Niō Kiyotsuna
清綱 (Kiyotsuna)
Lineage: the signature does not state the generation
The name of the smiths of the Niō school in Suō; tradition makes the first Kiyotsuna, of the early Kamakura period, its founder, but the surviving blades are by his successors.
Profile
According to the biographical dictionary that Kotobank reproduces, the first Kiyotsuna worked at Nibo, in the Yoshiki district of Suō (today Yamaguchi), around the Kennin and Genkyū eras (1201-1206); another version places him at Kuga. These are traditional dates. Legend has it that, in the fire of a temple, he cut with his tachi the chains that held the statues of the Niō guardians and saved them from the flames, and that is where the school's name comes from.
No blade of the founder survives. His successors went on signing «Kiyotsuna» for generations: a tachi dated 1265, kept at the Itsukushima shrine and an important cultural property, is attributed to the second or third generation, and three other undated blades with that signature have the same status, according to the same source. The Kotō Taikan reproduces blades signed «Kiyotsuna» without saying which generation they belong to.
Notable works
- Tachi signed «Kiyotsuna» and dated 1265, important cultural property, at the Itsukushima shrine; attributed to the second or third generation.