The Yamato schools grew up in the shadow of Nara’s great monasteries: Tegai took its name from a gate of Tōdaiji. Their austere masame and quiet suguha are a temple aesthetic, prized ever since for exactly that restraint.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchDuring the Nara period, before the capital was transferred to Kyoto in Yamashiro province, the province of Yamato was the center of Japanese culture. According to legend, Yamato is said to have been the home of Amakuni (天国) and Amakura (天座), the earliest swordsmiths. After that, the Senjuin smiths Yukinobu (行信) and Shigenobu (重信) are believed to have worked in Yamato at the end of the Heian period. The earliest confirmed time of manufacture for a sword with a signature from this province, however, is the middle of the Kamakura period. The development of the sword smith trade in Yamato was closely linked to the area’s proximity to the capital at Nara. Furthermore, a smith’s prosperity and protection depended on their relationship with the temples with which they were affiliated. From the end of the Heian period, temples in Yamato province acquired vast manors and many branch temples. Accordingly, they strove to arm themselves to guard their rights and property. The five major Yamato schools, the Senjuin (千手院), Tegai (手搔), Taima (当麻), Hosho (保昌), and Shikkake (尻懸) , were groups of swordsmiths who supplied the temples with arms. The Yamato tradition of sword making became known over a wide area through the nationwide organizations of these temples. The Yamato tradition exercised great influence on the Shizu (志津), Akasaka Senjuin (赤坂千手院), Uda (宇多), Mihara (三原), Kanabo (金房) and other schools. In addition, direct exchange seems to have taken place between individual smiths from Yamato province and smiths throughout Kyushu in the early days of the Yamato tradition. The Yamato Tegai (大和手搔) school got its name from the fact that its workshop was built in front of the gate Tengai-mon belonging to the Todaiji Temple in Nara. The first generation Kanenaga (包永) who worked around 1288-1293 is known to be the founder of the Yamato Tegai (大和手搔) school of sword making. The smiths of this school all used the same character. “Kane” (包) in their works. Some of the other smiths were Kanekiyo (包清), Kanetsugu(包次), Kanetoshi (包俊), and Kanemitsu (包光). One of the later smiths, Kaneuji (包氏), left the Tegai tradition to study the Sôshû tradition with Masamune (正宗). He later moved to Mino and founded the new sword making tradition of Mino. Around then he changed the character “Kane” in his mei from (包) to (兼),the one we are familiar with for all succeeding Mino smiths. Tegai Kaneuji (手搔包氏)was also known as Shizu(志津) . We call swords made by Kaneuji (包氏)while he was living in Nara, Yamato Shizu(大和志津) swords. Of the smiths of this school, the first generation Kanenaga (包永)left a fair number of signed examples of his work. Most have been greatly shortened with the two characters of his name being found at the very bottom of the nakago. There are only two known examples of intact nakago surviving and, unfortunately, one of them has been re-tempered. The works of the first generation Kanenaga (包永)are known to be the best the school produced. The name, Kanenaga (包永), was used by succeeding generations of smiths. The Yamato Tegai (大和手搔)school continued to produce swords from the Kamakura through the Nanbokuchô eras. At the end of the Nanbokuchô period, the school ceased to be active. However with the start of the Muromachi period, it once again became active and began to prosper. The revived school is called the Sue-Tegai (末手掻)school. We will discuss this later school in a bit. More than any of the other four schools of the Yamato tradition, the Tegai(手搔)school swords most closely follow what we call the traditional Yamato characteristics. Below I have outlined the most important of those characteristics: SUGATA: The shape of Tegai school works is what we have come to know as typical Yamato. They are shinogi-zukuri and irori mune. The shinogi is remarkably high with a shinogi-haba. There is a marked curvature with koshi-zori and occasionally some saki-zori. Tantô were not produced by the first two generations of Kanenaga smiths of the Tegai school. Almost all of the tantô produced by the third generation Kanenaga will be hira-zukuri; there are no unokubi tantô. HAMON: The temper lines of the Tegai school tend to be chu-suguba with uchinoke and nijuba consisting of nie. Often, particularly in the works of the Shodai Kanenaga, a slight ko-notare and ko-gunomeaspect to the hamon will be found. One of the traits of his blades is that often there are significant differences in the shape of the hamon from one side to the other. All will have extremely bright niepresent in abundant quantities. Occasionally there is ara ji-nie present. Present in the hamon you will find hotsure, uchinoke, yubashira, inazuma, kinsuji, and other activities. JITETSU: The kitae is most commonly a tight, yet beautiful ko-itame hada. Generally