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About the maker

Ko-Mihara Sukekuni助國

Sukekuni is the Kokubunji-group smith of Bingo Province, his career fixed by a run of dated blades that carry the eras Tokuji, Genko, Karyaku, Gentoku and Kenmu, placing him from the close of the Kamakura period into the Nanbokucho years. His is one of the standing province problems of the kantei room. Because even his long signatures cut the province only as Bishu (備州), and the Edo-period swordbooks read that single character as Bizen, he was transmitted for centuries as a Bizen Kokubunji smith, and the *Kokon Meizukushi* named him the founder of the Hokke lineage. The published sources now correct this to Bingo for three reasons: late-Kamakura and Nanbokucho Bingo work customarily cut the province as Bishu, with *Bingo no kuni* appearing only from the Muromachi period; the *Koto Meizukushi Taizen* records his residence at Anna Tojo, and the Bingo Kokubunji stood in that Anna district; and the genealogies set this Kokubunji line apart from the Mihara group. The recognition of his hand rests not on shape but on the *ji* and *ha*, for his construction stays orthodox, without the broad *shinogi-ji* and high *shinogi* by which old Mihara announces itself. His hand is best read as one smith working in three registers that the published sources name again and again. The first and most characteristic is a *suguha* or fine *hoso-suguha* carrying a strong Yamato temperament, and the commentary states it plainly, that 'his style, like that of Mihara works, possesses a Yamato temperament' (その作風は三原物などと同じく大和気質がある). Over an *itame* that flows and tends to *masame*, the grain standing, with *ji-nie* adhering and a whitish *shirake-utsuri* rising, he tempers a narrow *suguha* whose *habuchi* frequently frays into *hotsure*, with *ko-ashi* and *yo* entering, *sunagashi* and *kinsuji* running, and *ko-nie* well laid. The *masame-gakari* of his steel is the tell that ties him to Mihara and holds him apart from the pure *itame* of mainstream Bizen, and a reverse inclination, the *saka-gokoro* that slants his *gunome* and *ashi* toward the base, runs through the temper from his earliest dated work. The *jigane* is where his two traditions meet. Across the Mihara-toned pieces the steel is an *itame* flowing to *masame*, the grain raised, with *ji-nie* and the whitish *utsuri* of Bingo; but on the Bizen-leaning blades the *ji* throws up a mottled, *jifu*-like *utsuri* that the published sources liken to the Unrui group, 'work in a *suguha* manner with a *jifu* reflection that calls to mind the Unrui of Bizen' (備前の雲類を想わせるような地斑映りの立つ直刃仕立ての出来). That *jifu-utsuri* is the single Bizen trait that distinguishes him within the Yamato-influenced Bingo schools. The *boshi* runs straight to a *ko-maru* or finishes in a *yakizume*-toned sweep with *hakikake*, and on the *ji* the published sources find a steel of somewhat dark tone, with *chikei* entering on the better-forged examples. The third register the commentary names is a somewhat more decorative *midare*, a feature it notes is scarcely seen in old Mihara. Into the *suguha* base he mixes *ko-choji*, *gunome*, angular and pointed elements, widening in places to a *ko-midare*, the whole running *saka-gokoro* with *saka-ashi*, *ashi* and *yo* frequent, *ko-nie* well laid and *yubashiri* appearing, with *kinsuji* and *sunagashi* within the *ha*. The dated works anchor these registers in time: the Genko 3 *ubu* tachi of 1323 shows the Mihara-toned *suguha* at its clearest, while the rare Karyaku 2 tanto of 1327 carries the same hand at small scale. The published sources read the more animated tachi against the school directly, observing that this mixing of many kinds of teeth into a *suguha* base 'corresponds closely to the Gentoku-dated tachi' and is 'a stylistic mode showing a *midare-ba* scarcely encountered in Ko-Mihara'. What sets him apart from his neighbours is exactly what the judges name. He stands within the Yamato-influenced Bingo orbit beside the old Mihara smiths, sharing their *suguha* and standing *masame*, yet held apart from them by the more decorative *midare* and by the *jifu*-like *utsuri* recalling Bizen Unrui. The published sources describe his working domain as one 'in which Bizen-*den* and Yamato-*den* are intermingled' (備前伝と大和伝が混在した作域), with the characteristics of Kokubunji Sukekuni shown in both *ji* and *ha*, and for that reason they affirm his many *o-suriage mumei* attributions. Even where a *suguha* piece at first glance recalls Ko-Mihara, the commentary takes care to note that the construction differs, being orthodox rather than the broad-*shinogi* Mihara shape; of one such katana it concludes that its appearance, which 'at first glance recalls old Mihara, expresses one facet of Sukekuni's style' (一見古三原を思わせる出来は助国の一作風を示したもの). For the collector Sukekuni is a name encountered seldom and held with care. Fujishiro grades him Jo-jo saku. He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties; his record runs instead through the Juyo tier, where twenty of his blades are designated, and through the prewar Juyo Bijutsuhin, which holds three more, among them the Gentoku 1 tachi and a Karyaku 2 tanto. Signed works are extremely few, most of them tachi, and the published sources call surviving tanto by this smith exceedingly rare, 'examples by this maker in tanto form being exceedingly rare' (同工の短刀での遺例は稀有), so a dated piece is prized as research material. His blades have passed through long-held private collections rather than museums: the Juyo Bijutsuhin tachi were held by Saito Makoto and by Takashima Tatsunosuke, and the orikaeshi-mei tachi by Okajima Kichiro, while one Juyo Bijutsuhin blade is recorded as having been 'presented as a memento among the belongings of Ito Hirobumi' (伊藤博文公の遺物として贈られたものという). Held mostly in private hands and seldom traded, a signed and dated Kokubunji Sukekuni comes to light only from time to time, a quiet but well-documented witness to the Yamato-influenced swordmaking of late-Kamakura Bingo.

Touken Matsumoto

touken-matsumoto.jp