A beautiful ko-wakizashi/O-Tanto(Sunobi) by the smith Yamato (no) kami Kanekura. He was a shintô smith who worked in both Mino and Edo. It is very rare to encounter examples of his work and also very rare to find Shinto Tanto. When Homma Kunzan Junji visited Dr. Compton and viewed his collection, he said that he had never encountered a Kanekura in Japan and the only examples he had seen were the one Compton owned and another in the Boston MFA. There have been several encountered since then and he’s a listed smith. This is a katakiriba-zukuri shaped blade with a Soshu style hamon. It is in nie deki very similar to Oya Kunisada. The jihada is a wonderful, flowing itame-nagare with a very unique hamon that is slightly hitatsura on one side. The other side is a rolling gunome-midare. The blade is ubu and signed ‘Yamato (no) kami Fujiwara Kanekura’.

The blade has horimono on both sides. Gomaboshi on the Omote and 2 longer narrow bohi the length of the blade on the Ura side. The Hada is a mixture of itame-nagare peppered with ji-nie that blankets the blade. The Katakiriba shape is outstanding and the hamon can be enjoyed immensely.

The koshirae is ensuite of all Phoenixes.The menuki, fuchi/kashira and Tsuba all depict the Phoenix as the motif. The saya is a multicolored Lacquer in the tagadashi maki style which was the original finish to match. A beautiful piece of Same(rayskin) for the handle. The kodzuka is also the phoenix motif. The Sageo was a custom piece for the sword.

Please note:
The blade recently passed NTHK NPO shinsa.  Papers have not arrived yet but it comes with the shinsa work sheet.  The moment we receive the papers from Japan they will be forwarded to the new owner.