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Enju Kunisuke ON SALE: $13,500.00 CLICK HERE for a complete slideshow of all images of this piece
The Enju school originates in the Mid-Kamakura period, about 1275 with the namesake of the school Enju Taro Kunimura, located on Kyushu in the area of Kikuchi. Its roots extend to the Rai school with Rai Kuniyuki who was the Father-in-law of the supposed earliest Enju smith, Hiromura. Thus, Enju works share a number of similarities with their Rai counterparts. Other references extend deeper lineage to the Yamato Shikkake School through Norihiro. However, no extant works of Hiromura leaves the general credit for founding of the school to Kunimura. Different resources place Kunisuke as Kunimura’s son, or his grandson from Kuniyasu, or that there were two generations of Kunisuke extending into the Nambokucho period.
Kunisuke works are highly regarded with many having been ranked as Juyo Token, and there are also Juyo Bijutsuhin and a Juyo Bunkazai tachi at the Tokyo National Museum. Fujishiro lists the works of Kunisuke as “Josaku” meaning his swords are of superior workmanship. The number of existing works of this school is quite low and thus the number of highly ranked swords demonstrates their reputation for quality production.
In general, the Enju smiths worked in suguha with ko nie. The hamon is very bright and the nie brilliant. There also is sometimes floating strings of nie along the habuchi which also occur in the boshi and are referred to as “Enju Boshi”. The jihada is tight itame, or as others display, small mokume with running itame developing into masame in the ha. There are very few examples of midare by Kunisuke such as this one, and the interaction of the nie and masame in promotes a very compressed amount of hataraki. The jigane is sometimes acceptably loose in works (one of the similarities with Rai school), but the steel is of good quality and shows profuse chikei. At first glance, one might believe they are looking at a Soshu work. The jigane also tends to be a bit shirake, or “white” in color, but still retains a lively character that looks strong. It has seen many polishes throughout time, but still has excellent hataraki, and many fine workings to study.
Kunisuke signed in nijimei, with a large chisel leaving bold strokes. The yasuri are kiri. This sword has a beautiful ubu nakago with only its original single mekugiana, a feature that is not only extremely rare for any sword of 700 years of age, but especially so for extant examples of Kunisuke works. Swords were often remounted during the successive periods and more mekugiana were pierced into the nakago, but this one has been left unaltered for its entire life. It also has a wonderful deep black uniform color with a velvety feel developed over centuries. The details are still quite visible in the mei, and also in the yasurimei. Indeed this is a great preservation having been carefully maintained for centuries.
It has been recently polished, and mounted with a top-flight solid gold, two piece Daitsuke habaki, and a Juyo grade honoki shirasaya. Daitsuke (roughly translated as: “base addition”) habaki are quite specialized and generally seen on the highest quality tanto. It has been awarded Tokubetsu Hozon papers from the NBTHK verifying it as an original and valid qualitative example of Kunisuke’s works. The sayagaki was performed by Michihiro Tanobe documenting in his comments, that midare hamon are rare for Kunisuke and this is a precious example.
A seven hundred year old work, left completely original, in excellent polish, Juyo grade mounting, with papers, by a rare smith would be a welcomed addition to any sword collection as a top Koto period representation. They are very rarely seen, much less available.
CLICK HERE for a complete slideshow of all images of this piece $18,500.00 USD
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