Nanki Shigekuni

Profile

The first of the Shigekuni line of Kii, he came from the Monju (文殊) branch of the Tegai (手掻) school of Yamato. In the Keichō era he settled at Sunpu in Suruga, working for Tokugawa Ieyasu; after Ieyasu's death he followed Tokugawa Yorinobu to Wakayama, where he served the Kishū Tokugawa house and founded a line that lasted for several generations. His activity is usually placed in the Genna era. His signatures record where he worked: 和州手掻住重国 (Washū Tegai jū Shigekuni) on blades from Yamato and Sunpu, and 於南紀重国造之 (Nanki ni oite Shigekuni kore o tsukuru) on those made in Kii. He worked in two manners. The Yamato manner underlies his whole output: a high shinogi, dense mokume hada mixed with masame, and a suguha with hotsure, uchinoke and nijūba. The other follows the Sōshū tradition after Gō Yoshihiro (郷義弘), with notare and gunome in nie, sunagashi and kinsuji. A katana in this second manner, handed down in the Kishū Tokugawa family, is an Important Cultural Property held by the Tokyo National Museum.