Yamato masame in the service of the Date. The first Kunikane, sent by Date Masamune to study under Echizen Yasutsugu, revived the pure masame-hada of the ancient Hōshō school — straight grain running the full length of the blade — and founded a line that served the Sendai domain through the whole of the Edo period.
The The Sendai Kunikane School (仙台國包), active 1624–1860 in Rikuzen Province across 4 documented smiths: 0 Kokuhō (National Treasures), 1 Jūbun, 4 Jūbi, 1 Tokubetsu Jūyō, 39 Jūyō.
Phase 1 · The Sendai Kunikane School (仙台國包) · 1624 – 1860
Kunikane (國包) — Mainline · 1624-1644. Jūbun, Jūbi, Tokujū, Jūyō. The shodai Kunikane was born Hongō Genzō in Bunroku 1 (1592) at Kokubun-Wakabayashi in Sendai, Mutsu, and entered the service of Date Masamune as a retained smith. By his lord's command he went up to Kyoto and studied under Etchū no Kami Masatoshi; in Kan'ei 3 (1626) he received the court title Yamashiro Daijō, and he styled himself a descendant of the later line of Yamato Hōshō Gorō. In the opening decades of the Shintō period, when the Sōshū manner in itame and mokume was the fashion of the day, Kunikane gave his working life to reviving the *masame*-forging, *suguha*-tempering Hōshō-den of old Yamato. The published sources record that 「作風は一貫して大和保昌伝に終始し」, his manner kept to the Yamato Hōshō tradition from first to last, and every blade of his on the designation record is signed in his own name.
His characteristic hand is constant. The forging is a tightly packed *masame-hada*, at times running into *nagare*, carrying fine *ji-nie* thickly applied and frequent *chikei*, the steel notably clear. A *mizukage* often rises from below the *machi*, and the published sources name it a personal habit of the smith, calling it on one wakizashi a feature that 「初代国包の手くせといえる」. Over that *jigane* he tempers a *suguha* or *suguha-chō*, frequently broad and shallow in *notare*, the *nioiguchi* deep and bright. The activity is the Yamato kind: general *hotsure* along the *habuchi*, *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* set freely into the line, *kuichigai-ba*, *nijūba* and *uchi-noke* mixed in, and *ko-ashi* entering.
Fine *ji-nie* and abundant *chikei* over a clear, well-packed *masame* recur on nearly every blade, the forging growing more refined as it tightens. The *bōshi* is the Yamato finish, running straight into a *yakizume*-like point with vigorous *hakikake*. On this point the published sources are unusually candid. Measured against the early Hōshō, they say his shortfall lies in 「物打上の変化に乏しいことと、帽子が平凡な点にある」, a relative want of variation above the *monouchi* and a commonplace *bōshi*, while holding that the *ji* and *hamon* of his representative dated katana are nonetheless excellent.
One consistent hand divides into two registers by the shape it takes. The standard work is the *shinogi-zukuri* katana, *ubu* and long-signed, very often dated, with a high *shinogi*, shallow *sori* and an elongated *chū-kissaki*; his dated katana of Kan'ei 4 and Kan'ei 9 are the reference points for his work. Two prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin katana carry his go in the signature: one signed Yamashiro Daijō Fujiwara Yokei Kunikane and dated Keian 1 (1648), with a high *koshi-zori*, *funbari*, a slightly standing *masame* and a *chū-suguha* of *ko-nie* in a shallow *notare* with *sunagashi*, the other signed Yokei Kunikane saku over a clean *masame*. The rarer register is the *hira-zukuri* wakizashi, of which the published sources note that very few survive. On these the temper opens out: the upper half takes a broader *yakiba*, the *nie* thickens and coarsens in places, *tobiyaki* resembling *yubashiri* appear and the *nioiguchi* tends toward *shizumi*, while the carvings, a *suken* and a *katana-hi* with *soe-hi*, are cut deep in the manner of old Yamato work. Of the Onikiri wakizashi the published sources say that in it 「初代国包の本領が遺憾なく発揮された」, his true strengths brought out without reserve.
His bright *masame* and Yamato *bōshi* set him apart from the Sōshū-fashion smiths of his day, and his disciplined *suguha* over a clear *jigane* separates him equally from the kotō Hōshō he revered, whose *monouchi* and *bōshi* the texts say he did not quite equal. He retired in Shōhō 2 (1645) and handed the headship to his eldest son Kichiemon, the second-generation Yamashiro no Kami Kunikane, founding a Sendai Kunikane line that carried the *masame* Hōshō-den to the end of the Edo period; the shodai remains the standard against which the later generations are judged.
