Rai Kinmichi

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The second head of the Rai Kinmichi (来金道) house, a branch of the Mishina (三品) school of Kyoto and one of the city's five smith houses of the early Edo period, the Kyō go-kaji (京五鍛冶). The house goes back to Izumi no Kami Rai Kinmichi, second son of Kanemichi, a smith who had come from Mino, and brother of Iga no Kami Kinmichi. The reference works record him from the middle of the 17th century, between the Keian and Manji eras. His known signatures are Izumi no Kami Kinmichi (和泉守金道) and, with the Buddhist titles hokkyō (法橋) and daihōshi (大法師), Daihōshi Hokkyō Rai Kinmichi (大法師法橋来金道); under the name Eisen (栄泉) he signed Daihōshi Hokkyō Rai Eisen (大法師法橋来栄泉). That is also how he signed work made jointly with the next master of the house, Izumi no Kami Rai Kinmichi: a naginata by the two, dated 1675, belongs to the society that keeps the Naginata-boko (長刀鉾) float of the Gion Matsuri (祇園祭) in Kyoto.