Gunto

Higo Dōtanuki (Dotanuki) Munehiro Shin Gunto

Name: Japanese Blades UK
Address: GB
Price range: £££

JB-1011

£3,000

A family-heirloom Shin Guntō with a saya-label attribution to the Higo Dōtanuki line — the Kumamoto school of robust, battle-functional blades favoured by Katō Kiyomasa.

Provenance

School: Higo Dōtanuki (肥後同田貫) — Kumamoto school known for robust, battle-functional blades favoured by Katō Kiyomasa.
Mounting: Shin Guntō (WW2 service mounting; the blade itself is older).
Condition: Polish is tired — hada activity and hamon details no longer read clearly on the blade. The piece would reward a fresh polish.

The Higo Dōtanuki school (肥後同田貫) earned its reputation in the Sengoku period as the favoured supplier to Katō Kiyomasa: blades made for use rather than display, prized for their resilience under sustained combat. The lineage continued through the Edo period, with later generations carrying the Dōtanuki name as a school tradition rather than a single workshop.

This example came down through a Japanese family and was carried in WW2 inside its Shin Guntō mounting. The nakago is mumei (unsigned). The attribution to Higo-jū Dōtanuki Munehiro saku (肥後住同田貫宗廣作) comes from a paper label preserved inside the saya, a secondary attribution rather than a signature, and is recorded here as such. Polish is tired, and the hada and hamon do not currently read clearly on the blade; the piece would reward repolishing.