NihontoWatch筑前国の美直は信國吉政七代目光昌の門人で、技量高く後に養子として迎えられている。寛政五年十一月七日、藩主黒田斉隆の御前にて先代光昌を向鎚に鍛刀した際、これをつぶさに見た黒田侯は美直の卓越した技術に感服して幕閣や有力な大名への献上品とすることとし、また宗像大社への奉納太刀を打たせている(注1)。美直は鍛刀のみならず刀身彫刻にも長じ、寛政十年には滝不動と雲龍の彫物がある正宗写しの刀を打ち(注2)、さらに鐔も手掛けている。 この刀は、身幅重ね尋常な中鋒の洗練味ある造り込みで、心地よい重量感を保つ一振。板目に杢を交えた地鉄は細かな地景が入って緻密に肌起ち、粒立った地沸が厚く付く。刃区下の焼き込みから始まる浅い湾れに互の目を配した刃文は、物打付近で一段と焼高くなって鎬筋を越え、棟焼に連なって力強く奔放に変化し、銀砂のような沸が厚く付いて刃縁明るく、沸の一部は零れて地を焼き、相州正宗に見るような雪の叢消えの如き態となる。刃中には沸足が入り、葉が浮かび、沸筋流れ、特に物打辺りの沸の景観が激しさを増し、帽子は穏やかに乱れ込んで一枚風となって返り、棟を長く焼き下げる。保存の優れた茎に鑚強く刻された銘字は鑚枕が立つ。輝く沸に包まれ、名物池田正宗(注3)を想起させる覇気横溢の一刀となっている。 埋忠重義の時雨亭図鐔を写した美直自作の鐔を掛け、腰印籠刻黒漆塗にして総体を金箔押しの唐革塗鞘とした拵が付されている。 注1...福田博同「刀匠信国系図の総合的研究:筑紫信国を主として」(『跡見学園女子大学文学部紀要』第五十三号)に詳しい。 注2...『銀座情報』二百八十九号。なお、他にも美直が福岡藩士の需で滝不動と倶利迦羅を加刻した寛文十二年八月吉日紀の肥州河内守正廣の脇差がある(『肥前刀大鑑 忠吉篇』)。 注3...徳川将軍家から尾張徳川家に伝来。徳川黎明会蔵。重要文化財。
NihontoWatchOffered by Choshuya
This piece has sold
22 on the market
Get an email when new Nobukuni School work hits the market.
Yamashiro-den · Yamashiro
22 pieces on the market now
Few Kyoto houses bridged two traditions as deliberately as Nobukuni (信国), the Yamashiro-den lineage whose work runs from the Nanbokucho period through Muromachi and on, in a western branch, into the shinto age. The first generation, the smith the NBTHK counts as shodai, is the master of the Enbun, Koan and Joji years; the older registers placed a founding Nobukuni back in the Kenmu era, but the published sources set that legend aside, since no work survives so early and the style of the oldest dated blades connects directly with that of Sadamune. Two inheritances meet in him. By blood he belongs to the Ryokai line, recorded as son or grandson of Ryo Hisanobu and therefore of Rai descent; by training he is said to have studied under Soshu Sadamune, counted among the Sadamune Santetsu, the three brilliant pupils. The name then passed on: a change-of-generation Nobukuni with Eitoku, Shitoku and Meitoku dates stands at the close of Nanbokucho, and in early Muromachi come the so-called Oei Nobukuni, Saemon-no-jo and Shikibu-no-jo, conventionally the third generation. The published commentary keeps these hands apart and notes that several smiths of the same signature appear within the Nanbokucho period alone. Through Muromachi the line moved to Buzen and then Chikuzen, where it served the Kuroda house of Fukuoka as retained smiths and flourished as the Chikuzen Nobukuni group of Yoshisada, Yoshimasa, Yoshitsugu, Yoshikane and Shigekane. A single steel underlies the whole school. The jigane is an itame mixed with mokume that flows toward the ha and stands into masame, with thick ji-nie and chikei entering frequently; on the finer-forged pieces a streak-like nie-utsuri rises, and that masame-tinged surface is read as the visible token of the Ryokai pedigree.
Over it the temper divides into the manners the sources name together: a suguha expressing the Kyoto tradition, refined in ko-nie with fine hotsure and a niju-ba tendency, carried on tanto and ko-wakizashi; and a ko-notare mixed with gunome inheriting the Sadamune style, laid thick in nie, with kinsuji, sunagashi, hotsure and conspicuous yubashiri, on the most flamboyant pieces stringing into a two-tiered ha. From the late Nanbokucho succession into the Oei generation a third range enters, a gunome-led midare whose tell is paired gunome linked across the valleys by a low ko-notare into a yahazu, arrow-notch, profile, with muneyaki, tobiyaki and niju-ba on the liveliest blades. Above all stands the carving the sources call the house art, the horimono of bonji, kurikara, suken, gomabashi, sanko-ken and the invocation of Hachiman Daibosatsu, often layered one over another in kasanebori; few smiths of the age are so consistently identified by what they carved. The Chikuzen branch carried the masame-leaning itame forward and added a choji-midare with midare-utsuri, Yoshikane reaching toward Soshu-den with deep nioi and thick nie, Shigekane ranked highest in skill within his group and noted as a copyist of meibutsu who emulated Fudo Kuniyuki at the Hama Palace. To kantei Nobukuni is to read the Kyoto traces that part him from Sadamune: the nie-utsuri, the niju-ba, and the hada that drifts into masame along the ha. Within the long succession the shodai remains the touchstone, his dated work the standard against which unsigned blades and generation questions are resolved, the reversed left-form kuni marking the Oei Saemon-no-jo, the yahazu the daigawari hand. The best members rank Jo-jo saku under Fujishiro, and the carving reputation is the constant thread, distinguishing these blades from the plainer utilitarian grooving of contemporary Bizen. Provenance runs through the great houses: the Kuroda wakizashi once carried by Kuroda Nagamasa, a Hongan-ji meibutsu held to have been cherished by Rennyo Shonin, the signed Arao Nobukuni descended in the Asano of Geishu, pieces in the Sanada, Tosa Yamauchi and Tamura families, and a tachi bestowed on the Owari Tokugawa. Examples rest today in the Tokugawa Art Museum, the Kyoto National Museum, shrines such as Atsuta and Ise, and long-held private collections, with the Chikuzen smiths' shogunal-command pieces preserving the historical episodes that produced them. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Nobukuni信國 | 1356-1368 | 70 |
| Nobukuni信國 | 1383-1392 | 33 |
| Nobukuni信國 | 1394-1428 | 44 |
| Yoshikane吉包 | 1661-1686 | 6 |
| Masanobu正信 | 1356-1361 | 4 |
The Shinshintō revival
Around 1800 Suishinshi Masahide argued in his writings that the craft must return to the old masters’ methods: the fukkotō revival. His greatest successor Naotane worked convincingly in Bizen and Sōshū manners that had been dead for centuries.
A Hozon-certified blade judged to show notably superior workmanship and a better state of preservation. The bar is higher: re-tempered blades and most unsigned Muromachi/Edo works are excluded.
The NBTHK (Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai, the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords) is a public-interest incorporated foundation founded in 1948 and supervised by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkachō); it is based at the Japanese Sword Museum in Tokyo. Its expert panels physically examine each submitted work (shinsa) and issue a certificate (kanteishō) ranking it by artistic and historical merit. NBTHK papers are the most widely recognized standard of authentication for Japanese swords and fittings.
NBTHK official siteIf, due to our fault, the item differs significantly from its proper condition, the item may be returned. Cooling-off is within one week of the item's arrival.