Unji

雲次

Period

Late Kamakura to early Nanbokuchō period

School

Ukai school

Active Years

first half of the 14th century

Tradition

Bizen tradition

Rank

Jōkō (superior smith)

Description

Son of Unshō

Unji is a swordsmith regarded as the son (in older accounts, the younger brother) of Unshō, founder of the Ukai school, and he worked in Ukai-gō, Bizen Province, from the late Kamakura into the early Nanbokuchō period (first half of the 14th century). Together with his father Unshō and the related smith Unjū, he is a representative figure of the Unrui group; because dated signed works survive bearing Kenmu-era inscriptions (such as Kenmu 2, 1335), he is regarded as a valuable smith who substantiates the active period of the Ukai school.

Style

Unji's works display a graceful tachi form, slender with the deepest point of curvature toward the middle, and a hamon based on chū-suguha interspersed with ko-notare. This quiet, Kyoto-like idiom differs in character from the gorgeous chōji-midare of the same province's Osafune school and is valued as a clear expression of the Ukai school's traits. The jigane is a tight ko-itame.

Surviving works and designations

The "Tachi, signed Bizen-no-kuni-jū Unji" bearing a Kenmu 2 date is designated an Important Cultural Property and held by the Kyoto National Museum. Signed tachi by Unji survive in the Japanese Sword Museum and elsewhere, and are valued in scholarship as benchmark works of the Ukai school.