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The Sa school
According to the 往昔抄 (Ōjakushō), as summarised by the Japanese Wikipedia, the Chikuzen school runs from 良西 (Ryōsai), in the middle of the Kamakura period, to 西蓮 (Sairen), 実阿 (Jitsua), Sa, called Ō-Sa, and Sa Yasuyoshi. Ō-Sa signs with a single character, 左 (Sa), and is counted among the ten pupils of Masamune; his only signed long blade is the tachi 江雪左文字 (Kōsetsu Samonji), a National Treasure.
The NBTHK Sword Journal (no. 734, March 2018) gives Ō-Sa tantō dated 1338, 1339 and 1340, and places between 1340 and 1350 the school’s move to the full Sōshū style. It also records the tradition that “Sa” abbreviates Saemon Saburō and that Ō-Sa was the son of Jitsua and the grandson of Sairen.
Kunihiro is one of the 末左 (Sue-Sa), the swordsmiths of the school of the following generation: a contemporary of Yasuyoshi and a direct pupil of Ō-Sa. Markus Sesko cites him with Yasuyoshi, Yoshisada and Hiroyuki as representative of the blade shape of the middle of the Nanbokuchō (1336–1375).
The dates
Tantō of his dated in the 12th year of 正平 (Shōhei), 1357, survive and place his activity. Another estimate puts it around 1356–1360. It is not known where the tantō of 1357 is.
Whose son?
- The genealogy 秘談抄 (Hidanshō) makes him the son of Yasuyoshi.
- The corrected keizu, the 校正 (Kōsei), makes him the son of Sa Sadayuki, and so does the Osaru website.
- Another text makes him the son of 吉弘 (Yoshihiro), and his Jūyō paper of the 47th session says “son of Yoshihiro or of Sadayuki”, with Sadayuki written 貞行 (Sadayuki).
No source resolves the discrepancy.