Kantei
A long, curved tachi, with a gilded habaki, on a pale cloth in a dark display case.

Swordsmith of Nara (Yamato) · tachi · kotō

Tegai Kanenaga (手掻包永)

The founder of the Tegai school of Nara, one of the five of Yamato, around the Shōō era, with a National Treasure tachi and six Important Cultural Properties: his life and times, his work, his famous works and his sources

包永 (Kanenaga), called Tegai Kanenaga, forged in Nara, in Yamato province, in the middle or at the end of the Kamakura period; the records place him around the Shōō era (1288–1293). He is held to be the founder of the Tegai school, one of the five of Yamato, which takes its name from the Tegai gate of the Tōdai-ji temple. Of his blades, one tachi is a National Treasure and six are Important Cultural Properties.

Kakidai, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

1
National Treasure tachi
6
Important Cultural Properties
around 1288–1293
Period, according to the records
5
Schools of Yamato
On this page
  1. Quick profile
  2. In short

Quick profile

Name
Kanenaga, called Tegai Kanenaga AT
Kanji and reading
包永 (Kanenaga); the school is written 手掻 (Tegai), 手搔 (Tegai) or 転害 (Tegai) AT
Period
Mid- or late Kamakura, around the 正応 (Shōō) era, 1288–1293; birth and death unknown AT
Province
Yamato: next to the Tegai gate of the Tōdai-ji, in Nara, where the Tegai-chō district is today AT
School or tradition
Founder of the Tegai school (手掻派, Tegai-ha), one of the five of Yamato AT
Generations
The name Kanenaga was repeated for several generations, until Nanbokuchō; this monograph is about the first AT
Documented fact and tradition
Documented: his signed blades and his seven national designations. From the records and from tradition: his period, his byname and that he made tachi for the warrior monks of the Tōdai-ji. AT

In short

What we know. The database of cultural properties of the Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁, Bunkachō) gives one National Treasure and six Important Cultural Properties with the signature 包永 (Kanenaga), the same seven that the NBTHK counts.

How we know it. His life and his style come from Japanese dictionaries and encyclopaedias and from the NBTHK journal. His period comes from the old records and from reading the style, not from a dated blade.

What we do not know. Whether the Konotegashiwa is in the Kyōhō meibutsuchō (享保名物帳).

Sections

  1. Nara · Tōdai-ji · Yamato Life and times The Tegai gate of the Tōdai-ji, his school and why his period is debated.
  2. Itame · suguha · hakikake Work and style The kantei keys of his tachi: the steel, the temper, the point, the shape, the tang and the signature.
  3. National Treasure · Konotegashiwa Famous works The National Treasure of the Seikadō, his six Important Cultural Properties and the Konotegashiwa, which burned in 1923.
  4. Bibliography and credits Sources The sources consulted on 4 October 2026, with their link, and the credit for the image.