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Rai Kunimitsu國光

The dated works of Rai Kunimitsu (来国光) run from Karyaku 1 (1326) to Kan'o 2 (1351), carrying the Rai school of Yamashiro from the close of the Kamakura period into the early Nanbokucho period. By the prevailing tradition he is transmitted as a son of Rai Kunitoshi, by some accounts a pupil, and the published sources observe that the smith with the most surviving works in the school is Kunimitsu himself. Their constant judgment reaches further: he is "the most versatile smith of the Rai school, the one with the widest working range" (来派の中で最も作域の広い器用な刀工). The notes enumerate that range: beyond the traditional true suguha of the Kyoto line, there are works on a suguha base mixing ko-gunome and ko-choji, works in suguha with a slight ko-midare tendency, works in a notare tone mixed with gunome, and works whose midare is dominated by gunome, spread across tachi, tanto and ko-wakizashi of equally varied form. His most numerous work is the wide, robust osuriage katana, unsigned yet keeping the deep, evenly arched curvature the published record calls wazori, the chu-kissaki often a little extended. On these blades the temper is a chu-suguha or hiro-suguha within which ko-gunome and ko-choji stand apart; ashi and yo enter thickly, and the nioiguchi runs deep, bright and clear. Ko-nie adheres richly, kinsuji and fine sunagashi pass through the ha, and the boshi is sugu with a komaru turnback. The conspicuous presence of gunome within the suguha is the recognition point the sources state outright, the feature that separates his hand from Kunitoshi and Kuniyuki; of one such katana the NBTHK writes that these features "clearly manifest the characteristic traits of Rai Kunimitsu." The jigane is constant beneath all of his manners: a tightly packed ko-itame under thick, dust-fine ji-nie, with fine chikei woven in and a nie-utsuri standing in the ji, the steel bright and clear. Here and there a softer patch of hada appears, the so-called Rai-hada, which the record treats as a tell of the school rather than a fault. On the Karyaku 2 dated tanto the notes describe the nie-utsuri near the fukura taking on a yubashiri-like appearance, entering as though drooping down toward the tempered edge, an aspect frequently encountered not only in his work but throughout the Rai group. His tanto carry the two poles of the range most plainly. The small ones with uchizori, often bearing the simple, skillful suken and gomabashi carvings the record calls most frequent in his work, follow the father so closely, down to the hardening over the machi, that they pass at first sight for Kunitoshi; a slender suguha blade of this class is read as early work. The large ones run wide, sunnobi and nearly without sori, and on them he tempers his midare, notare mixed with gunome or gunome-dominant patterns, in nie a step stronger than on his tachi; these, the sources write, resemble the work of his junior fellow pupil Rai Kunitsugu, being "tinged with the color of the Soshu tradition and filled with bold spirit" (相州伝的色彩をおびて覇気に満ちている). The tanto dated Karyaku 2 (1327) shows the manner already formed, and the largest of the class is the meibutsu Aratami Rai (新身来). The signatures follow the forms: "on tachi the mei is comparatively small" (太刀は比較的に小銘であり), cut low on the tang toward the mune, while on tanto a bold three-character mei is placed below the mekugi-ana; his character for Rai, the record adds, is cut in a form differing from that used by Kunitoshi. A chronology of the mei is established: those of the Karyaku and Gentoku years have a softness, the enclosing kuni component characteristically rounded, while those of Jowa and Kan'o harden and the enclosure turns angular. The long working span and these changes of style and signature sustain an argument for a first and a second generation, which the Kokon Kaji Meizukushi divides around Gentoku to Kenmu and around Koei; yet the single-generation view remains strong, and the published sources leave the question as one that should await further study. Set beside his father, the judges' formula is exact: compared with Kunitoshi he yields a little in the point of dignity, but gives the impression of surpassing him in force (迫力では優る感がある). His nie runs somewhat stronger, and the chikei in the ji together with the kinsuji and sunagashi in the ha lend the work its vigor. Beside Rai Kuniyuki he lacks the elder smith's expansiveness: the yakiba sits a shade tighter, ashi crowd in, and the boshi tends toward a point. The wide midare tanto can pass at a glance for Rai Kunitsugu, and there the record draws the line in a single sentence: against Kunitsugu his hardening sits a touch lower, and in the sharp boshi with its thrusting tendency (突き上げ気味のするどい帽子) the individuality of this smith can be discerned. Even his standard suguha can momentarily suggest the Enju offshoot; of one such blade the notes say it can at first glance be confused with Enju, but on careful examination proves a step superior. With Kunitsugu he carries the Soshu-tinged manner that closes the Rai mainline into the Nanbokucho period. Fujishiro grades him Sai-jo saku, and 249 designated works stand on record: three National Treasures and twenty Important Cultural Properties, preserved as patrimony in museums, shrines and long-held collections, with twenty-three Juyo Bijutsuhin and 197 blades in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers beneath them. Signed and unsigned works survive in nearly equal numbers, the tachi mostly osuriage and mumei, the tanto largely ubu and signed. Fifty-seven blades carry recorded provenance, and the roll is of the first rank: a tachi the record calls "a tachi worn by Ieyasu, treasured in the Tokugawa house together with the Honjo Masamune" (徳川家では本庄正宗と共に大事にされた家康佩用の太刀である); heirlooms of the Kishu, Owari and Mito Tokugawa, the Date of Sendai, the Maeda of Kaga, and the Kuroda, Shimazu, Asano, Hosokawa, Ikeda and Satake houses, with pieces from the Imperial Family; among the Hon'ami appraisals that follow them is an origami of Genroku 3 (1690) by Hon'ami Kotsune valuing one Owari Tokugawa blade at 500 kan. Holders recorded against his blades today include the Tokyo National Museum, the Kyoto National Museum, the Tokugawa Art Museum, the Sano Art Museum and the Seikado Bunko Art Museum. For the private collector he is not wholly beyond reach: blades in the Tokubetsu Juyo and Juyo tiers remain in private hands and one appears on the market from time to time, though for a name of this rank such an appearance is infrequent, and an event when it comes.

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