Monju school
The Monju School was a school of Japanese swordsmiths of the Yamato tradition and arose from the Tegai School . The swordsmith school was located in the province of Kii on the Kii peninsula .
history
The Monju School was founded in the early 17th century by the famous swordsmith Nanki Shigekuni in the province of Kii . After Tokugawa Ieyasu's death in 1616, this was followed by his son Tokugawa Yorinobu to Wakayama in the province of Kii, where Yorinobu founded the Kishū branch of the Tokugawa family, one of the three main branches of the Tokugawa family ( Gosanke ).
The name of the Monju school is also derived from Nanki Shigekuni. He often signed his blades with the addition Monju after the Bodhisattva Monju . His descendants (Nidai Shigekuni and Sandai Shigekuni) later adopted this name in their signature.
The Monju School was active from the beginning of the 17th century until the 19th century.
Characteristics
- The sword blades of the Monju school are in the style of the Yamato tradition and are therefore rather slim and graceful in shape, but designed with a relatively high blade ridge ( Shinogi ) and wide Shinogi-ji .
- The shape of the blade ( Sugata ) was adapted to the usual shapes for the respective period.
- The hardness line is usually narrow, even and parallel to the cutting edge ( Chu-Suguha ). However, Nanki Shigekuni in particular also worked in the style of the Sōshū tradition , so that undulating lines of hardness such as o-gunome midare , o-midare and notare-midare can also be found.
- The hardness line of the blade tip ( Boshi ) usually runs parallel to the cutting edge to the back of the blade ( Yakitsume ).
- The tang of the blade ( nakago ) mostly shows traces of files ( yasurime ) of the kiri or katte-sagari species .
literature
- Kōkan, Nagayama: The connoisseur's book of Japanese swords, p. 254.