After the Ōnin War broke the Ashikaga order, a century of Sengoku warfare armed nearly every province in Japan. The era rewards a discriminating eye: routine work exists in quantity, and beside it stand custom blades of the first rank.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatch宇多とは、鎌倉時代末の文保頃の古入道国光を祖とする刀工群であり、南北朝時代時代を経て室町時代に渡って繁栄します。鎌倉時代末期から南北朝時代にかけての作品を古宇多と、室町期の作品を宇多と、それぞれ称呼します。名鑑によると、宇多で貞国を名乗るのは、貞治頃の貞国と、元亀頃の貞国だけであり、宇多貞国と四字銘で刻するのは、元亀頃の貞国だけであることから、いづれかの判明が可能である。宇多派の作品は大和伝の気質が強いですが、相州伝にかかるものもあり、地鉄は、板目に杢目等交じり肌がよく現れるなどします。本作も相州気質が強く現れた御刀で、時代の雅味が豊かであり、在銘といった点から大変貴重な逸品です。銘も確りとして姿に雅味があり古刀好きな貴様にはたまらない一振りです。 本刀体配は、刃長は二尺一寸二分で、身幅の元先、重ねは尋常。姿が誠に美しい御刀です。地鉄は板目肌が良く練れ肌現れ、映り現れるしっとりとした地金です。刃紋は小沸出来で、皆焼きがかった腰開きの互の目丁子乱れ刃紋で、様々な働きが見事な誠に冴えた刃です。帽子はそのまま直で深く焼いて小丸へ返ります。茎は磨り上げているものの、宇多貞国と、かなり確りと銘が残ります。古刀然とした雅味がある宇多貞国の在銘刀で、見事な拵付きの健全な御刀です。古刀在銘刀をお探しの御客様には最適な御品です。白鞘、金着せ一重はばき。日本刀剣保存会鑑定書、旧特別貴重小道具鑑定書。
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Wakimono · Etchu
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Among the provincial lineages that carried the Yamato-den northward, the Uda school (宇多) of Etchu province holds a distinct place. Its origin lies in the late Kamakura period, when the monk-smith Kunimitsu, remembered as Ko-Nyudo Kunimitsu, migrated from Uda District in Yamato to Etchu around the close of the era. From this founder descended a long line of Kuni-named smiths; the reference registers carry Kunifusa and Kunimune as sons of the founder, Kunitsugu and Kunihisa among the generations that followed, the studio names recurring through the Oei, Hotoku, Bunmei and Tenbun eras down to the end of Muromachi and on into shinto times. The school worked the tanto (broad for its length, with little curvature) more readily than the tachi or uchigatana, and because its smiths individuate little, a signed Uda blade is read less as one hand than as the manner of its period. The school is identified first off the steel rather than the temper. The shared forging is an itame that runs and tends to stand, flowing toward masame and mixing mokume, with standing o-hada and ji-nie throughout; the steel turns whitish and at times blackish, so that a shirake-utsuri or faint bo-utsuri stands in the ji. Over this northern jigane the temper ranges from a chu-suguha opening shallowly into ko-notare and ko-midare to a vigorous gunome carrying pointed elements, ashi and yo entering, ko-nie well adhered along a tight nioiguchi. The Yamato activity of hotsure and kuichigai-ba names the old province along the habuchi, while kinsuji and sunagashi run through nearly every surviving blade.
From this base the corpus divides: a quieter Yamato-rooted suguha face, seen on the tanto; a Soshu-leaning midare face traced to Kunifusa's study under Etchu Norishige, in which the nie thickens and grows at times coarse with yubashiri and broadened yakihaba; and a refined register in which a compacted ko-itame gathers abundant ji-nie and a round, luminous nie scatters through the yakiba. Ko-Uda, the earlier work of the Nanbokucho and early Muromachi generations, reads cleaner and closer to its Yamato and Soshu models; the later Uda hands run coarser and more provincial in character. To kantei an Uda blade is to find its Yamato roots wearing a coarser northern character. The whitish, standing jigane with its masame tendency and shirake-utsuri returns the blade to the school when the temper alone might recall a Yamashiro or Soshu hand; a nie-laden example reads as Soshu at first glance and is brought home by the dark, standing steel and the nioiguchi that holds rather than glows. The best members close the distance to their models: Kunihisa, the Oei-era hand the published sources read against the founder, forged a ko-itame bright enough that the judges found his finest wakizashi and tanto all but mistakable for Rai Kunimitsu or Kunitsugu, while his standing itame and shirake-utsuri keep him within Uda. Kunimune and Kunitsugu carry the same two faces over the one northern steel, the dated and signed pieces (a Bunmei 11 katana, a Bunmei 17 yari) valued as research material for the school as much as for their make. Signed Uda blades are uncommon, so the school's standing rests heavily on mumei attributions read by jigane and temper. Provenance tends toward long, settled holding, with designated work resting in shrines and museums, and some recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, rather than circulating, so that a signed Uda piece comes to a private collector only from time to time and with patience, a clear window onto how the Yamato tradition was carried into the northern provinces. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kunihisa國久 | 1394-1428 | 10 |
| Kunimune國宗 | 1429-1479 | 5 |
| Tomotsugu友次 | 1381-1384 | 3 |
| Kunimune國宗 | 1394-1428 | 3 |
| Kunitsugu國次 | 1469-1487 | 3 |
The Muromachi period (1392 to 1573)
After the Ōnin War broke the Ashikaga order, a century of Sengoku warfare armed nearly every province in Japan. The era rewards a discriminating eye: routine work exists in quantity, and beside it stand custom blades of the first rank.
The NTHK’s principal certificate, issued for a blade of considerable quality. It confirms a genuine signature, or, for an unsigned (mumei) work, records the judges’ attribution to a smith or school. The paper carries a detailed worksheet with a numerical point score.
The NTHK (Nihon Tōken Hozon Kai, the Society for the Preservation of the Japanese Sword) is the oldest of Japan’s sword-appraisal bodies, founded in 1910, decades before the NBTHK. After the death of its long-serving head it divided into two successor societies, the NTHK and the NTHK-NPO, both of which continue to hold shinsa. NTHK blade certificates are known for a detailed worksheet that records a numerical point score alongside the judges’ written opinion (fitting papers carry the judges’ opinion without a point score), and the society is especially respected for its attribution of unsigned (mumei) work.
No cooling-off period or returns; refund only if the purchased sword is proven fake, capped at purchase price (excludes commission sales, accessories, auction items).