UK Sword Register

No. 50

Type: Shinshinto wakizashi

Sugata: Shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, o-kissaki, tori-zori.

Horimono: Futatsu-hi.

Jihada: Itame-hada with some masame

Hamon: Nie deki with some nioi, quite a regular gunome and gunome-choji, midare-komi boshi.

Nakago: Ubu, one mekugi-ana, inscribed Minamoto Kiyondo

Nagasa: 42.0 cm Moto Haba: 2.8 cm Saki Haba: 2.5 cm

This bade has the wide mihaba and long kissaki that we expect to find in either the Nambokucho or the shinshinto periods. The fact that it is an ubu wakizashi will immediately indicate that this is of the later period, as in Nambokucho times this type of blade was not being made yet. It was not until the Muromachi times, when the rise in use of the uichigatana and the wearing of daisho became popular, that the wakizashi was custom made. Any sword of this size, which does appear of earlier manufacture, may be a suriage (shortened) longer blade.

This sword is signed MINAMOTO KIYONDO who was a swordsmith of the Kiyomaro Mon working in Edo during the late shinshinto period. The sword’s sugata is commonly seen in this group’s work. It is said that when Kiyomaro died by his own hand in 1854 at the age of 42, he left 30 orders for swords uncompleted. Kiyondo was asked by the customers to complete the order, which he did, thereby discharging his late master’s obligations and demonstrating his loyal character. Another version of this story is that he used the income from 30 of his blades to discharge his master’s debts. Kurihara Nobuhide, another of Kiyomaro’s pupils, is aid to have done a similar thing.

Kiyondo was a native from Shonai in Dewa province and his real name was Saito Ichiro. He did not go to Edo until 1852 to become a pupil of Kiyomaro shortly before he died but as he was a fast learner, he had mastered his teacher’s techniques before he had died. He was awarded the title of Buzen (no) Kami in 1867 and retired in 1871. As there was little demand for Japanese swords in the later Meiji period, he returned to Shonai and went into his father-in-law’s hotel business until he died in 1902 at the age of 75. Fujishiro rates Saito Kiyondo as jo-saku.

This sword is certainly in the style of Kiyondo and the Kiyomaro Mon, with the repeating gunome that tends towards gunome-choji as well as o-kissaki and wide mihaba. Even the hint of masame in the jihada is consistent with this. However, it is known that Kiyondo had some 25 variations to his mei, and I am unable to find the MINAMOTO character in any of them. Also the strokes in the KIYO character show some differences to the recorded true Kiyondo mei. However, it may be the dai-mei work of one of his pupils such as one Kiyoshige, who actually did sign with the Minamoto prefix.

Clive Sinclaire, Bexley, October 2000

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