Kantei

Ko-itame and gunome

Work and style

Three of his blades are described with their measurements, their steel and their hardening, all from before 2015; the rest is engraving, arrows and the replica of the Hotarumaru.

On this page
  1. His blades
  2. The engraver
  3. Arrows and knives
  4. The replica of the Hotarumaru
  5. Gallery

His blades

  • Uchigatana (打刀, uchigatana) with a daikissaki and the shape of the swords of the Keichō era (慶長新刀, Keichō shintō): nagasa of 2 shaku 3 sun 8 bu (about 72 cm) and sori of a little over 6 bu (about 1.8 cm); ko-itame jihada (小板目, ko-itame) and gunome-chōji midare hamon (互の目丁子乱れ, gunome chōji midare). It is the one he lent to the Yale Peabody Museum.
  • Long wakizashi: nagasa of 1 shaku 8 sun (about 54.5 cm) and sori of a little over 3 bu (close to 1 cm); ko-itame jihada and gunome midare hamon (互の目乱れ, gunome midare).
  • Tantō, his first work: nagasa of 8 sun 1 bu (about 24.5 cm), with no sori; masame jihada (柾目, masame) mixed with itame (板目, itame) and gunome midare hamon.

All three are in ko-itame or masame and in gunome: a style of Mino and Seki, that of his school.

The engraver

He engraves the horimono (彫物, horimono) of the blade himself: bonji (梵字, bonji), the Sanskrit letters of the Buddhas, and figures.

Arrows and knives

He forges karimata (雁股, karimata) arrowheads, forked, with a heart-shaped inome (猪目, inome) openwork, and a 7-sun yanagiba knife with iron of 64 layers and steel of more than 1,024.

The replica of the Hotarumaru

The Hotarumaru-utsushi is an ōdachi of about 136 cm and 2.5 kg, some two and a half times a sword of today. Without the original, which was lost, Fukudome and Kōroki worked from documents and from an oshigata kept at a crafts centre in Kumamoto; the hardest part, they said, was erasing their own habits as smiths and not knowing the thickness of the blade.

His favourite stage is the hardening, the yaki-ire (焼き入れ, yaki-ire). He dreams of forging on the Moon one day and of making his own steel (自家製鉄, jika seitetsu), and believes a sword is better when it has a clear purpose, for use or for art.

What he says in an interview