Kantei
The point of a slender blade, with a small kissaki, on a black background.

Tokyo National Museum, via ColBase · ColBase terms of use

Early Kyūshū · suguha · horimono

Work and style

Slender tachi with a large koshizori and a small kissaki, a soft steel with a moist look, suguha with yaki-otoshi above the machi and, almost always, engravings.

On this page
  1. Kantei keys
  2. Who he is confused with
  3. Details

Kantei keys

Sugata
Slender, with a large koshizori and a small kissaki. In the Kokin Denju no Tachi, shinogi-zukuri and iori-mune, thick, with funbari and a sori that flattens towards the point. HD
Jihada
Tight ko-itame, sometimes with ō-hada, with ji-nie and shirake-utsuri; a soft steel with a moist look (“uruoi”) and a patina. HD
Hamon
Suguha, or suguha with ko-midare, in nioiguchi with plenty of nie and a yaki-otoshi above the machi. Sesko places him among those who make a suguha with a diffuse, subdued nioiguchi. HD
Bōshi
In the Kokin Denju no Tachi, sugu and yakizume. HD
Nakago and mei
Almost everything signed is unshortened (ubu). In the Kokin Denju no Tachi, kiji-mata, kurijiri and suji-chigai yasurime. A six-character signature, 豊後国行平作 (Bungo Koku Yukihira saku), on the ura; rarely a two-character one, 行平 (Yukihira). HD
Horimono
Kurikara in gyō and sō style, Jizō bosatsu, bonji, cranes pecking at the pine (matsukui-tsuru) and cherry blossoms, which are not seen in other smiths of his time; that is why he is held to be a master of engraving. HD

Who he is confused with

  • The NBTHK describes the classic work of Kyūshū: tight ko-itame with nagareha, a moist jihada with whitish utsuri, a soft ko-midare hamon and yaki-otoshi in the koshimoto.
  • It is confused with Sadahide and with the Ko-Naminohira. Yukihira often shows pale yubashiri and tobiyaki, and almost always engravings; the Ko-Naminohira have a high shinogi and fine nijūba or kuichigaiba in the habuchi.
  • Compared with Sadahide, Yukihira engraves more, and in more detail, in the koshimoto, and does not use the gyaku-takanoha file pattern.