Kantei

In museums, shrines and lists

Famous works

Two Important Art Objects, a Tokubetsu Jūyō daishō and the blades of the 2025 exhibition.

On this page
  1. Documented works
  2. Three pieces
  3. In the lists and the treatises
  4. Gallery

Documented works

WorkDesignationWhere it is
Joint work with his brother, signed 天然子完利二十七歳造之 / 一貫斎正行十八歳造之 (Tennenshi Sadatoshi nijūnanasai kore o tsukuru / Ikkansai Masayuki jūhassai kore o tsukuru), 1830 (Bunsei 13)No designation statedPrivate collection; wakizashi in the NBTHK catalogue and tantō on its panel
Tantō 源秀寿 (Minamoto Hidetoshi), 1834 (Tenpō 5)NBTHK Jūyō TōkenJapanese Sword Museum, Tokyo
Katana, the first of the buki-kō, 1839 (Tenpō 10), 71.2 cmImportant Art Object, according to SeskoNot recorded
Katana 源正行 (Minamoto Masayuki), 1844 (Tenpō 15), one of those made at KomoroNBTHK Jūyō TōkenPrivate collection
Katana for Kubota Sugane, 為窪田清音君 山浦環源清麿製 (Kubota Sugane-kun no tame, Yamaura Tamaki Minamoto Kiyomaro sei), 1846Important Art ObjectPrivate collection
Tantō 清麿 (Kiyomaro), 1847, with kurikaraNo designation statedYasukuni shrine
Daishō 源清麿 (Minamoto Kiyomaro), 1848 (Kaei 1)NBTHK Tokubetsu JūyōPrivate collection
Katana 源清麿 (Minamoto Kiyomaro), 1849 (Kaei 2), of the Kimura familyTreasure of Nagano Prefecture (1966)Ueda (Nagano), Kimura family
Katana 源清麿 (Minamoto Kiyomaro), 1850 (Kaei 3), 76.4 cmNBTHK Jūyō Tōken (1981)Private collection
Naginata for Okada Zenpaku (岡田善伯), 1850NBTHK Jūyō TōkenPrivate collection
Katana 源清麿 (Minamoto Kiyomaro), with a nagasa of 73.9 cm and a sori of 2.0 cmNo designationKyūshū National Museum (F4)

Three pieces

The katana he made in 1846 for Kubota Sugane is the first with the name Kiyomaro and, for the NBTHK, one of the masterpieces of his life: restrained but strong nie and nioi, kinsuji, nie-suji and sunagashi, and two parallel grooves. The 1848 daishō is rare for being a pair by the same hand; the NBTHK believes it was commissioned by a samurai of the Matsushiro domain. The Nezu Museum called it Kiyomaro’s masterpiece in 2014. The 1850 katana, Jūyō Tōken since 1981, may have started out as a naginata, judging by the shape and the length of the tang.

In the lists and the treatises

He is one of the three great smiths of Edo (江戸三作, Edo sansaku), with Suishinshi Masahide and Taikei Naotane. The NBTHK brought them together from 8 March to 11 May 2025 at its Japanese Sword Museum. In 2014, for the bicentenary of his birth, a travelling exhibition went round the Sano Museum, the Shinano museum in Nagano and the Hagi museum, and ended at the Nezu Museum in Tokyo with work from his twenty-four-year career. No work of his is recorded as a National Treasure or an Important Cultural Property in the sources consulted.