波平安国

Naminohira Yasukuni

Description

Naminohira Yasukuni is one of the principal swordsmiths of the Naminohira school of Satsuma Province (modern Kagoshima Prefecture) during the Kamakura period. The Naminohira school is one of the longest-lived in Japanese sword history, with a continuous tradition spanning roughly 700 years from the late Heian through the late Edo period. All smiths of the school share the character "Yasu" (安) in their names — Yasuyuki, Yasukuni, Yasuyoshi, Yasuie, etc. — creating a distinctive identifier for the school. Yasukuni's blades reflect the school's characteristic Yamato influence, transmitted through the school's founding lineage. His jihada shows masame-grained itame with a characteristic whitish (shirake) quality associated with Satsuma iron, and his hamon is predominantly suguha with ko-midare, featuring fine, uniform nie with a tight nioi-guchi — an aesthetic closer to Yamato-den than to Bizen or Soshu. His works tend toward large tachi forms suitable for the mounted warfare of Kamakura-era warriors. Works attributed to Yasukuni are preserved at the Kyushu National Museum and the Kagoshima Prefectural Historical Data Center Reimeikan, serving as reference works for Naminohira school research. He represents the school at the height of its Kamakura-period activity.

Famous Works

• 太刀（九州国立博物館所蔵）
• 太刀（黎明館所蔵・薩摩伝来）