Katana by Kurihara Nobuhide
Kurihara Nobuhide was a famous swordsmith known as a pupil of Yama-ura
Kiyomaro. Nobuhide was born in Echigo province, present Niigata pref. He
changed from a mirror maker to a swordsmith in middle age. In this context,
he was also good at horimono carving on the blade. He was a swordsmith of
ability. The Emperor Meiji ordered him to forge a special sword to dedicate
the Minatogawa Shrine founded in 1869. The Meiji Government ordered Nobuhide
to exhibit traditional Japanese sword a world's fair in Vienna in 1873.
He lived in his hometown for the rest of his days and passed away in 1880.
One theory holds that he committed suicide in a similar situation of his
master Kiyomaro.
This is one of his excellent work made in 1859.
It has a beautiful bamboo horimono on one side and a bonji character with
bohi on the other.
On the other side is a short bo-hi and the character for "wisdom".
All that being said, we're pretty sure it's actually a forgery (gimei) from the early 1900s. There's a slight difference in the signature compared to other works by the same smith that we've seen. If a forgery, they definately put a lot of effort into it, since the nakago appears to be the right age and the horimono (carving) was probably harder and more time consuming than everything else. If it was authentic, it would have been well out of my price range.
This is going to be my cutter once I get new koshirae. It's sharp as all fuck and the blade is in great shape besides a couple minor nicks in the kissaki. I don't believe the existing furniture actually goes with the blade, it feels very loose so I'm going to get it all redone.