paul V

Mike I am afraid it becomes even more complicated. Both Kunitsuna blades I have also have the "Echizen ju" on the ura side of the nakago and the katana is a clear exemple of the Kambun style. The mei matches rather well with the one on page 234 in Fujishiro's Shinto Hen. Fujishiro rates him chusaku and places him in the Kambun period. He also gives only one Kunitsuna from this school. Does this mean there were 3 Shimosaka Kunitsuna? Paul

Mike Kunitsuna was indeed a member of the Shimosaka school. He was called Tahyoeinojo and he worked during the Kanbun era. I have seen several of his swords that had that typical Kambun style. The quality of his swords might be very different. About a year ago I saw a wakizashi that had many kizu but I have also seen some very nice swords from this smith. For the moment I have two swords from Kunitsuna with a suguha hamon. Both are papered. As he is a chu-saku smith I don’t take there are gimei swords. I never found any information about his relationship with any of the Yasutsugu.