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Sugata
Sugata and jiba close to Rai Kunitoshi, but many tachi are more slender, with a marked taper towards the point, deep curvature and a small kissaki. Some have a high shinogi, and sometimes an iori-mune as well, which led people to think of a Yamato origin. There are unshortened tachi of about 80 cm (80.3 and 79.98 cm). He also made naginata and shōbu-zukuri blades, such as a “tachi” of 68.2 cm.
Jihada
Rai-type ko-itame that tends to flow (nagare) and can show masame; almost always shirake or shirake-utsuri, a whitish reflection, and not the nie-utsuri of the main Rai line; ji-nie and jifu.
Hamon
A ko-nie suguha, narrower and calmer than Kunitoshi’s and with less nie, with a tight or “moist” nioiguchi (潤む, urumu); with ko-gunome, ko-midare, ko-ashi, yō, kinsuji and sunagashi; on the tantō, nijūba.
Bōshi
From sugu to midare-komi, with a short ko-maru-kaeri; on the tantō, pointed and with a long, wide kaeri.
Tantō
Several in kanmuri-otoshi-zukuri and others in hira-zukuri; ko-itame with masame and shirake-utsuri, and a ko-nie suguha with nijūba. A Tokubetsu Jūyō bears a suken with bonji on one side and goma-bashi on the other.
Nakago and mei
He signs with two characters, 了戒 (Ryōkai), sometimes with a date: the Atsuta tachi of 1305 bears 了戒 嘉元三年三月日 (Ryōkai, Kagen sannen sangatsu hi, “a day of the third month of the third year of Kagen”) and, separately, 山城国住人九郎左 (Yamashiro no kuni jūnin Kurōza…), cut off. On the tachi of the Tokyo National Museum the nakago is kijimomo (雉股, kijimomo, “pheasant’s thigh”) and strongly curved, according to Sesko. Several tachi bear a suken or a short koshibi at the base of the main side.
Kantei keys
Sesko’s rule: the nagare-masame and the shirake take you off the road of Rai Kunitoshi towards Ryōkai or towards Enjū; the hamon and the bōshi tell you which of the two. The Tokyo National Museum says of its tachi that it keeps its original, strongly curved shape and that the shirake-utsuri of the steel and the suguha with a “moist” nioiguchi are very marked features of this swordsmith.