speaking, however, the hada will not be as tight or as beautiful as the Yamashiro school. Also those with a mixture of a hint of masame are common especially in the later generations. Kanenaga is generally known for the crisp and clear nature of his jigane that tends to be comparatively blackish. The pronounced display of nie grains in the ji is another characteristic of this school. BÔSHI: Strong nie and yakizume are the most common traits found in this school’s bôshi. Some have kaeriand are completely hakkake. The kaeri when present is short. They are generally chu-kissaki. NAKAGO: The nakago of tachi will be long while in tantô they appear to be a bit stubby. Most of the surviving works are o-suriage with the original nakago lost; the couple of surviving ubu examples have a kuirjiri tip, round mune, and the yasurime done in takanoha (hawk feathers). MEI: Generally, and perhaps without exception, the signatures of the smiths of this school are two character (ni-ji mei). The first character of the name will be “Kane” (包). The blade presented here for sale is a fine example of the Tegai school of the Yamato tradition. It was awarded Jûyô Tôken status on Jūyō Tōken at the 63rd Jūyō shinsa held on November 17, 2017. The translation of the setsumei is as follows: Measurements: Nagasa 69.1 cm, sori 1.1 cm, motohaba 2.9 cm, sakihaba 1.9 cm, kissaki-nagasa 3.05 cm, nakago-nagasa 19.8 cm, only very little nakago-sori. Description: Shape: shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, normal mihaba, rather noticeable taper, wide shinogi-ji, high shinogi, shallow sori, chū-kissaki. Kitae: densely forged itame that tends overall to nagare-masame and that features plenty of ji-nie and much chikei. Hamon: nie-laden suguha-chō with a relatively wide, bright, and clear nioiguchi that tends overall to a gently undulating notare and that is mixed ko-ashi, hotsure, kuichigai-ba, nijūba, uchinoke, and fine kinsuji and sunagashi. Bōshi: sugu with a ko-maru-kaeri. Nakago: ō-suriage, kurijiri, kiri-yasurime, two mekugi-ana, mumei. Explanation: The Yamato smiths were closely linked to the local temples and shrines. It is said that the name of the Tegai School goes back to the fact that the school, whose name was also noted with the characters (輾害), was located on the outskirts of the western Tengai Gate (転害門) of Yamato’s Tōdaiji (東大寺). Its founder was Kanenaga (包永) who was active in the late Kamakura period, around Shōō (正応, 1288-1293), and the school prospered throughout the Nanbokuchō and until the Muromachi period. This blade shows a dense itame that tends overall to nagare-masame that that features plenty of ji-nie and much chikei. The hamon is a nie-laden suguha with a relatively wide, bright, and clear nioiguchi that tends overall to a gently undulating notare and that is mixed ko-ashi, hotsure,kuichigai-ba, nijūba, uchinoke, and fine kinsuji and sunagashi. Thus we clearly recognize the characteristic features of the Tegai School. Particularly noteworthy are the clarity of the suguha and its abundance of hataraki along the habuchi.
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Yamato-den · Yamato
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Outside the Tegaimon (転害門), the western great gate of Todai-ji, a lineage of smiths forged for the temple through the closing decades of the Kamakura period, and from that monastic ground rose the Tegai school (手掻), one of the five branches of the Yamato-den. The published commentary of the NBTHK names Kanenaga (包永) its founder, placing his activity around the Shoo era (1288 to 1293) while reading his own workmanship, and a tanto by an early hand of his circle dated Karyaku 4 (1329), as evidence of a beginning reaching back further into middle and late Kamakura. The school took its name from the gate by which it worked, and the long Nanto-ju and Tegai-ju signatures cut by its later smiths keep that Nara setting on record. Among the five Yamato traditions Tegai was the largest in scale, and as the Muromachi years advanced it appears to have absorbed the others so that it alone effectively continued, a span the surviving generations of Kanenaga, Kanekiyo (包清), Kanetsugu (包次), Kanetoshi (包俊), Kanesada (包貞), and Kanemasa (包真) carry from the late Kamakura into the Eisho and Kyoroku eras. A Tegai blade is read first in the steel and then along the edge. The forging is itame mixed with mokume that flows into nagare and inclines toward masame near the ha, standing open in a hada-dachi character, with thick ji-nie, chikei entering frequently, and at times a whitish shirake utsuri toward the mune. Over that ground runs a suguha base, seldom left plain, taking in shallow notare, ko-midare, and ko-gunome; the habuchi frays into hotsure, with uchinoke, kuichigai-ba, nijuba, yubashiri drifting into the ji, and sunagashi and kinsuji sweeping through. The boshi answers in kind, swept with hakikake and finishing yakizume or turning back in a small ko-maru. Within this shared vocabulary the corpus divides along the Ko-Tegai and Sue-Tegai axis.
