Koto tanto signed Kunimitsu

[C0D]

Here's my last purchase.
Mei is Kunimitsu, obviously not one of the famous ones, but the blade looks pretty interesting to me.
It's a pretty classic sugata with uchizori and mitsu-mune. There's a clear utsuri, looks whitish so would be probably classified as shirake, but unless other shirake this one is not dull and appears at the same angle as a "Bizen utsuri" would appear. 
I'm having trouble to point out a school or even the exact period, probably is a Muromachi revival, tho the nakago sori would point to older. 

 Anyway here's the measures and the pictures, thanks to anyone will give an input.
 

nagasa 25.7 cm

kasane 6.5 mm

motohaba 24.4 mm

nakago sori 1 mm

nakago nagasa 11.3 cm

[Rivkin]

I would say late Muromachi... At this point the schools mixed up among each other quite a bit, but I would guess Mino... Or even Uda. Actually on second thought, Uda is more likely.

 

Kirill R.

[C0D]

I thought it might be a "Rai utsushi" which was a popular among Mino smiths of late Muromachi, but still some things doesn't end up.
Uda usually have a darker steel i think and have long kaeri, which this hasn't

[Jamie]

What if it weren’t signed.

What does Mutsu mune point towards?

[C0D]

  On 12/3/2019 at 8:41 PM, Jamie said:

What if it weren’t signed.

What does Mutsu mune point towards?

Well mitsu-mune was quite popular in pre-muromachi tanto and still used in muromachi by several, so not really a kantei point here i'm afraid

[Jamie]

Yes but the answer is someone who. Did it.

I wouldn’t say it was popular, it only resides within certain schools which there aren’t many that used it at all.

[C0D]

Hosho, Tegai, Kanabo, Rai, Awataguchi, Hasebe, Nobukuni, Heianjo Nagayoshi, Bizen Osafune, Shintogo Kunimitsu, Shizu, Masamune, Sadamune, Mino, Aoe, Shimada, Takagi Sadamune, Norishige, Uda, Fujishima Tomoshige, Sengo, Chikuzen Sa,Ryosai,Ryokai, probably even more so doesn't narrows down much

[Rivkin]

Very erroneous and personal take. But I've seen the tanto in hand.

 

I very personally believe its a late Muromachi item. The hada is very rough, and it has typical Muromachi itame-nagare/o-mokume/masame sandwich. Yes you find it in Hasebe, for example, as well, but not in this rough-wide manner. In Rai you would hope for tight itame (or what they correctly call o-mokume). In some Yamato influenced pieces you would have less mokume and more masame, things like nijuba in the hamon. And most Yamashiro schools post Nambokucho are Yamato influenced - Nobukuni, Ryokai etc.

This one is neither - to me its just such a typical Muromachi jigane.

Regarding the ha, its neither Yamato, nor really Rai, as there are some togari or gunome peaks close to the nakago, kind of what you see on some Mino-Muramasa in suguha.

Yet patchy blackish-utsuri jigane and mitsumune to me suggest Uda.

 

Which can be miles away from the correct answer. But I am yet to receive an identical shinsa judgement for a Sengaku jidai mumei piece. So they have big problems sorting them out as well. The signature can be real here, as there period Kunimitsu's.

 

Kirill R.

[C0D]

  On 12/5/2019 at 12:04 AM, Rivkin said:

Very erroneous and personal take. But I've seen the tanto in hand.

 

I very personally believe its a late Muromachi item. The hada is very rough, and it has typical Muromachi itame-nagare/o-mokume/masame sandwich. Yes you find it in Hasebe, for example, as well, but not in this rough-wide manner. In Rai you would hope for tight itame (or what they correctly call o-mokume). In some Yamato influenced pieces you would have less mokume and more masame, things like nijuba in the hamon. And most Yamashiro schools post Nambokucho are Yamato influenced - Nobukuni, Ryokai etc.

This one is neither - to me its just such a typical Muromachi jigane.

Regarding the ha, its neither Yamato, nor really Rai, as there are some togari or gunome peaks close to the nakago, kind of what you see on some Mino-Muramasa in suguha.

Yet patchy blackish-utsuri jigane and mitsumune to me suggest Uda.

 

Which can be miles away from the correct answer. But I am yet to receive an identical shinsa judgement for a Sengaku jidai mumei piece. So they have big problems sorting them out as well. The signature can be real here, as there period Kunimitsu's.

 

Kirill R.

Thank you Kirill, for sure your inputs make sense, that's why i ruled out almost immediately all most famous schools since this didn't seem to fit in any of those, so i was looking for "zebras", those schools that are out of the main lines, but seems there's so little info about them also in Japanese books