Unji
雲次 (Unji)
A smith of the Ukai school, in Bizen, of the late Kamakura and early Nanbokuchō, successor of Unshō; he has tachi dated 1315 and 1335, and several are important cultural properties.
Profile
Unji worked at Ukai (宇甘, Ukan), in Bizen, in the school founded by Unshō. Old tradition makes him Unshō’s younger brother; a modern study, going by the dates, takes him for his son, and so does the record of one of his blades in the Kyoto National Museum. His dated works are of 1315 (Shōwa 4, the 正和 (Shōwa) era of the late Kamakura) and of 1335 (Kenmu 2). The name continued in the school down to a fourth generation, and the sources do not divide the undated blades among them.
According to Japanese Wikipedia, his blades have a centred curvature, the one called kyō-zori (京反り, “Kyoto curvature”), unusual in Bizen, and resemble those of the Rai school, of Yamashiro, and those of Aoe, in Bitchū. The same source says that in 2020 six blades signed by him and one unsigned blade attributed to him were important cultural properties.
He signed “備前国住雲次” (Bizen no kuni jū Unji), “Unji, resident of Bizen province”.
Notable works
- Tachi signed “Bizen no kuni jūnin Unji” and dated the tenth month of 1315, with a straight temper line (suguha) and the original tang, Japanese Sword Museum, Tokyo; important cultural property.
- Tachi signed “Bizen no kuni jū Unji” and dated the eleventh month of Kenmu 2 (1335), 71.5 cm, Kyoto National Museum; important cultural property.
- Tachi signed “Bizen no kuni jū Unji”, 69.1 cm, Nezu Museum, Tokyo; important art object (jūyō bijutsuhin).