Horikawa Kunimasa katana with NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon

[Ray Singer]

堀川國正 Daimyo gift sword.
Kunimasa belonged to the Horikawa school, Yamashiro province. He is one of the excellent tourism among Kunihiro pupils. There are not many examples of his work and it is thought that he worked on behalf of his teacher. This example had been owned by a family who lived in Tokyo (Yoshida). The ancestor of the owner was a vasel of the Sakai clan, lord of Himeji domain in Harima province. It is said that the ancestor received this sword from Sakai Tadashige.  Tadashige was the 8th Japanese Daimyō of the Sakai clan, Himeji Domain and the last Tairō (Chief Minister) of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Bio credit Markus Sesko
KUNIMASA (国正), Kan´ei (寛永, 1624-1644), Yamashiro – “Kunimasa” (国正), “Bushū Edo Fujiwara Kunimasa” (武州江戸藤原国正), Horikawa school, according to tradition the son of Horikawa Kunimasa (堀川国政), he moved later from Kyōto to Edo, Kan´ei-shintō-sugata, somewhat standing-out itame-nagare with ji-nie, notare mixed with gunome or gunome-midare with nie and a wide nioiguchi, the tang is long and shows a noticeable taper, the yasurime are sujikai or also ō-sujikai – Fujishiro lists him as being active around Manji (万治, 1658-1661) and being probably related to Yamato no Kami Yasusada (大和守安定), also stating that this smith wazamono and ranking him chūjō-saku.

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[Infinite_Wisdumb]

Hamon feels like a living fluid to me. Outstanding!