Tegai school

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The Tegai School was a school of Japanese swordsmiths from the Yamato tradition .

history

Entrance to the Tōdai-ji Temple in Nara
The Tegai-mon Gate

The Tegai School was located in the province of Yamato and got its name from the gate Tegai-mon of the Tōdai-ji temple in front of which the founder of the Tegai Kanenaga school ( 手 掻 包 永 ) settled in 1288. Even later, most of the swordsmiths of the Tegai school lived in the temple district. However, some like Kaneuji also moved to Mino Province . Based on the school's founder, his successors regularly signed their swords with the Kanji Kane (e.g. Kanetsugu, Kanekiyo, Kanemitsu, Kanekuni etc.). The swordsmiths in the province of Mino, however, used another Chinese Kanji, which is more common there, for the part of the name Kane.

The swordsmith school was active from the Kamakura period (1185 to 1333) to the Muromachi period (1333 to 1568), with swords from the middle to late Muromachi period being referred to as Sue-Tegai. The tradition of the Tegai school was also continued by the Monju school until the Shinto period . The latter was founded by the Tegai swordsmith Nanki Shigekuni (also known as Monju Shigekuni) in the early 17th century after moving to the province of Kii .

Characteristics

  • As usual for swords of the Yamato tradition, the sword blades of the Tegai school are rather slim and graceful in shape, but with a relatively high blade ridge ( Shinogi ) and broad 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, wavy hardness lines ( O-Midare ) are also not uncommon.
  • The hardness line of the blade tip ( Boshi ) usually runs parallel to the cutting edge to the back of the blade ( Yakitsume ). An irregular hardness line in Boshi ( Midare komi ) and the forms Kaen and Nie kozure were also common. In any case, any return of the hardening line ( Kaeri ) on the back of the blade was only very brief.
  • The tang of the blade ( nakago ) usually shows traces of files ( yasurime ) of the type "falcon feather" ( takanoha yasurime ).

literature

  • Kōkan, Nagayama: The connoisseur's book of Japanese swords, p. 158 f.
  • Sesko, Markus: Genealogies and Schools of Japanese Swordsmiths, p. 35
  • Sesko, Markus: Stories about the Japanese sword, p. 41 ff.

Web links