Kurihara Nobuhide
栗原信秀 (Kurihara Nobuhide)
Lineage: the signature does not state the generation
Mirror maker from Echigo who trained under Kiyomaro in Edo and worked as a swordsmith in Edo and Ōsaka in the 1850s and 1860s.
Profile
Kurihara Nobuhide was born in Echigo in 1815 and first worked as a mirror maker in Kyoto. Around 1850 he joined the Edo workshop of Minamoto Kiyomaro (源清麿) and, already in his thirties, mastered forging within a few years; he is regarded as the foremost of Kiyomaro's pupils. In 1865 he received the title Chikuzen no Kami (筑前守), and from 1864 to 1867 he worked in Ōsaka. He signed Nobuhide, at times adding his personal name, Kurihara Kenji (栗原謙司), and after receiving the title Kurihara Chikuzen no Kami Nobuhide; on some blades he recorded where they had been forged. His work follows his teacher's manner: a tightly forged ko-itame jigane with fine ji-nie and a gunome midare hamon with angular peaks and long ashi. His earlier craft shows in his horimono, cut in deep relief and carved by his own hand. In the Meiji era he went back to Sanjō in Echigo and returned to mirror making; local tradition credits him with sacred mirrors for shrines in the area.
Swords available
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Chikuzen no Kami Nobuhide
Katana signed by Kurihara Chikuzen no Kami Nobuhide, a pupil of Kiyomaro, dated the 8th month of Keiō 2 (1866), with NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon paper, a sayagaki by Tanobe and a koshirae. Katana by Kurihara Nobuhide, a late Edo-period smith born in Echigo province and a pupil of Minamoto Kiyomaro who, according to the original seller, was granted the title Chikuzen no Kami in 1865. The blade has a nagasa of 71.21 cm and a sori of 1.67 cm: wide and thick, with a large kissaki, in the shinshintō manner. The jigane is itame with ji-nie and chikei; the wide hamon is a gunome-midare with ashi, abundant nie, sunagashi and kinsuji, and the bōshi ends in ōmaru on the omote and komaru on the ura, as described in the sayagaki by Tanobe on the shirasaya. In the photographs the tang appears untouched, with a single mekugi-ana, the five-character signature 筑前守信秀 (Chikuzen no Kami Nobuhide) and the date 慶応二年八月日 (Keiō ninen hachigatsu hi). The original seller ranks it as jōjō-saku within the smith's output. It comes with a koshirae comprising an openwork iron tsuba, dark fuchi-kashira with gold motifs, gold-coloured menuki, a tsuka with same and black wrap, and a lacquered saya in reddish and black tones; some metal fittings bear a mon. The NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōken certificate is legible in the photographs.
58/100
€29,100
