National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

Shintogo Kunimitsu was a swordsmith who became the de facto founder of the Kamakura Forge and the master of Masamune. The short swords forged in 1293 are the oldest swords by Kunimitsu. This short sword has a jigane (ground metal) with a wood grain pattern and a hamon (blade pattern) in the suguha (straight) style with nieutsuri, (a white misty formation of martensite crystals), small chikei (curved lines of martensite crystals) and lots of konie (small martensite crystals). It was given to Date Tsunamura, the lord of the Sendai domain, by Tokugawa Ietsuna in 1669 and has since been handed down for generations in the Date family.