Horikawa Kunimasa

Profile

Kunimasa (国正) trained under Horikawa Kunihiro (堀川国広) in Kyoto and was active around the Kan'ei era (1624-1644). School tradition makes him the son of an earlier Kunimasa (国政) of the same workshop. He is credited with forging blades on his master's behalf as daisaku, which would account for the small number that survive under his own name. He later moved to Edo, where he signed Bushū Edo Fujiwara Kunimasa (武州江戸藤原国正); Fujishiro places him there around the Manji era (1658-1661). His blades have the transitional shape of the Kan'ei period. The hada is a somewhat prominent itame-nagare with ji-nie, and the hamon is notare mixed with gunome, or gunome-midare in nie, with a wide nioiguchi. The tang is long and noticeably tapered, with sujikai or ō-sujikai file marks.