永) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Arinaga (有永) — Mainline · 1259-1260. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Arinaga (有永) — Mainline · 1264-1275. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Arinobu (有延) — Mainline · 1247-1249. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Aritada (有忠) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Aritaka (有隆) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Ariyuki (有行) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Ariyuki (有行) — Mainline · 1331-1336. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Hisakuni (久國) — Mainline · 1261-1264. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Hisakuni (久國) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Hisamitsu (久光) — Mainline · 1222-1224. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Kagehisa (景久) — Mainline · 1171-1175. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Kageie (景家) — Mainline · 1184-1185. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Kageie (景家) — Mainline · 1324-1326. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Kagekuni (景國) — Mainline · 1213-1219. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Kagenaga (景長) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Kagenaga (景長) — Mainline · 1329-1331. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Kagenaga (景長) — Mainline · 1356-1361. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Kunisue (國末) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Kuniyori (國頼) — Mainline · 1185-1190. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Nobukane (信兼) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Nobumitsu (延光) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Norikane (則兼) — Mainline · 1207-1211. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Norikiyo (則清) — Mainline · 1249-1256. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Norimori (則守) — Mainline · 1288-1293. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Tadaie (忠家) — Mainline · 1346-1370. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Tadatsugu (忠次) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Tadatsugu (忠次) — Mainline · 1235-1238. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Tama (玉) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Tameto (爲遠) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Tomohisa (友久) — Mainline · 987-1596. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Torin (藤林) — Mainline · 1232-1233. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Toshinobu (俊延) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Toshinobu (俊延) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Toshinobu (利延) — Mainline · 1219-1222. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Toshinobu (利延) — Mainline · 1334-1338. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Tsuneto (常遠) — Mainline · 1233-1234. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Yoriie (頼家) — Mainline · 1303-1306. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Yoshikuni (吉國) — Mainline · 1235-1238. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Yoshimasa (吉正) — Mainline · 1229-1232. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Yoshimasa (吉正) — Mainline · 1278-1288. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.
Yoshimasa (吉正) — Mainline · 1303-1306. Smith of the Yamashiro Awataguchi School.