Kingin’un Wakizashi (金銀雲) – Gold and Silver Clouds

Kingin’un (金銀雲): Gold and Silver Clouds

Golden clouds (kinun) are one of the defining devices of Japanese painting: on folding screens and hanging scrolls, they separate scenes and conjure depth and luminosity. Pairing gold with silver (kingin) deepens this sense of a precious sky poised between day and night.

This wakizashi takes that motif as the centrepiece of its tsuba, composed entirely of openwork clouds in alternating gold and silver scrolls. The fuchi and kashira extend the sky further still, with clouds rendered in relief against a dark ground.

A Sanmai Blade with a True Notare Hamon

The blade is forged using a sanmai construction, uniting three layers of steel: a hard core protected by two softer outer layers. Faint lamination lines are perceptible along the body of the blade. It has been clay-tempered, producing a true notare hamon : milky, well-defined and richly contrasted.

The steel, deeper in tone towards the spine, carries a satin polish. The blade follows a shinogi-zukuri geometry with a chū-kissaki tip and a torii-zori curvature, without a groove. Sharpening and polishing are carried out entirely by hand, a craft finish that brings out the full character of the steel.

Fittings of Gold and Silver Clouds

The kawari-gata tsuba is crafted in gold- and silver-plated copper, forming a sweeping openwork cloud design (sukashi) with alternating gilded and silvered scrolls and a sinuous edge. Fluted copper seppa frame it on either side.

The black-patinated alloy fuchi features a nanako ground and clouds in relief plated in gold and silver, while the kashira presents waves and silvered clouds with gilded highlights. The grip is wrapped in genuine white samegawa over wood, beneath a black tsuka-ito in hineri-maki, with silver menuki. The ichimai copper habaki, patinated and engraved with parallel bands and chevrons, completes the assembly.

A Black Saya with Speckled Blue Panels

The saya is fashioned from solid wood and finished in a high-gloss black roiro-nuri lacquer, adorned with same-nuri panels in blue speckled with white, set at an angle towards the koiguchi. The koiguchi is in polished silver-toned alloy and the kojiri is lacquered black. The black-lacquered kurikata with a gilded shitodome accommodates a black cotton sageo.

Dimensions and Handling of the Wakizashi

With a blade of 51 cm and an overall length of 78 cm, Kingin’un carries the proportions of a wakizashi, the shorter companion to the katana. Its 23 cm handle offers a comfortable one-handed grip, with room for the second hand in support. At 1 kg, it remains highly manageable. Measuring 80 cm in its saya, it is an ideal format for display either alone or alongside a katana.