Other Famous SwordsTachiNational Treasure

明石国行

Akashi Kuniyuki

Aussi connu sous le nom de: Akashi

Forgeron

Kuniyuki (Yamashiro Awataguchi School)

Époque

Early Kamakura period (early 13th century)

Type

Tachi

Classement

National Treasure

Lieu de conservation

Tokyo National Museum

Description

Akashi Kuniyuki is a tachi forged by Kuniyuki of the Yamashiro Awataguchi school in the early Kamakura period, widely regarded as the finest expression of the school's serene aesthetic tradition. The blade takes its name either from its listing in the Tokugawa shogunate's famous sword registry or from a period when it was stored in Akashi domain in Harima Province. Its hallmarks are the finely grained jigane with a bluish-bright iron color, the clear and bright hamon of small irregular patterns, and the poised tachi shape with a pronounced koshi-zori. Listed in the Kyōhō Meibutsuchō compiled under Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune, it passed to the Tokyo National Museum after the Meiji Restoration. It is considered the supreme representative of Yamashiro-den swordsmanship and one of the most refined tachi in Japanese history.

Légendes et récits

Awataguchi was the eastern gateway to the Heian capital, and the swordsmiths who gathered there absorbed the refinement of court culture, Buddhist art, and aristocratic aesthetics. Their blades were weapons that aspired to the condition of poetry. Kuniyuki carried this tradition forward with extraordinary skill, and Akashi Kuniyuki is the consummate expression of that tradition. When Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune commissioned the Kyōhō Meibutsuchō — the definitive catalogue of great swords — Akashi Kuniyuki was formally inscribed, confirming its status as a national treasure. The shogun himself is said to have admired its serene beauty. Today, looking at this blade is to encounter the Yamashiro smithing tradition at its highest point: not power, but purity.