Iwami no Kami Kunisuke
石見守国助 (Iwami no Kami Kunisuke)
Early shintō smith, younger brother of the first Kawachi no Kami Kunisuke; he worked in Osaka and in Fushimi, next to Kyoto, and ended up returning to his homeland, in Ise.
Profile
According to the biographical dictionary collected by Kotobank, Iwami no Kami Kunisuke was the younger brother of the first Kawachi no Kami Kunisuke, one of the founders of Osaka shintō, and like him he trained in Kyoto in the school of Kunihiro. He forged in Osaka and in Fushimi, next to Kyoto, and later returned to Kanbe, in Ise province, where the family came from; for this reason he is also called by the name of that place. He signed with his title of Iwami no Kami.
His dates are doubtful. The same dictionary records, as one version among others, that he died in 1672 at the age of 67; at that age he would have been born around 1606, and Kunihiro died in 1614, so the version does not fit well with his having been his pupil. What is certain is that he belongs to the first generation of Osaka shintō, together with his brother.
Rankings
- Maegashira (West) in Tomita Kiyama’s ranking of shintō smiths (1935)