Kantei
A short, straight blade with two parallel grooves and the tang with two holes and an engraved character, on a black background.

Swordsmith of Kyoto (Yamashiro) · Rai school · end of Kamakura

Ryōkai (了戒)

According to tradition, the monk son of Rai Kunitoshi and head of the branch from which Nobukuni comes

Ryōkai (了戒) worked in Kyoto at the end of the Kamakura period, in the orbit of Rai Kunitoshi. His name is a monk’s name, and tradition makes him Kunitoshi’s son. His blades resemble those of the main Rai line, but his steel tends to flow and to turn whitish; the first Nobukuni comes from his branch.

Tokyo National Museum, via ColBase

1290–1309
Dated blades
5
Important Cultural Properties
about 90
NBTHK Jūyō
2
Tokubetsu Jūyō
On this page
  1. Quick profile
  2. In short

Quick profile

Name
Ryōkai, a monk’s name; signature 了戒 (Ryōkai) AT
Kanji and reading
了戒 (Ryōkai) HD
Period
End of Kamakura; blades dated from 1290 to 1309, according to Sesko; born about 1256, by calculation AT
Province
Yamashiro (山城, Yamashiro), in Kyoto; he lived in Sakamoto (坂本, Sakamoto), according to the Tokyo National Museum AT
School
Rai (来派, Rai-ha); head of the Ryōkai branch, from which the Nobukuni school comes AT
Master
Rai Kunitoshi (来国俊, Rai Kunitoshi), who according to tradition was his father; some versions add Ayanokōji Sadatoshi (綾小路定利, Ayanokōji Sadatoshi) AT
What is documented
His signature, dated tachi such as the 1305 one of the Atsuta shrine and five Important Cultural Properties HD
The tradition
That he was Kunitoshi’s son, that he took holy orders at sixteen and that he died at 72: this comes from later books, and Markus Sesko records other versions AT

In short

Tradition makes him the son of Rai Kunitoshi, born when his father was seventeen; other versions, recorded by Markus Sesko, make him a swordsmith from Nara who studied with Kunitoshi in Kyoto. His dated blades run from 1290 to 1309. His work is close to Kunitoshi’s, but with more slender tachi, a ko-itame that flows towards masame and a whitish steel, the shirake, instead of the nie-utsuri of the main Rai line.

In 1313 he appears in a bakufu report on cutting swords in which his father does not appear. From his branch come Hisanobu (久信, Hisanobu) and the first Nobukuni (信国, Nobukuni).

Sections

  1. Kyoto, about 1290–1309 Life and times The versions of his origin, his dates and his place in a list of 1313.
  2. The flowing Rai Work and style Jihada, hamon, bōshi, sugata, nakago and mei: the keys to recognising him.
  3. The “Akita Ryōkai” and the Atsuta tachi Famous works His Important Cultural Properties and his works in museums and shrines.
  4. Bibliography and credits Sources The sources consulted and the image credits.