Yamashiro-den
山城伝 (Yamashiro-den)
The tradition of the capital: elegant Kyoto blades, from Munechika’s Sanjō to the Awataguchi and Rai schools.
Style and characteristics
Slender blades, with a marked koshizori on the early tachi, a very tight ko-itame jigane (nashiji) and fine ji-nie. The hamon is almost always a ko-nie suguha, sometimes with ko-midare or ko-chōji, sober and bright; the bōshi is rounded.
History
Sanjō Munechika, of the late Heian period, is the first great name of the capital; he was followed by the Gojō school and, in the Kamakura period, by Awataguchi, whose peak is the tantō of Tōshirō Yoshimitsu, and by Rai, from Kuniyuki to Kunitoshi and Kunimitsu. They worked for the court and the nobility, and their manner fed Sagami and, through Rai, the Enju school of Higo. In the Edo period Kyoto became a centre again with the Horikawa and Mishina schools.
Smiths of the school
- Amata Akitsugu 天田昭次
- Gojō Kuninaga 五条国永
- Heianjō Nagayoshi 長吉
- Higashiyama Yoshihira 東山美平
- Kanemichi 兼道
- Nobukuni 信国
- Sanjō Munechika 三条宗近
- Umetada Myōju 埋忠明寿
Famous swords
- Mikazuki Munechika 三日月宗近