Rai
来派 (Rai-ha)
The Kyoto school that brought suguha to its classic form: Kuniyuki, Kunitoshi, Kunimitsu and Kunitsugu.
Style and characteristics
A very tight ko-itame jigane with ji-nie and nie-utsuri, in which a softer steel sometimes shows, the so-called Rai-hada, which experts look for as a sign. The hamon is a nie suguha, or a nie chōji and gunome on Kuniyuki’s earliest blades; the bōshi is ko-maru.
History
Rai Kuniyuki worked in the mid-Kamakura period; he was followed by Nijikunitoshi, who signed with two characters, and Rai Kunitoshi, whom tradition takes to be the same man at a different age or his son; then by Rai Kunimitsu and Rai Kunitsugu, the latter influenced by Sagami. Ryōkai and Mitsukane are branches of the school, and the Enju school of Higo descends from Rai.
Smiths of the school
- Mitsukane 光包
- Rai Kunimitsu 来国光
- Rai Kunitoshi 来国俊
- Rai Kunitsugu 来国次
- Rai Kuniyuki 来国行
- Ryōkai 了戒