Higo
肥後の刀工 (Higo no tōkō)
The smiths of Higo: the Enju school, heir to Rai, and the sturdy blades of Dōtanuki, plus the smiths of modern Kumamoto.
Style and characteristics
Two faces. Enju follows Rai: a soft nie suguha, a ko-itame jigane with mokume and a somewhat dark tone. Dōtanuki is the opposite of elegance: wide, thick blades of practical shape, without ornament.
History
Enju was born in Kikuchi at the end of the Kamakura period, founded according to tradition by Kunimura, a grandson of Rai Kuniyuki on his mother’s side, and served the Kikuchi clan. A late branch gave rise at Tamana to the Dōtanuki school, which forged for Katō Kiyomasa at the end of the sixteenth century. In the twentieth century smiths such as Moriyoshi worked in Kumamoto.
Smiths of the school
- Kaneteru 兼照
- Tanigawa Moriyoshi 谷川盛吉