Nihonto Club

Biography and lineage

(from Nihon Koto Shi [1])

It is said that Bungo Yukihira was a student or teacher of So Sadahide and his workmanship has a close resemblance to that of Sadahide, that is to say, jigane is soft and oily and looks beautiful. It reminds one of the choku-to that are conserved in the Shoso-in Repository, Kogarasu-maru and a ken owned by Kongo Temple. He tempers sugu-ha and ko-midare with a hazy nioi-guchi and the hamon starts with yaki-otoshi. There is an extant tachi with a date of Genkyu 2 (1205) and its workmanship looks older than the production date. There is another extant tachi that has a cherry flower crest in the habaki area. This is to be one of the oldest examples on which we can see a cherry flower crest. He favoured carving kurikara on his blades also standing Fudomyo-o in an unusual style, bonji and crane eating pine nuts. I have not seen these kinds of horimono before Yukihira. We can see a certain number of his extant works today and each of them shows a little different workmanship. It may be another possibility that there are two generations of Yukihira.

By the way, an interesting description is found in ‘Kanchi In Bon’ as follows; “Many fakes of Kishin Dayu (Yukihira) have been made since olden days.” Old swordsmith directories including ‘Kanchi In Bon’ say that swordsmiths called ‘Yukihira’ had already existed before Kishin Dayu Yukihira appeared, but there is no way to confirm of their existence.

There is another theory of Yukihira that he was sent to exile to Kozuke or Shimotsuke Province and engaged in sword forging there using a different smith name but no extant work in exile has been confirmed. Also the swordsmith directory lists the following smith names as his students; Masatsune, Yasunori, and Tametsune, Yasumitsu and Mitsutomo as related smiths. Though, none of their extant works have been confirmed yet. I have seen a tachi that has the mei of ‘Munehide 宗秀’ in two characters on the sashi-omote and its hamon starts with yaki-otoshi and the blade shows a workmanship of the Yukihira school. ‘Haya Midashi’ says that there is a tachi by Yukihira using his confidential smith name. Though, it is too early to conclude the confidential smith name is Munehide.

Workmanship and style

Mokume, muji, large itame-masame, notare-midare, suguba, gunome.

1. Tachi

Shape and construction

Tachi style and construction in very elegant and graceful Kamakura period shape. His works have thick kasane and strong fumbari which tapers narrow towards the kissaki.

Horimono

Bo-hi are seen on many works and there may be a relief carving within the hi or hitsu. In cases of carvings within the hi, they are made right above the machi in very small size.

Hamon

Worked in nie with narrow yakiba. However, there will be many variations in this narrow width. The nie is rough and deep, however there won't be the liveliness one would expect [in the nie].

The pattern will be in suguba or in notare with ko-midare mixed in.

Inazuma and kinsuji are found in many cases.

There are certain works which have the entire hamon made in nie.

The characteristic of this swordsmith is in yakidashi, that is: the yakidashi starts from about one or two sun above the machi and this is referred as yakiotoshi. Yakiotoshi is commonly found on blades which have been retempered, however this is not the case with this smith. It has been written in an old text though that Yukihira had the blade tempered once and then retempered it in order to attain this effect.

Boshi

The hamon entering the kissaki becomes nie kuzure changing into yakizume. There are some works which have kaeri. Also there are some boshi tht are made in midarekomi, then still, there are others that are made in ichimonji such as those found in the boshi of Yamato Tegai Kanenaga or Go Yoshihiro of Etchu province.

Jitetsu and hada

The grain of the steel is very finely worked resulting in ko-mokume hada with o-hada mixed in placs. Ji nie which are quite rough are seen and this results in chikei in places.

The steel, due to the fact that it has been 'overworked', will be a little dull.

Nakago

Made narrow and long and the indentation at the machi is very high, whether this has been due to extremely good condition of the blade (not polished too much) or Yukihira made it so on purpose is difficult to tell.

The nakago will have high sori, there will be much niku and it will taper narrow towards the tip which is made in shallow kurijiri. File marks are in sensuki, suji chigai or in tsuchime.

2. Tanto

Shape and construction

Hira-zukuri takenoko zori in slight sunzumari length and the fukura will be lacking in roundness.

Horimono

Relief carvings within a hitsu are made at the machi. There are reportedly to be some with sukashi bori (pierced carving).

Hamon

Same as tachi.

Boshi

Same as tachi with most examples in ichimonji kaeri.

Jitetsu and hada

Same as tachi.

Nakago

Made long and narrow with niku.

References