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About the maker

Enju Kunitoki國時

Kunitoki is the representative master of the Enju school of Higo, the line that carried the Yamashiro Rai manner south into Kyushu. The published sources trace the school to Tarō Kunimura, transmitted as an "outside grandson" of Rai Kuniyuki of Yamashiro through a daughter, and they place Kunitoki among the best-known smiths of the group, variously recorded as the son or the pupil of the founder. His working life runs from the close of the Kamakura period into Nanbokucho at Kumafu in the Kikuchi District; dated survivals carry the Southern-Court eras, one *tachi* signed *Shōhei 7* (1352), placing his late hand in the middle of the fourteenth century. The school is judged to show little individual variation and to resemble Rai broadly, so that the *Enju* manner reads almost as one hand. Within that uniformity Kunitoki stands out for two reasons. The published record judges that "relatively many of his works survive, and the average quality of his workmanship is high" (比較的現存するものが多く、作柄の平均点も高い), and his hand worked the school's restrained *suguha* busier than any other of the line. His characteristic manner is a *chū-suguha* or *hoso-suguha* that refuses to stay plain. Where the published sources record that "many works of the group temper a *suguha* sparing in internal activity," Kunitoki breaks his straight temper with continuous *ko-gunome*, occasional *ko-chōji* and pointed teeth, *ko-ashi* and *yō* entering well, *ko-nie* gathering along the edge, with fine *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* playing through. On his best blades the *nioiguchi*, which the school carries somewhat *shizumi* (subdued) against the brighter Rai, turns bright and clear. The school's own nature pulls the other way, and it is precisely because of that restraint that a lively blade reads as exceptional: of one *tachi* the published commentary writes that it shows "a *midare*-dominant tempering rare not only for Kunitoki but for Enju works generally" (国時のみならず延寿物としても珍しい乱れ主調の焼刃), and of a *suriage katana* with strong *nijūba*, *kinsuji* and a *bōshi* that goes into *midare* with vigorous *hakikake*, that it presents "the most active hamon not only of this smith but within the whole school" (同工のみならず同派の中でも最も働きのある刃取り). That a single blade can be called both rare and the most active is the measure of how quiet the line normally runs, and of how far Kunitoki pushes against it. The forging is the school's whole inheritance read clearly. Over an *itame* or tightly forged *ko-itame*, generally flowing and gathering a *masame*-like tendency toward the edge, fine dust-like *ji-nie* adheres well and fine *chikei* enter, and the school's whitish *shirake-utsuri* stands in the *ji*. This whitish *utsuri* is the prime point the published sources name in separating *Enju* from Rai, and it sits on a *jigane* that keeps the Kyoto refinement of the parent while taking on the flowing Kyushu steel. The *bōshi* most often runs straight and closes in a *ko-maru*, frequently brushed with *hakikake*, and sometimes turns back round and shallow as a large *ō-maru* in the school habit. The signature, when present, is a large two-character *mei*, and the published sources repeatedly single out one calligraphic tell: in the character *kuni* (国), the right half within the enclosing strokes is cut in an "ear-shaped" manner (クニ構えの中右半分を耳形にきる), a writing habit shared by the whole *Enju* line that cannot be confused with another school. The surviving record falls into two registers. The first is signed and *ubu*: long *tachi* with a deep *koshizori* and *funbari*, and broad *hira-zukuri tantō*, slightly *sunobi* with a thick *kasane*, carrying the bold two-character mei near the tang-tip; the chisel on some is noted as broader and stronger than usual. The dated late blades of this register sign the longer *Kikuchi-jū Kunitoki* with Engen and Shōhei dates, and the published sources assign that long signature to the lower generations of the name. The second register is *ōsuriage mumei katana*, attributed to *Enju Kunitoki* and often fixed by a later appraisal: at first glance a ring-shaped *wa-zori* and a Kyoto air recall Rai, but the *nagare* in the *ji*, the *shirake-utsuri* and the subdued *nioiguchi* settle the attribution to *Enju*, and the overall level of the work narrows it to Kunitoki. Several of these carry a Hon'ami Kōsson appraisal inscription in gold, the smith's name set in *kinzōgan* or *kinpun* with his *kaō*. Kunitoki's place is best read against his two neighbors. Against Rai, the parent, the difference is fixed: the published sources record the *masame*-lean, the whitish *utsuri* and the subdued *nioiguchi* as the points by which *Enju* parts from the Yamashiro line, and they note that the school is felt to be "somewhat weaker in *ji* and *ha* than Rai." Yet the kinship is close enough that one of his finest *tantō* is judged to show "a level of workmanship comparable to Rai Kunimitsu" (来国光に比肩する出来映え), the *Enju* tells visible only on close reading. Against Kunimura, the founder, the difference is Kunitoki's own: his *suguha* breaks into *ko-gunome* and *ko-midare* far more freely than the founder's plainer straight temper, and his *bōshi* closes sugu to a *ko-maru* more often than the founder's larger *ō-maru*. Because the line shows so little individual variation, Kunitoki is taken as its representative hand and its most frequently surviving one, and a plain Rai *suguha* can in turn be mistaken at a glance for *Enju*. The *Enju* smiths were attached to the Kikuchi clan, loyal to the Southern Court, and the dated blades carry that history in their Southern-Court eras. Kunitoki's standing is matched by a substantial designated record: thirty blades stand in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers, six of them Tokubetsu Juyo, with one further work in the Important Cultural Property rank, and his work earns a high mark in the *Tōkō Taikan*. He is among the most heavily represented *Enju* hands on the official record. The provenance recorded against his blades reaches into the high households of late Edo: a *tachi* held by the Mito Tokugawa family and one by the Kishu Tokugawa family, a *tantō* now of Minatogawa Shrine, and a *tantō* known as a relic of Seikan'in-no-Miya, the imperial princess Kazunomiya (静寛院宮の遺物), the figure of the late-Tokugawa marriage settlement, by way of the Kan'in-no-Miya house. One blade is locked in the Important Cultural Property tier and will never trade. Of the rest, the school's quiet *suguha* and the relative abundance of Kunitoki's survival mean that his Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo blades come to the serious collector from time to time, more readily than the rarest Kamakura masters but as designated heritage rather than ready stock; a fine signed *ubu tachi* or a broad signed *tantō* of his is a landmark when it appears, and most of the recorded record is held, not traded.

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