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About the maker

Horikawa Kunikiyo國清

Yamashiro-no-kami Fujiwara Kunikiyo is the founder of the Echizen Kunikiyo line, a Shinshu man of Matsumoto who, the published sources say, was a son of the third-generation Shimada Sukemune and first called Kichiemon. He went up to Kyoto and entered the gate of Horikawa Kunihiro, and there changed his name to Kunikiyo; after Kunihiro's death he took service with Matsudaira Tadamasa of Takada in Echigo and followed his lord to Fukui when the house was transferred to Echizen. In the second month of Kan'ei 4 (1627) he received the court title Yamashiro-daijo, and a year later, in Kan'ei 5, he advanced to Yamashiro-no-kami and was granted the chrysanthemum crest to cut into his nakago. The name passed through several same-name generations whose work and signatures the published record calls hard to tell apart, and within that line the institution places him plainly at the head: the first generation, it states, possessed the highest technical ability, the second next to him in skill. The blades that survive under his full long signature, the kiku-mon cut above it, are read as the founder's, and they show the dark northern steel and the calm temper on which his reputation rests. His forte is suguha, the manner the published sources return to as the one in which he most excelled. Over an itame jigane that stands somewhat open, mixed with mokume and running here and there into flowing hada, he tempers a chu-suguha that takes in ko-ashi and yo through its upper half, deep in nioi and thick in ko-nie, the habuchi faintly frayed in hotsure and crossed by kuichigai-ba, fine sunagashi running through it and kinsuji entering, and the nioiguchi inclining toward shizumi, a subdued, settled tone rather than a bright one. The boshi runs straight into a ko-maru, returning somewhat deeply with a touch of hakikake at the tip. The published commentary names this the straight-temper domain in which Kunikiyo most excelled, and reads his full strength in a piece where, set beside his usual work of the kind, the nioi runs a shade deeper, the nie stronger, and the activity within the ha more abundant, a blade in which 「国清の本領」, the smith's true character, is brought forth without reservation. The jigane is the most constant thing he forges, and the published sources make it the seat of his recognition. The itame stands with conspicuous mokume mixed in, the ji-nie adhering densely and fine, chikei entering well, and the steel taking a slightly blackish cast that the commentary calls an antique feeling, the quality it identifies as the special character of Echizen steel and, on one late katana, of the 「北国がね」, the northern-province steel. It is a darker, denser jigane than the bright Yamashiro ji from which his teacher's school descended, and the published record reads it as the Echizen hallmark, writing of one blade that 「越前がねの特色がよく表示されている」, the characteristics of Echizen steel are well displayed. On this dark ji the suguha and the deep nioi sit with a sober, weighty effect, the ji and ha alike sound on the pieces that reached Juyo, their robust forms called imposing and dignified. Against the suguha forte the published sources record a second manner, a midare he turned to from time to time, and a portion of his work carries it. The base is a ko-notare mixed with gunome, the peaks turning angular in the monouchi, the nie thick and at times coarse, sunagashi running overall and kinsuji entering well, with the same deep nioi and the same sinking nioiguchi as the suguha. On a wide, thick katana of conspicuous mokume the temper opens into its boldest form, and here the commentary reaches for the highest comparison the Echizen forges allow, finding aspects that 「二代康継の出来口を想わせる」, that call to mind the typical workmanship of the second Yasutsugu, and 「放胆で迫力が感ぜられる」, an unrestrained boldness and a sense of compelling power. An earlier wakizashi of kanmuri-otoshi-zukuri carries the midare in a quieter key, a gunome with ashi and deep nioi under naginata-hi carving of kurikara and gomabashi. The midare is always the lesser register, named as the alternative to the suguha he is best at, 「最も直刃を得意とし、又、本作に見る乱刃もある」, most given to suguha, with a midare also among his work. Distinguishing the founder from his successors is itself part of the published kantei, because the styles run so close that the generations are read largely off the signature. The plain long mei without the 一 character is taken as the shodai's, the 一 cut below the kiku-mon as belonging to the second generation onward, the nidai being Shinbei, his second son. The published commentary is candid about the limits of this method: of one fine chu-suguha katana that carries the 一 and whose mei resembles a dated Tenna 2 (1682) tanto, it allows the piece may perhaps be the second generation, then states plainly that cleanly separating the first and second generations is at present difficult and a matter that must await further research. His descent from Horikawa Kunihiro places his standing dark itame and nie-laden suguha within the broad Keicho-shinto current his teacher spread, and the kurikara, bonji and gomabashi carved on his nanban-tetsu pieces belong to the same vocabulary, while the dark Echizen-gane and the settled suguha are his own contribution to it, the marks by which the founder is known. Kunikiyo is rated jo-jo saku by Fujishiro, and the connoisseurship around his work runs to the signatures and the steel as much as to the temper. Two of his blades carry the added inscription that they were forged of nanban-tetsu, the imported steel then in fashion at the Echizen forges, cut beside the long mei and suiting the dark, dense quality of his jigane; others bear gold-inlaid cutting tests, one Juyo katana a futatsu-do-otoshi, a cut through two bodies, evidence of the line's standing as cutting steel. Among the rarest of his signatures is a nyudo mei, a tonsured priest-name signature on a late shodai katana that the published sources call 「入道銘は頗る珍しい」, an extremely rare inscription, and 「典型作の一口」, a representative example of his typical work. His designated blades are uncommon and seldom move: six stand at the Juyo level and none higher, while a gold-inlaid Kanbun 7 (1667) katana carrying a Yamano Kanjuro Hisahide cutting test is held in the Imperial Collection at the Imperial Household Agency, a piece that by its nature will not trade. A privately held Kunikiyo of recorded whereabouts is accordingly an occasional rather than a regular encounter, a sound example of the founder's hand reaching a serious collection only from time to time and most readily in his named forte, the calm chu-suguha over the dark northern steel.

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