His designated record runs through one Important Cultural Property, four prewar Jūyō Bijutsuhin, one Tokubetsu Jūyō and twenty-eight Jūyō blades, with one sword recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, thirty-five designated works on record and every one signed. There are no National Treasures. His finest, an *ubu*, signed and dated katana preserved in its original form and held in the Uwajima Date family, the published sources call 「古保昌に優るとも劣らぬ作域」, equal to or surpassing the old Hōshō, and a masterpiece of imposing presence. Provenance runs through the houses he served and a few long-private hands: the Date and the Uwajima Date families above all, and named collectors such as Kimura Sadazō. A signed shodai Kunikane is not beyond a serious collector's reach in the way a great Kamakura master is, yet his blades are mostly held rather than traded, the *hira-zukuri* wakizashi rarest of all, and a dated example in good state comes to market only from time to time.
Tomosuke (倫助) — Mainline · 1661-1673. Smith of the Sendai Kunikane School.
Kunikane (國包) — Mainline · 1644-1670. Jūyō. A long katana carrying the gold-inlaid ownership inscription of Kan Shinbei and a two-body cutting test made by Yomogita Yasudayu on the sixteenth day of the twelfth month of Kanbun 11 (1671) is, in the words of the published sources, one of the representative works of the second-generation Yamashiro no Kami Kunikane of Oshu Sendai. He was the eldest son of the founder, Yamashiro Daijo Kunikane, and was called Hongo Kichiemon. Born in Keicho 17 (1612), he succeeded to the house in Shoho 2 (1645) at thirty-four and served the Date house as his father had. He received the title Yamashiro no Kami on the twelfth day of the eleventh month of Kanbun 7 (1667), three years after his father's death, and died on the second day of the seventh month of Kanbun 12 (1672) at sixty-one.
The published sources say his style followed the founder's entirely and kept from first to last to the Hosho manner, the masame forging of the Yamato Hosho school from which the family claimed descent. He was skilled at suguha and only occasionally tempered a gunome-midare. Every blade on record under his name is forged in masame and tempered in suguha. The masame runs well with ji-nie laid on it, and on the finest pieces the ji-nie is dust-fine and thick with fine chikei entering. Over it he tempers a chu-suguha, small ashi entering toward the monouchi, the habuchi frayed in hotsure and crossed by kuichigai-ba, kinsuji tangling along the edge and fine sunagashi following the grain. The boshi runs straight and either ends in yakizume or turns into a small maru, sweeping into hakikake.
The published sources name his own points to watch. On a blade they call typical, a mizukage rises from below the machi, a habit they say is seen on the second generation as on the founder, and a faint utsuri appears in the lower half. The nakago file is at times finished in a simple decorative pattern, which the texts also count among his features. The signature has a tell of its own: in his mei the horizontal strokes are all driven hard and pressed at the end, and the form of the inner part of the character 包 is a point to watch.
Beside the plain suguha, a few blades widen the temper into a hiro-suguha touched with notare and gunome, a nijuba and patches of coarse nie in the activity. Of one katana the published sources say that for the second generation it is truly full of power and hardly inferior to the founder, and place it around Kanbun 10. Another, dated Kanbun 10 (1670), is called extremely carefully made and without a flaw. A katana signed Oshu Sendai ju Kunikane is placed before he took the Yamashiro no Kami title and is still called typical and representative.
The texts weigh him against his father in two voices. An early paper says his style is exactly his father's but his skill does not reach it; later papers call him the next most skilled after his father, his finest work approaching the founder's. They also correct the received chronology: the account that the founder retired in Shoho 2 and died at seventy-three in Kanbun 4 is said probably to contain an error, and the second generation is fixed instead by his Yamashiro no Kami title in Kanbun 7 and his death in Kanbun 12.
Fujishiro rates him Jo saku. His designated record holds ten Juyo blades, all signed, most long and sturdy katana of the Kanbun shape with a wide body and full hiraniku. The founder's own work, including the pieces signed with his go Yokei, stands under the founder's name; the second generation is the Kunikane a collector is more likely to meet, a signed Kanbun katana of masame and suguha that the published sources hold up as the family's Hosho manner carried faithfully into a second generation, appearing on the market from time to time.
Kaneshige (包重) — Mainline · 1661-1673. Jūyō. Smith of the Sendai Kunikane School.