Nobukuni School

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The Nobukuni School ( Japanese 信 國 派 Nobukuni-ha ) was a school of Japanese swordsmiths of the 14th and 15th centuries.

Overview

The Nobukuni School was active in Kyōto during the warring imperial courts . The first swordsmith to use the name Nobukuni is said to have been the grandson or great-grandson Ryōkai of the Rai school ( 来 派 Rai-ha ) in Kyōto. He learned under Sadamune the Sōshū tradition in Kamakura and was later counted among his top three students. It is reported that he was active from the Kemmu period (1334-1335), but there are no works by him that are sure to date from this period. The earliest works by Nobukuni that exist today are those that are dated to the year Embu 3 (1358) or Jōji 5 (1366). They would then have to be from the hand of the first blacksmith who was named Nobukuni. Sword smiths of the second and third generation, manufacturers of swords dated 1385 and 1390, were active during the separation of the imperial court into a north and south courtyard. There are also Nobukuni swords from the Ōei period (1394–1427) and the Eikyō period (1429–1440), ie from the Muromachi period .

The blacksmith or smith named Nobukuni from the beginning of the Muromachi period is called Ōei-Nobukuni. They also led honorary title and therefore were called Minamoto Sa emon -no- jō Nobukuni or Shikibu -no-jō Nobukuni. In addition to this series of blacksmiths working under the Nobukuni name, other blacksmiths appear to have signed the Nobukuni name. But it is difficult to determine when they lived so research is still needed.

The first blacksmith who used the name Nobukuni worked in the style of his teacher Sadamune, so that his work shows the type of tempering that is typical of the Sōshū school. But he also made swords that show a straight tempering line, as was common in the Rai school. He followed Sadamune's style in decorating the blade with various types of engravings, which he carried out with great skill and which even surpassed those of his teacher.

The work of the Ōei-Nobukuni smithy shows in many cases a tempering limit that shows a gu-no-me, i.e. an inverted fluctuation, similar to the lines found in swords in the Bizen style, together with a Ni-e finish. In some places the fluctuations are similar to those used by the Hasebe School in Kyoto. There are also works with straight tempering lines similar to those worked out by the early Nobukuni blacksmiths. But since they are not quite as pronounced as those, they can be distinguished from the real old style.

Engravings were a specialty of the late Nobukuni blacksmiths, their appearance ranging from simple incisions to the engraving of Sanskrit characters, sword shapes, lotus flowers, horseshoe-shaped emblems and an ornament made of dragons and swords, the Kurikara. In addition to the usual engraving, there were relief engravings and open engravings. A special feature was the superimposition of different engravings, called kazanebori.

See also

literature

  • Tazawa, Yutaka: Nobukuni . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .