He believed that the blade, with its temper line, curvature, tip, and crystallization, was made in the Seki area during the first part of the 1500s. As the work of Kaneuji’s disciples changed, some previously common features disappeared. Sunagashi was one of those features, Hughes said. The term refers to patterns that look like the remnants of swept sand. And sunagashi was one of the details the Umeki sword lacked—otherwise, Tanobe might have dated the sword to the 1300s. You can look at a blade and consider what you see. You also have to consider what you don’t see.
Tanobe’s attribution is to two smiths, a father-son duo named Kanenobu and Nobutsugu, working in Seki in the Eisho era (1504–21) and the Daiei era (1521–28). The attribution isn’t a certainty, but instead a very educated guess, as is the case for many swords.
