Edo was the sword’s age of connoisseurship: the Hon’ami appraisers, the shogunal register of famous blades of 1719, and a thriving literature turned the sword into an object of study even as it ceased to be drawn in war.
This wakizashi is signed by the 2nd generation Kunikane, who was born in Keicho 17 (1612) and became a swordsmith for the Sendai domain. He excelled in masame-kitae, following the tradition of his ancestor Hoshomaru, and also produced excellent gunome-deki hamon. His blades were known for their sharpness and are listed among the Ryōwazamono.
NihontoWatchmei · Shoho (1644-1648) · nagasa 49.8cm · sori 1cm
Sendai Kunikane, Mutsu (Sendai Shinto) · Rikuzen · around 1644-1670
Fujishiro Jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 31%
4 pieces on the market now
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.
Where Kunikane stands among comparable artisans: across all of nihontō, and within tradition, era, and period. The tiers (Foremost · Leading · Major · Notable) weigh official designations from the NBTHK and Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, together with historical honors of lasting repute such as the Sansaku and Meibutsu-chō.
Select a lens to see how it's measured.
Years he was demonstrably active, proven by signed-and-dated blades
Yamato-den · Rikuzen
15 pieces on the market now
Below Sendai Castle, at Kokubu Wakabayashi in Miyagi District of Ōshū (later Rikuzen, present-day Sendai), the first Kunikane established a forge that served the Date house across the early shintō period. The setsumei record him as a member of the Hongō family, first called Genzō and later Yoshinosuke, born in Bunroku 1 (1592), who claimed descent from a later branch of Yamato Hōshō Gorō. As a retained smith (kakae-kaji) of Date Masamune he was sent by his lord's command to Kyoto in Keichō 19 (1614), where he studied under Etchū no Kami Masatoshi; he received the court title Yamashiro Daijō in Kan'ei 3 (1626), took the tonsure upon Masamune's death in Kan'ei 13 (1636) under such Buddhist names as Ninzawa Yōe and Yōkei, retired in Shōhō 2 (1645) at fifty-four, and died in Kanbun 4 (1664) at seventy-three. The house continued through his legitimate son, the second-generation Kunikane (Hongō Kichiemon), born Keichō 17 (1612), who succeeded to the headship in 1645 and received the title Yamashiro no Kami in Kanbun 7 (1667). Other Sendai hands appear in the register as well: a Rinsuke (倫助) of the same lineage as Anrin signing "Ōshū Kokubu Sendai-jū," and later signatures reading Yōe Kunikane and the Shōwa-era Yōke Kunitsutsumi, carrying the line forward. What binds these blades into one hand is the deliberate transplant of the Yamato-den Hōshō manner onto Sendai steel. The setsumei describe the first generation as turning, in an age when the Sōshū tradition was widely practiced, toward the working range of the Yamato Hōshō line: a high shinogi, a forged masame-hada, and a suguha-based temper.
Recognition begins in the kitae, a masame-hada running well throughout, often tending toward standing grain (hada-dachi), with fine chikei entering and ji-nie adhering thickly over clear steel; a mizukage frequently rises from below the machi, called a habitual trait of both first and second generations. The temper is a chū- or hiro-suguha carrying a shallow notare, into which uchi-noke, hotsure, kuichigai-ba, and a nijūba-like effect mingle along the habuchi, with deep nioi, well-adhering nie, and kinsuji and sunagashi running through; the bōshi runs straight and tends toward yakizume with vigorous hakikake. Generations divide on detail rather than idiom: the first generation's strongest pieces show the masame at its most ordered with a bright nioiguchi, while the second generation, equally schooled in the family specialty, sometimes works toward gunome-midare and finishes with a quiet warmth; certain late first-generation works, such as the dated Kan'ei 19 katana, depart unusually into a primarily itame ground with whitish utsuri. For kantei the register fixes the points plainly: ordered masame with ji-nie and chikei, the suguha-and-hotsure edge with masame carried into a yakizume boshi, and the rising mizukage habit. The signature itself is a marker, the setsumei noting that from Kan'ei 9 (1632) the grass-radical of the character 藤 begins to be chiseled as separated strokes resembling a "#," and that the rarer "Yōe" form and examples bearing Kunitsugu's kaō carry documentary weight. Named works anchor the line: a Tokubetsu-Jūyō katana signed Yamashiro Daijō Fujiwara Kunikane transmitted in the Uwajima Date family, with an iron tsuba signed Myōchin Sōhei; first- and second-generation katana held in the Imperial Collection; a Jūyō wakizashi bearing the kuyō crest of the Date house said to have been bestowed by Masamune; and a katana carrying a Yamano Ka'emon cutting-test inscription dated Kanbun 4. The setsumei place the first generation's best blades at a level close to, and at points surpassing, the old Hōshō master, and present the Sendai Kunikane house as the enduring carrier of the Yamato Hōshō manner under Date patronage through the Edo period. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kunikane國包 | 1624-1644 | 35 |
| Kunikane國包 | 1644-1670 | 10 |
| Kaneshige包重 | 1661-1673 | 1 |
| Tomosuke倫助 | 1661-1673 | 1 |
The Edo period (1615 to 1868)
Edo was the sword’s age of connoisseurship: the Hon’ami appraisers, the shogunal register of famous blades of 1719, and a thriving literature turned the sword into an object of study even as it ceased to be drawn in war.
We could not find an authenticity certificate on the seller’s listing. Japanese swords and fittings are normally papered by the NBTHK (or the NTHK). Without one, the attribution is the seller’s own assessment and has not been independently verified — treat it with caution and ask the dealer about certification before buying.
If, 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.
