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Kishū Rai Kunitsugu (紀州来国次)
Tantō signed 来国次 (Rai Kunitsugu), in a private collection in Tokyo: a 32.7 cm blade, 0.1 cm of curvature, 3.3 cm wide at the base and a 9.7 cm nakago. It was designated an Important Cultural Property on 25 May 1937 and a National Treasure on 2 February 1955. The official record explains it: Kunitsugu was more skilled at tantō, and this is the largest of his, with a broad, showy hamon and a strong influence of the Sōshū tradition.
The nickname “Kishū Rai Kunitsugu” comes from the Tokugawa of Kishū (紀州, Kishū), who owned it, according to the Japanese Wikipedia. Sesko calls it his most famous work and his only National Treasure. It was exhibited in 2024 at the Japanese Sword Museum, in the exhibition devoted to Masamune and his ten students.
Important Cultural Properties
The Japanese Wikipedia gives four, the same number his record counts: a tachi of the Kanzendō museum (蟹仙洞, Kanzendō), in Yamagata, which came from the Maeda and was stolen in 1991; a tachi of the house of the Tokugawa shōgun; a katana with the gold-inlaid attribution 来国次 本阿 花押 (Rai Kunitsugu Hon'a kaō, “Rai Kunitsugu, Hon'a”, with his monogram), from the Hon'ami house; and a wakizashi. Sesko describes an unshortened Important Cultural Property tachi of 82.0 cm, 2.5 cm of curvature and 3.1 cm wide, with itame, ji-nie and chikei and a hamon of gunome with ko-midare and sunagashi and a yakitsume bōshi, which came from the Maeda of Kaga: an early work. Whether it is the same tachi stolen from the Kanzendō, neither of the two sources says.
NBTHK Tokubetsu Jūyō
Sesko describes two Tokubetsu Jūyō tantō. One, which belonged to the Uesugi, of 25.3 cm, with a slight uchizori, ko-itame with chikei and nie-utsuri, ko-nie suguha and a furisode nakago: proof that he sometimes made “pure Rai”. The other, which belonged to the Ōkubo of Odawara, is a sunnobi of 27.4 cm, with ko-itame, ji-nie and nie-utsuri, a wide ko-nie notare and a sugu bōshi with ko-maru-kaeri.
In museums
The yari signed 来国次 (Rai Kunitsugu) in the Tokyo National Museum (F-19969), donated by Kajikawa Masahiro, appears as no. 76 in the list of the exhibition 「京のかたな」 (Kyō no katana, “The swords of Kyoto”) at the Kyoto National Museum, in 2018.
In the old lists
In what was consulted, no work of his is recorded in the 『享保名物帳』 (Kyōhō meibutsuchō) or in the wazamono lists; “Kishū Rai Kunitsugu” is the name given to it by the list of famous swords in the Japanese Wikipedia. His place in the treatises is another: the Edo books count him among the ten students of Masamune.