Niou Kiyotsuna

About Nio Kiyotsuna

Nio school is a sword smith who prospered in Suo Province from the Kamakura period to the Muromachi period.
Suo is the eastern part of  Yamaguchi Prefecture.
In Suo province, there were several manors of Todaiji Temple in Yamato Province.
Therefore, it is said that Suo's sword smith was interacting with Yamato's sword smith(modern Nara prefecture).
In Kamakura Period, The origin of Nio's name is that sword saved the statue of Nio with this sword from a temple that was about to burn in battle.
The way to save was to cut the chain because the closed gate couldn't be opened.
The surface is a very beautiful board, and it is a work with a lot of variety.
This work is a fusion of the style of Yamato and the style of Suo.

POINT

It was this sword that executed the Shinsengumi director, Isami Kondo, who was active at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate.
The actual sword has been transferred from a descendant to the Gifu Prefectural Museum.