Nihontō Tanren Denshūjo
Kurihara Akihide's swordsmith training centre in Tokyo (1933-1941); Miyairi Akihira and Amata Akitsugu, among others, came out of it.
Style and characteristics
More than a school of style, it was a training centre, and its students followed different paths. What unites them is in the name: the full-time students received from Akihide the character 昭 (aki) for their smith name, and that is why so many sign Aki-: Akihira, Akitsugu, Akimori… Those who learned with Kasama Shigetsugu, head of the teachers in 1934 and 1935, took instead the character read tsugu. The genealogy published by the Japanese Sword Index also separates out the part-time students.
According to that same source, Akihide was not a professional smith who forged a blade from start to finish: he specialised in quenching (yaki-ire) and quenched many blades made by others, and he is called a master out of respect.
History
In 1933 Kurihara Akihide opened the Denshūjo in Tokyo, on his estate in Akasaka Hikawa-chō, and took charge of it. Among those trained there were Miyairi Akihira, who entered in 1937, and Amata Akitsugu, who entered in 1940. The Japanese Sword Index genealogy counts 64 direct students for him, nine of them with students of their own.
According to that genealogy, the Denshūjo closed in 1941 and the Nihontō Gakuin was opened in its place, in Zama, in Kanagawa.
Smiths of the school
- Amata Akitsugu 天田昭次
- Kurihara Akihide
- Miyagi Akimori 宮城昭守
- Miyairi Akihira 宮入昭平