UNIQUE JAPANESE KANNA BY CHIYOZURU NOBUKUNI.

 

This 70mm japanese kanna blade was made by Chiyozuru III also known as Chiyozuru Nobukuni whos birth name was Yuichi, Ochiai. I do know know when this blade with what I believe was the original dai of that era plus a brand new single blade dai made specially for this blade by Inomoto-san of Sanjo and marked on the end of the dai with his mark.The tome osae or matching sub blade is marked down the center SANDAI-ME CHIYOZURU SENJAKU

and to the upper right is TOROKU.

The old dai is marked TOKYO HAMONO and around that is stated that this product passes the Tokyo
Blade Union standards and is registered.

This Chiyozuru blade and old dai have been used, the dai is still serviceable and the blade is, at 11.4cm long in total length, within 1mm of a the brand new blade length of most of the well know makers like Ogata who's blades when new are 11.5cm long. This blade has also been flattened on the back (ura-oshi)in a manner that I do not choose to use my self where the ura has been flattened into about 1.5cm of the blade length. This does not affect the blade use and the ura can be maintained with this style with little effort. The blade bevel can be sharpended at 24 degrees.

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The brand new white oak dai by Inomoto is simply elegant and perfect and was made with the blade in hand when I was in his shop this past October. This is a single blade dai to be used without the chip breaker. The block is a oimasame or quarter sawn grain that is very dense and it has the tsutsumi ledge typical of higher end hand made dai, the blade throat at the dai is about 3mm wide.  It can be conditioned and adjusted to be up and running with very little work.

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The main blade is marked in
the upper left SANDAI-ME CHIYOZURU or Chiyozuru the 3rd, below that is Nobukuni's logo, at the
lower center SENJAKU or Thousand Shaku, upper right center is another Nobukuni logo, and to the upper right is TOROKU or registered.
On the back of the main blade is to the right IEMOTO or Original House of Authority. This blade tests out to be in the Rockwell
63-64 range of hardness.