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Rai Kunitsugu國次

On the *tanto* recorded in the Meibutsu-cho as the Torikai Kunitsugu (鳥養国次), the NBTHK writes that the work of Rai Kunitsugu shows "the strongest *nie* of *ji* and *ha* within the whole Rai school" (来一派の中では地刃の沸が一番強い), and that single judgment carries the essence of the smith. The published sources place him at the very end of the Kamakura period, his activity reaching into the first years of Nanbokucho, where he stands beside Rai Kunimitsu, his slight senior, as one of the two masters who bring the Rai mainline to its close. His genealogy is unsettled across the published record: the usual account makes him a pupil of Rai Kunitoshi, one account a cousin of Rai Kunimitsu, others the son of Kunitoshi or Kunimitsu's younger brother. From of old he has been counted among the Ten Brilliant Pupils of Masamune (正宗十哲) and carries the name "Kamakura-Rai" (鎌倉来), a name the published sources explain by the manner of the work itself. That manner is a *hamon* the earlier Rai never showed: a *midare*-dominant temper of *notare* mixed with *gunome*, the *nie* thick and bright, *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* sweeping through the *ha*, *yubashiri* drifting along the *habuchi*. The *kitae* sets thick *ji-nie* over *itame* and weaves in frequent *chikei*, in places standing slightly. The recurring verdict of the published sources is that this is a workmanship "strongly shaped by the influence of Soshu-den" (相州伝の影響を多分に受けた出来口), and the comment of Honma recorded against another of his Juyo Bijutsuhin *tanto* holds the same line, that within the Rai school the *nie* of his *ji* and *ha* is conspicuously strong. Even an absence points the same way: compared with general Rai work, his *ji* shows fewer of the soft *rai-hada* patches typical of the school. The *boshi* of this register runs *midare-komi* or with a pointed tendency, often swept with *hakikake*. Beneath the Soshu color the *jigane* stays Rai. The forging in his finest pieces is a packed ko-itame, the *ji-nie* fine and thick, *chikei* entering finely, and a pale *nie-utsuri* rising over the *ji*, the anchors that keep the work Kyoto. His most numerous surviving class is the wide *osuriage mumei* *katana*, often in a deep *wa-zori* with the *chu-kissaki* extended. On these blades a *suguha*-toned base mixes ko-gunome and ko-choji; *ashi* and *yo* enter long, thick and without pause; the *nie* sits deep into the *ha*, *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* run, and *nijuba*-like *yubashiri* plays at the edge. The deciding point is stated outright in the published sources: where the *ji* and *ha* are unusually bright and the *nie* strong, "if one fixes on the point that the *nie-ashi* stand out within the *ha*, an attribution to Rai Kunitsugu is judged proper" (刃中の沸足が目立っている点に着眼すれば来国次と鑑するのが妥当). One Juyo *katana* is described as reading "just as though the *midare* he tempers on his *tanto* had been rendered on a long blade" (宛ら同工の短刀に焼く乱れを太刀にあらわした感). His signed work is nearly all *tanto* and ko-wakizashi; the published sources repeat that surviving *tachi* are scarce, and that *ken* and *yari* survive only in the rarest examples. The *tanto* are signed below the *mekugi-ana* at the center of the *nakago* with a large, thick-chiseled three-character *mei*, while the slender signed *tachi* with high *koshizori* carry an elongated, finely chiseled, smaller signature that the NBTHK reads as his early hand, valued for showing the change of his manner over time. A minority of works keeps the older Rai style unaltered, a quiet *suguha* with ko-choji, the *nie* at ordinary strength; the *tanto* handed down in the Uesugi house is called "a calm register that holds faithfully to the Rai tradition" (来派の伝統を墨守した穏やかな作域), and such work is noted as extremely rare for him. Dated pieces are nearly absent: the *ken* of Karyaku 2 (1327) is his earliest surviving date, worked, as with other smiths of the period, in Yamato-den; a *tanto* of Shokei 1 (1332) also survives, and Gentoku dates are known only from the old sword albums. On the tradition that he studied under Masamune the NBTHK itself is careful: since Kunimitsu too at times shows the same *nie*-strong manner, it writes, to affirm the pupil legend from the style alone would be "premature" (早計). The comparison that fixes his place is drawn against Rai Kunimitsu. Kunimitsu also left *midare* work beside his traditional *suguha*, but in his case, the published sources observe, the *suguha* far outnumber the *midare*, and "Kunitsugu is the opposite" (来国次はそれとは反対). One Juyo text goes further, judging that he carries the *nie* even beyond the *nie*-emphasized *midareba* of his senior, a manner the earlier Rai never had. Among the forebears of the line, Kuniyuki, Niji Kunitoshi, Rai Kunitoshi and Kunimitsu, he is the one who retains the least of the traditional Kyoto style, which is exactly why the old Masamune-pupil account drew attention. The judges also leave him room: various atypical pieces (変り出来) are acknowledged within his work, and his few signed *tachi* differ among themselves. With Kunimitsu he carries the Rai mainline to its close in early Nanbokucho, and the Kamakura-Rai name marks his position as the school's Soshu-facing edge. Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku. One of his blades is a National Treasure and four are Important Cultural Properties, patrimony preserved wholly outside the market; beneath them stand fourteen Tokubetsu Juyo and forty Juyo, fifty-four blades in those two tiers, out of sixty-five designated works on record, twenty-nine of them signed against thirty-six unsigned. The Torikai Kunitsugu itself was certified Juyo Bijutsuhin in 1933. The provenance roll is of the first rank: the published sources single out the famous *tachi* handed down in the former shogunal house and in the Maeda house; another *tachi*, recorded in the Tokugawa Jikki, was presented by the shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi to Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu in Genroku 15 (1702); a *katana* passed from Matsudaira Nobuyasu, Ieyasu's eldest son, to his retainer Hiraiwa Chikayoshi; and *tanto* descended in the Uesugi, Asano, Okubo, Nabeshima and Ikoma houses and in the Yamauchi of Tosa, whose blade went to the shogunal house as a memorial gift in Kyoho 5 (1720). Of recorded whereabouts today, examples rest in the Tokyo National Museum, the Sano Art Museum and the Hikone Castle Museum. For the collector the picture is that of a major Rai master whose designated works are held far more often than they move: a *mumei* *katana* or *wakizashi* of the Juyo tier appears from time to time, a signed *tanto* only rarely, and a piece of the order of the Torikai Kunitsugu can only be awaited as an event.

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