Nanki Shigekuni
南紀重国 (Nanki Shigekuni)
Lineage: the signature does not state the generation
A line of smiths of the Kii Tokugawa house, eleven generations until the end of the Edo period; the first, of Yamato Tegai origin, is one of the great shintō smiths.
Profile
The first Shigekuni came from the Tegai school of Yamato. In the Keichō era he served Tokugawa Ieyasu at Sunpu, and in 1619, when Tokugawa Yorinobu became lord of Kii, he followed him to Wakayama as the house smith; he worked mainly around the Genna era. Blades made in Kii usually read «made at Nanki by Shigekuni». He studied the work of Gō Yoshihiro. The Kaihō Kenjaku of 1797 ranks him yoki-wazamono. His son, the second, added «Monju» to his signature, and the fourth forged for the shōgun Tokugawa Yoshimune in Edo and was allowed to cut a hollyhock leaf on the tang. The family served the Kii Tokugawa for eleven generations.
Rankings
- Maegashira (West) in Tomita Kiyama’s ranking of shintō smiths (1935)