Kantei

Bizen · Yamashiro · Sōshū

Work and style

From Bizen to Yamashiro and from Yamashiro to Sōshū, with a steel of his own made from old iron and many copies of famous swords to learn from.

On this page
  1. Style
  2. The steel
  3. Notable works
  4. Gallery

Style

He studied first Bizen, then Yamashiro and finally Sōshū, in that order, and became a great master of modern Sōshū by studying 志津兼氏 (Shizu Kaneuji), of the Kamakura period, and 源清麿 (Minamoto Kiyomaro), the swordsmith of the Yamaura family, from his own region. He made many copies of famous swords to study their jigane and their hamon, and attached importance to the sword cutting well.

The steel

He cared about the quality of the iron: he made his own steel by blending old iron from helmets and antique nails, in the belief that better iron makes a better sword. That blend with antique iron, which gives an interesting jihada, is what the Miyairi school does best, according to Go! Nagano, the prefecture’s tourism website.

Notable works

  • Tachi signed 以真鍛 宮入行平作 (probable reading: Shinkitae o motte Miyairi Yukihira saku), dated August 1977, 74.0 cm long with a sori of 1.9 cm, with the signature 宮入堅一 (Miyairi Ken'ichi), in the municipal collection of Sakaki (坂城町, Sakaki-machi): no. 34 of the NBTHK exhibition 平成の名刀・名工展 (Heisei no Meitō Meikōten), in 2019.
  • A tachi signed 重要無形文化財宮入昭平作之 (Jūyō mukei bunkazai Miyairi Akihira kore o tsukuru), forged for the wedding of the sumō ōzeki 佐田乃山 (Sadanoyama) in 1963, the year of his designation: his polisher, 多田芳徳 (Tada Yoshinori), won an effort prize with it in the polishing section of the 2022 NBTHK competition.
  • A wakizashi signed 宮入昭平作 (Miyairi Akihira saku), dated February 1961: with it, the same polisher won another effort prize in the polishing section in 2025.
  • Tachi for the Yasukuni shrine and for the Tōgō-jinja, and a protective sword for Princess Hanako, according to Kotobank.
  • A votive tachi for the Kabutoyama Hachimangū shrine, in Ibara (Okayama), which the sculptor Hirakushi Denchū praised as a sword that would surely become a National Treasure.