Sue-Tegai (末手掻) is the late phase of the Tegai school, from the Ōei era through the Muromachi period (with a thin tail of name-bearers into the early Edo period). The term 末手掻 is used directly in NBTHK setsumei to set this generation apart from the classical Ko-Tegai of the founder Kanenaga. Its representative smiths are Kanezane (包眞), Kanetoshi (包俊 / 包利), Kaneyoshi (包吉), and Kaneyuki (包行), names that recur across several generations as the workshop continued to supply blades through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Sue-Tegai idiom is a tightening and quieting of the classical Yamato manner.

The jigane becomes a closely-forged ko-itame mixed with prominent masame that frequently takes on a whitish (shirake) cast — a hallmark of the late phase — while the hamon narrows to a nioi-based suguha that frays into hotsure and ko-midare, with a komaru bōshi. The hiogi (檜垣) file-mark on the nakago is a recurring diagnostic. Production shifts toward tantō and wakizashi in standard Muromachi forms alongside some katana, and the NBTHK observes that the work shows comparatively little individual character, faithfully preserving the traditional house style rather than the bold personal expression of the Kamakura founders. The phase represents the orthodox Yamato tradition carried, with conservative consistency, to the close of the Muromachi age. Learn more →

Sue-Tegai (末手掻) is the late phase of the Tegai school, from the Ōei era through the Muromachi period (with a thin tail of name-bearers into the early Edo period). The term 末手掻 is used directly in NBTHK setsumei to set this generation apart from the classical Ko-Tegai of the founder Kanenaga. Its representative smiths are Kanezane (包眞), Kanetoshi (包俊 / 包利), Kaneyoshi (包吉), and Kaneyuki (包行), names that recur across several generations as the workshop continued to supply blades through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Sue-Tegai idiom is a tightening and quieting of the classical Yamato manner.

The jigane becomes a closely-forged ko-itame mixed with prominent masame that frequently takes on a whitish (shirake) cast — a hallmark of the late phase — while the hamon narrows to a nioi-based suguha that frays into hotsure and ko-midare, with a komaru bōshi. The hiogi (檜垣) file-mark on the nakago is a recurring diagnostic. Production shifts toward tantō and wakizashi in standard Muromachi forms alongside some katana, and the NBTHK observes that the work shows comparatively little individual character, faithfully preserving the traditional house style rather than the bold personal expression of the Kamakura founders. The phase represents the orthodox Yamato tradition carried, with conservative consistency, to the close of the Muromachi age. Learn more →