Awataguchi Kunitsuna
粟田口国綱 (Awataguchi Kunitsuna)
An Awataguchi smith in Kyoto of the Kamakura period, the youngest of the Awataguchi brothers; he settled in Kamakura and forged the Onimaru, one of the tenka goken.
Profile
Kunitsuna, titled Sakon Shōgen, was by tradition the sixth son of Kuniie of Awataguchi; old texts give him a very long life, until about 1255. He is said to have been a rotating smith of the retired emperor Go-Toba, and to have been called to Kamakura by the regent Hōjō Tokiyori. There, according to legend, he forged the tachi Onimaru, which is said to have freed Tokiyori from a demon. Sword-making in Kamakura begins with him and with smiths from Bizen, and tradition makes his son Shintōgo Kunimitsu the origin of Sōshū-den. Two signed tachi of his, at the Tokugawa Art Museum and the Hie shrine, are important cultural properties; a third, at the Iinoya-gū, is attributed to him with doubts.
Monograph
Awataguchi Kunitsuna (粟田口国綱)
A smith of Kyoto and of Kamakura, between history and the legend of the Onimaru, told with the level of evidence of each fact.
Read the monograph
Notable works
- Onimaru Kunitsuna: tachi, one of the tenka goken, imperial collection.
- Signed tachi of the Hie shrine in Tokyo: important cultural property.
Famous swords
- Onimaru Kunitsuna 鬼丸国綱