Nobukuni

Founding of Nobukuni and the Nobukuni school

Nobukuni (the first generation) was a master smith active in Yamashiro Province (present-day Kyoto Prefecture) during the Nanboku-chō period, and he is the founder of the Nobukuni school. The Nobukuni school was based in Kyoto from Nobukuni's time until around the Ōei era, and later moved to Buzen and Chikuzen in Kyushu, continuing until the Meiji period. Nobukuni is said to have been a disciple of Ryōkai, who descended from the Rai school, but the influence of the Sōshū tradition is also marked, and he is thought to have occupied an eclectic position with multiple technical origins.

The Nanboku-chō period, when Nobukuni was active, was a time when the influence of the Sōshū tradition spread throughout the country, and Yamashiro smiths also moved away from the conventional suguha and ko-nie techniques and began to explore more striking hamon. Nobukuni met the demands of this era while establishing a distinctive intermediate style that did not lose the dignity of Yamashiro.

Characteristics of the sword: fusion of Yamashiro and Sōshū

The greatest feature of Nobukuni lies in its fusion of the refined jigane of the Yamashiro tradition with the bold hamon of the Sōshū tradition. The jigane is dense with ko-itame and shows abundant ji-nie, retaining the refined beauty of Yamashiro. This finely textured steel, which is directly linked to the jigane beauty of the Rai school, is maintained unchanged in Nobukuni.

On the other hand, the hamon is tempered in the Rai-style suguha as well as in the notare-ba of the Sadamune style. Especially in the nie-deki hamon, Sōshū-like kinsuji and sunagashi appear abundantly, expressing within the dignity of Yamashiro the longing for grandeur that the Nanboku-chō turmoil gave to sword aesthetics.

In tantō, while showing the precision faithful to the Rai tradition, Nobukuni has left a diverse body of work that meets demand over a wide range, from long sizes to small ones.

Horimono of Nobukuni

One of the notable features of Nobukuni works is the abundance of horimono (carving). Various horimono such as bonji, rendai, kurikara, and sanko-tsuka-ken are applied to the blade, and the quality of these shows not only skill as a sword smith but also talent as a horimono carver. This horimono tradition was passed down generation after generation to the successors of the Nobukuni school.

Succession in the Muromachi period

The techniques and style of Nobukuni were carried on by later generations active around the Ōei era, namely Minamoto Saemon-no-jō Nobukuni and Minamoto Shikibu-no-jō Nobukuni. Later the line moved from Buzen to Chikuzen, and in the Edo period it continued as the Chikuzen Nobukuni school, represented by Nobukuni Yoshisada, Yoshitsugu, and Yoshikane. The continuity of the Nobukuni school rests on a flexibility that could meet both the practical demands of the warrior class and the ceremonial demands of the court and temples and shrines, and it was the first-generation Nobukuni who first laid the foundation of that flexibility.

TOUKENZA and Nobukuni

The significance of TOUKENZA introducing Nobukuni lies in showing how the Yamashiro tradition survived through self-transformation during the Nanboku-chō period, a transitional age. Nobukuni's achievement of fusing the refined jigane of the Rai school with the bold hamon of the Sōshū tradition, two elements that seem contradictory at first sight, was not mere technical eclecticism but a creative act that produced a new beauty while containing the contradictions of its age. That spirit offers, even today, a suggestion for the question of how to preserve the essence amid change.