The founder's hand, the Ko-Tegai prime, carries the strongest nie among Yamato works, round and lustrous, over a bright and clear jigane, with many tachi holding a dignified, high-toned bearing; the Meibutsu Konotegashiwa Kanenaga even tempers omote and ura differently. The later Sue-Tegai generations part company, the steel turning whitish, the nioiguchi tightening toward ko-nie, and the temper broadening at the last toward ogunome and a hitatsura tendency near Muramasa, as in the late Tegai-ju Kanekiyo blades. To kantei a Tegai blade is to place it within Yamato and then along its own line. Against Senjuin, Shikkake, Taima, and Hosho, all working the same standing masame-inclined grain under fraying suguha, Tegai is told by the strength and brightness of its nie; Honma noted of the first generation a sparkle at times recalling Awataguchi Hisakuni, and one Tokubetsu Juyo tachi was read as rivaling the upper Soshu masters. Where Hosho runs a near-pure masame and a plain edge, and where Shikkake Norinaga strings his ko-gunome into connected rows, Kanenaga holds the suguha-cho through its shallow notare and lets yubashiri, uchinoke, and nijuba play above the habuchi with unusual freedom; the Rai suguha of Yamashiro, by contrast, runs clean over a close ko-itame. Rated Jo-jo saku by Fujishiro, Kanenaga stands at the head of the school, his signed tachi (the character Kane compressed, the second vertical of Naga drawn out long) unusually numerous for so early a smith, though most survive suriage and the o-suriage mumei attributions ride on the quality of the nie. The provenance is deep, running through shrines, the Tokugawa, Date, and Hachisuka families and, formerly, the Imperial Family, with recorded holders including the Tokyo National Museum and the Tokugawa Art Museum. The later names hold mainly to the Juyo register and to private and designated hands, valued as fixed reference points for the Yamato-den, where the founder's bright, heavy nie over standing Yamato steel remains the measure by which the whole school is judged. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Kanenaga包永 | 1288-1312 | 66 |
| Kanekiyo包清 | 1362-1370 | 8 |
| Kanetoshi包俊 | 1381-1384 | 4 |
| Kanetsugu包次 | 1317-1333 | 4 |
| Kanekiyo包清 | 1429-1441 | 3 |
Yamato in the Kamakura period
The Yamato schools grew up in the shadow of Nara’s great monasteries: Tegai took its name from a gate of Tōdaiji. Their austere masame and quiet suguha are a temple aesthetic, prized ever since for exactly that restraint.
A blade of top-grade workmanship and condition, formally judged to rank with a nationally recognized Important Art Object (Jūyō Bijutsuhin). Awarded only at the NBTHK’s competitive annual examination.
Of Japan’s roughly 2.5 million registered swords, only 12,348 (about 1 in 202) have ever attained Jūyō.
The NBTHK (Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai, the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords) is a public-interest incorporated foundation founded in 1948 and supervised by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkachō); it is based at the Japanese Sword Museum in Tokyo. Its expert panels physically examine each submitted work (shinsa) and issue a certificate (kanteishō) ranking it by artistic and historical merit. NBTHK papers are the most widely recognized standard of authentication for Japanese swords and fittings.
NBTHK official siteThree-day inspection period and seven-day return period; buyer notifies by email within three days of receipt, no reason needed; full refund once item returned undamaged and unaltered.
$36,500