.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Accompanied by a certificate of registration as Juyo Token [important sword] no. 6947 issued by the Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai [Society for the Preservation of the Japanese Art Sword] at 27th juyo shinsa on 8th September 1980.
Kunihira was the nephew of Oku Jirobei Tadakiyo under whom he studied in his early years, later to enter the school of Sozaemon Masafusa. Swordmaking had been long-established in Satsuma and the technology of the Kamakura period Naminohira school is reflected in much of the Edo period work. Kunihira's teacher Masafusa was one of a number who had migrated in the early Edo period from Mino to Satsuma, bringing with them their own early traditions. Kunihira is one of the number of Satsuma smiths who continued to make robust and dignified blades in the martial tradition at a time when the craft was somewhat in decline in Edo and Osaka. Like Miyahara Masakiyo and Tamaoki Yasuyo his work owes much to the early Soshu and Shizu styles. He is believed to have accompanied Masakiyo and Yasuyo as guardian when they were summoned to Edo for a sword-making demonstration in 1721 by the eighth Tokugawa shogun Yoshimune. Following that event the two smiths were granted the prestigious titles Mondo no Sho and Shume no Kami in recognition of their skill. This sword was made when Kunihira was seventy two years old, long after the deaths of both Masakiyo and Yasuyo. He went on to live to an advanced age, evidenced by a sword made when he was eighty six in the tenth year of the Horeki era (1760).
Kunihira was the nephew of Oku Jirobei Tadakiyo under whom he studied in his early years, later to enter the school of Sozaemon Masafusa. Swordmaking had been long-established in Satsuma and the technology of the Kamakura period Naminohira school is reflected in much of the Edo period work. Kunihira's teacher Masafusa was one of a number who had migrated in the early Edo period from Mino to Satsuma, bringing with them their own early traditions. Kunihira is one of the number of Satsuma smiths who continued to make robust and dignified blades in the martial tradition at a time when the craft was somewhat in decline in Edo and Osaka. Like Miyahara Masakiyo and Tamaoki Yasuyo his work owes much to the early Soshu and Shizu styles. He is believed to have accompanied Masakiyo and Yasuyo as guardian when they were summoned to Edo for a sword-making demonstration in 1721 by the eighth Tokugawa shogun Yoshimune. Following that event the two smiths were granted the prestigious titles Mondo no Sho and Shume no Kami in recognition of their skill. This sword was made when Kunihira was seventy two years old, long after the deaths of both Masakiyo and Yasuyo. He went on to live to an advanced age, evidenced by a sword made when he was eighty six in the tenth year of the Horeki era (1760).