Kantei
A tantō laid horizontally, with the tip to the right: two fine grooves along the blade, the pale, undulating hardening next to the edge and, on the rusted tang on the left, two holes and the chiselled signature.

Seki, Mino · Warring States period

Kanemichi (兼道)

The Seki smith who took his sons to Kyoto and gave rise to the Mishina school

Kanemichi was a smith of Seki, in Mino, who moved to Kyoto with his sons and used the title of Mutsu no Kami Daidō. From his house came the Mishina school, one of the great families of Kyoto smiths in the passage from kotō to shintō.

Kyoto National Museum

Seki, in Mino
Origin
Eiroku or Bunroku
Move to Kyoto
4
Sons who were smiths
Mishina (Kyoto)
School that arises from him
On this page
  1. Quick profile
  2. In short

Quick profile

Name
Kanemichi; with his title, Mutsu no Kami Daidō (陸奥守大道, Mutsu no Kami Daidō) AT
Kanji and reading
兼道 (Kanemichi); 大道 (Daidō), which the Kyoto National Museum reads Ōmichi AT
Period
Warring States period, at the end of the Muromachi period; active around the Eiroku era (1558-1570) AT
Province
Mino (美濃, Mino), in Seki (関, Seki); later, Kyoto, in Nishinotōin AT
School
Of the Mino smiths; origin of the Mishina school (三品派, Mishina-ha) of Kyoto AT
Lineage
Father of the first Iga no Kami Kinmichi, of Tanba no Kami Yoshimichi, of Etchū no Kami Masatoshi and of another Kinmichi. He is not Tango no Kami Kanemichi (1603-1672), son of Yoshimichi AT
Documented fact and tradition
Documented: works signed Mutsu no Kami Daidō in museums. Tradition: that he descended from Shizu Saburō Kaneuji and that he was a smith of Oda Nobunaga AT

In short

Born in Seki, in Mino, he settled in Nishinotōin, in Kyoto, with his sons, who founded the Mishina school there: Iga no Kami Kinmichi, Tanba no Kami Yoshimichi, Etchū no Kami Masatoshi and a second Kinmichi. Japanese Wikipedia relates that his clan, with the Kunihiro group in Horikawa, laid the technical foundation of the shintō period.

Little is known of his own hand: no open source describes his jigane or his hardening.

Sections

  1. From Seki to Kyoto Life and times The move to Kyoto, his four sons, the title of Mutsu no Kami and the tradition of his lineage.
  2. Signatures and works in museums Work and style The little that is known of his hand: his signatures and the works kept in museums.
  3. Bibliography Sources The sources consulted.