Katana Sword (gold-inlaid inscription: Rai Kunimitsu, shortened; with the monogram of Hon'ami)

One Blade, an Important Cultural Property since 1958

Katana Sword with a Gold-Inlaid Inscription Reading Rai Kunimitsu, Shortened, and the Monogram of Hon'ami (刀〈金象嵌銘来国光スリ上／本阿（花押）〉) is a Kamakura-period craft object held at the Tokyo National Museum, 13-9 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo, listed as an Important Cultural Property on 8 February 1958. The listing is as an Important Cultural Property, not a National Treasure, and the owner is the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage.

The quantity is one blade. The maker's field names Rai Kunimitsu.

8 February 1958 is the day the ring-pommel sword with its blade became a National Treasure. On one date, one property became a National Treasure and the other an Important Cultural Property.

The Reading Reproduces the Brackets and the Slash

The reading field copies the punctuation as well.

It runs: the word for sword, then the angle brackets, the reading of the inscription, the slash, and the reading of the monogram within its own brackets.

Angle brackets, slash and round brackets all stand where the name puts them. The field does not simply gather up the readable characters; it reproduces the marks too.

At the former Konishi residence, the word for former was left out of the reading. At the former Gakushuin hall, the Agency left it out while the city put it in.

With the clay figurine from Ebisuda, everything after the slash went without a reading.

Here the reverse: a reading is given for the whole, marks included. How readings are supplied differs widely from property to property.

Many Names Have Nothing After the Slash

Sword names follow a set form.

This name puts the content of the inscription before the slash and the Hon'ami family's attestation after it.

Among related properties, however, names such as a katana attributed to Masamune, or a tachi attributed to Kunitoshi, carry a slash with nothing after it.

The same appears outside swords: a volume of a study primer and a life of Prince Shotoku both end in a slash with an empty second half.

The slash is always there, and what follows it is present in some properties and absent in others. A frame with two slots stands with only one filled.

With the Nihon Shoki volumes, the angle brackets held no slash at all. The same mark differs in what it contains.

The Commentary Is One Sentence

The Agency's commentary ends after a single sentence.

It reads only: a work of the Kamakura period.

The fields for dimensions and for form carry nothing either. The date field is empty, and only the period field has an entry, reading Kamakura.

With the gilded mirror, the commentary read: material of the Kofun period. That is archaeological material, called material rather than a work.

This is a craft object and is called a work. Only the name of the period changes between them.

This property does carry a maker's field, naming Rai Kunimitsu, where the gilded mirror had none. Even with a one-sentence commentary, the amount held in the fields differs.

Seeing It

The blade is at the Tokyo National Museum, 13-9 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo, owned by the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage.

The clay figurine from Ebisuda has the same location and the same owner. That is archaeological material; this is a craft object.

The word in the name meaning shortened refers to cutting back the tang of a blade. The original signature is lost in the process, so a new inscription was set in afterward in gold inlay.

With the lion-motif sword at Kasuga Taisha, the record itself explained where the type name came from. With the sword by Mitsuyo, angle brackets marked a signature.

Here the name goes further and shows that the signature was added later. It is a museum holding, not kept on permanent display. Check before travelling.