The first Kunisuke
According to Kotobank, Kunisuke was a native of Ise and served 関一政 (Seki Kazumasa), lord of Kameyama, in Ise, and later of Kurosaka, in Hōki; when the house was confiscated, in 1618 (Genna 4), he entered the school of Horikawa Kunihiro in Kyoto, when Kunihiro had already died (in 1614), apparently studied with Kunitomo and later settled in Osaka. He died on the 30th day of the fifth month of 1647 (Shōho 4). According to the NBTHK, he was one of the last pupils of the Kunihiro school, but it is believed that he actually trained under the senior pupil 越後守国儔 (Echigo no Kami Kunitomo), as did Izumi no Kami Kunisada. Kotobank counts the first Sukehiro among his pupils.
Osaka shintō
For the NBTHK, the first Izumi no Kami Kunisada, born in 1589 (in 1590, according to Kotobank) and arrived in Osaka in 1621, and the first Kunisuke laid the foundations of Osaka shintō. Markus Sesko counts both among the masters of that school, and gives Kunisuke as an example of the blade shape of the early Edo period, the Kan'ei-shintō-sugata. His 1642 katana is, according to the NBTHK, a late work: he died five years later.
The generations
- First
- Kunisuke, a native of Ise; died in 1647 (Shōho 4) AT
- Second
- The Naka-Kawachi (中河内, Naka-Kawachi), “the middle Kawachi”, son of the first; as a young man he was called 国豊 (Kunitoyo); 1628–1698 (Genroku 11) AT
- Third
- Son of the second; died in the second month of Hōei 3 (1706) AT
- Fourth
- Pupil of 国輝 (Kuniteru), fourth son of the first; there are works of his from 1710 AT
- Modern times
- Japanese Wikipedia mentions a 14th Kawachi no Kami Kunisuke AT
The Naka-Kawachi
According to Kotobank, the second is called Naka-Kawachi because he stands between the first and the third Kawachi no Kami; he forged the chōji that the old Ichimonji had mastered, and hence he is called “the Ichimonji of shintō”. Japanese Wikipedia credits him with a temper of his own, the 拳形丁子 (kobushigata-chōji), with chōji heads clustered like clenched fists, and says it was highly prized.
Another Kunisuke
Kotobank also records Iwami no Daijō Fujiwara Kunisuke, later Iwami no Kami, younger brother of the first and also a pupil of Kunihiro, who worked in Osaka and in Fushimi and retired to Kanbe, in Ise; hence he is called Kanbe Kunisuke.