Nihontō Tanrenkai (Yasukuni)
日本刀鍛錬会 (Nihontō Tanrenkai)
The forge of the Yasukuni shrine, in Tokyo (1933-1945): a foundation tied to the Army that forged some 8,100 blades with tamahagane and gave its smiths the character «yasu».
Style and characteristics
Its blades, called Yasukuni-tō or Kudan-tō, were mounted as guntō for officers. They were forged with tamahagane from the Yasukuni tatara, re-established for them in 1933 at Torikami, in Izumo, and by the traditional method; in this they differed from those of the Army arsenals, forged almost always from a single piece of the Army's own steel.
The foundation's smiths received as the first character of their name the 靖 (yasu) of Yasukuni: Yasuhiro, Yasumitsu, Yasunori, Yasunobu, Yasushige, Yasutake, Yasuaki, Yasutoshi or Yasuoki, among others.
History
In July 1933 the Minister of War, Araki Sadao, organised the Nihontō Tanrenkai foundation so as to have officers' swords ready in case of war. It was paid for with private donations, the sword world cooperated with the Army, and the forge was set up inside the shrine grounds, in the Gyōuntei building. In the twelve years it operated, until 1945, some 8,100 swords came out of it, and its smiths were called Yasukuni tōshō.
The genealogy published by the Japanese Sword Index recognises three masters with students of their own: Yasuhiro, Yasunori and Yasumitsu. This forge also produced Murakami Masatada and Moriwaki Masataka, who previously signed Morimitsu, two smiths from the Yasugi plant who in 1940 moved to the Minatogawa shrine, in Kōbe, as official smiths; there they forged swords for Navy officers, the Kikusui-tō, with the emblem of Kusunoki Masashige's chrysanthemum on water engraved on the tang and on the habaki.
The Gyōuntei still stands in the shrine grounds, later turned into a tea ceremony classroom.