Sumi Hidekuni

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Hidekuni (秀國) is the name taken in the last years of the shogunate by Sumi Motooki (角元興), also known by the art name Shōken (松軒), a swordsmith in the service of the Aizu (会津) domain in Mutsu. He is said to have trained under Ishidō Korekazu (石堂是一) in Edo. He first signed Motooki and, from the Genji era (1864), Hidekuni, in forms such as Motooki Nyūdō Minamoto Hidekuni; in 1866 he received the title Yamato no Kami. Tradition has it that he followed the lord of Aizu, Matsudaira Katamori (松平容保), to Kyoto when Katamori took charge of guarding the capital, and that he worked there through the final years of the period. Blades linked to members of the Shinsengumi (新選組) are associated with him: one signed Yamato no Kami Minamoto Hidekuni, which its inscriptions connect with Hijikata Toshizō (土方歳三), is held by the Ryōzen Rekishikan (霊山歴史館) in Kyoto. The signature Sumi Hidekuni does not indicate which generation of the family made a blade.