Kantei
Detail strips of a blade on a black background: the tang with an engraved date and, on the blade, a long engraving ending in a point over an undulating temper line.

Photo: dealer in Japan

Copies of Kotetsu · his own horimono

Work and style

Copies of Kotetsu with a tight steel and large gunome, blades made for cutting and engravings by his own hand.

On this page
  1. Style
  2. His blades
  3. The 1995 katana

Style

He is known above all for copies of Kotetsu (虎徹写し, Kotetsu utsushi): a very tight steel and a temper of large gunome (大互の目刃, ō-gunome ba). His blades are described as suited to iai, tameshigiri and appreciation. He learned engraving from Gassan Sadakazu and engraves his own blades.

His blades

  • December 1995. Katana of 75.4 cm with engravings of his own. Signed 豊前住河野貞光彫同作 (Buzen-jū Kōno Sadamitsu hori dōsaku: “engraved by the same”) and dated 乙亥年十二月日 (kinoto-i no toshi jūnigatsu hi); the year 乙亥 (kinoto-i) is 1995. On the signature side it has two grooves (二筋樋, futasuji-hi); on the date side, a long engraving ending in a point. It is the one in the photos.
  • 2000. Katana of 73.2 cm signed by father and son, 豊前住河野貞光国光作 (Buzen-jū Kōno Sadamitsu Kunimitsu saku), with the year 庚辰 (kanoe-tatsu), made for iai and tameshigiri.
  • June 2007: the 石断丸 (Ishidanmaru, “the one that splits stone”). Katana of 73 cm dated 丁亥年六月吉祥日 (hinoto-i no toshi rokugatsu kisshōbi), held to be his best work and also called 石斬丸 (Ishikirimaru). In 2019 it was filmed cutting thick bamboo in a single stroke.