Blade only weight: 790g It has arrived, it has arrived—a wonderfully precious sword by the highly esteemed swordsmith Tachibana-en Ryuko Kunihide has appeared. This sword is the work of Tachibana-en Ryuko Kunihide, a hanko (domain smith) for the 30,000-koku Itakura family of the Joshu Annaka Domain. He was a smith who exerted great effort when invited to assist in the construction of the Nirayama Hansharo (reverberatory furnace/ironworks) built by the Izu Daikan (Governor) Egawa Tarozaemon, which was registered as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 2015. At the time this sword was produced in Tenpo 12 (1841) (185 years ago), the Tenpo Reforms—aimed at political and economic reform of the Shogunate led by the Roju Mizuno Tadakuni—had just begun. It was a period when Britain, America, and Russia were cruising the waters near Japan seeking trade, and the defensive awareness of the Japanese people was rising more than ever. The master of Kunihide, Nakayama Ikkansai Yoshihiro, learned the Norishige-den of hada-kitae from Noritoshi, a descendant of Ecchu Norishige. His disciple, the smith Kunihide, claimed to be a descendant of Soshu Masamune (the master of Norishige) and produced this sword as a recreation of Soshu Masamune. The sugata of this sword shows a thick kasane with a difference between the moto-mihaba and saki-mihaba, a shallow sori, and a heavy, powerful weight in the hand. The jigane is itame-hada mixed with mokume-hada, manifesting chikei and forged into a powerful jitetsu. The hamon is nioi-deki with konie, featuring gunome-togari-ba with many kinsuji appearing within the ha, showing active hataraki. The koshirae is a hantachi-koshirae featuring a kuro-ro-saya (black wax lacquer) carved with the auspicious "Shichi-Go-San" (7-5-3) crests of the period. The kanagu are luxurious shakudo nanako-ji hantachi matching fittings, clearly indicating that the person who commissioned this sword from Kunihide was a high-ranking samurai of great stipend. This sword has been cherished for generations by an old family, but as they have grown old, we have been entrusted to pass it on at a low price to someone who will treasure it; therefore, we are offering it at a special bargain price. Please enjoy with great respect this historically precious sword by Tachibana-en Ryuko Kunihide, who devoted himself to the construction of the Nirayama Hansharo, now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
NihontoWatchBETA
¥760,000
Tracked across 81 dealers worldwide · price history · sold archive
Shin-Shinto
67.7 cm
1 cm
2.91 cm
1.81 cm
Kawachi no Kami Minamoto Kunihide河内守源国秀
¥760,000
Blade only weight: 790g It has arrived, it has arrived—a wonderfully precious sword by the highly esteemed swordsmith Tachibana-en Ryuko Kunihide has appeared. This sword is the work of Tachibana-en Ryuko Kunihide, a hanko (domain smith) for the 30,000-koku Itakura family of the Joshu Annaka Domain. He was a smith who exerted great effort when invited to assist in the construction of the Nirayama Hansharo (reverberatory furnace/ironworks) built by the Izu Daikan (Governor) Egawa Tarozaemon, which was registered as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 2015. At the time this sword was produced in Tenpo 12 (1841) (185 years ago), the Tenpo Reforms—aimed at political and economic reform of the Shogunate led by the Roju Mizuno Tadakuni—had just begun. It was a period when Britain, America, and Russia were cruising the waters near Japan seeking trade, and the defensive awareness of the Japanese people was rising more than ever. The master of Kunihide, Nakayama Ikkansai Yoshihiro, learned the Norishige-den of hada-kitae from Noritoshi, a descendant of Ecchu Norishige. His disciple, the smith Kunihide, claimed to be a descendant of Soshu Masamune (the master of Norishige) and produced this sword as a recreation of Soshu Masamune. The sugata of this sword shows a thick kasane with a difference between the moto-mihaba and saki-mihaba, a shallow sori, and a heavy, powerful weight in the hand. The jigane is itame-hada mixed with mokume-hada, manifesting chikei and forged into a powerful jitetsu. The hamon is nioi-deki with konie, featuring gunome-togari-ba with many kinsuji appearing within the ha, showing active hataraki. The koshirae is a hantachi-koshirae featuring a kuro-ro-saya (black wax lacquer) carved with the auspicious "Shichi-Go-San" (7-5-3) crests of the period. The kanagu are luxurious shakudo nanako-ji hantachi matching fittings, clearly indicating that the person who commissioned this sword from Kunihide was a high-ranking samurai of great stipend. This sword has been cherished for generations by an old family, but as they have grown old, we have been entrusted to pass it on at a low price to someone who will treasure it; therefore, we are offering it at a special bargain price. Please enjoy with great respect this historically precious sword by Tachibana-en Ryuko Kunihide, who devoted himself to the construction of the Nirayama Hansharo, now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
NihontoWatchBETA¥760,000
Tracked across 81 dealers worldwide · price history · sold archive
Shin-Shinto
67.7 cm
1 cm
2.91 cm
1.81 cm
Kawachi no Kami Minamoto Kunihide河内守源国秀
¥760,000
