どうも、すいまっせん。明石国行言います。どうぞ、よろしゅう。 いちおー、自分、来派の祖の出なんですけどなぁ、基本、 なーんもやる気せーへんので。まっ、お手柔らかに？
Hello, excuse me. I’m known as Akashi Kuniyuki. Nice to meet you. Anyway, although I was made by the founder of the Rai school, I’m basically not motivated to do anything at all. Well, treat me gently, okay?
どうも、すいまっせん。明石国行言います。どうぞ、よろしゅう。まっ、お手柔らかにな？
Hello, excuse me. I’m known as Akashi Kuniyuki. Nice to meet you. Well, go easy on me, alright? Play
Akashi was forged by Rai Kuniyuki (来国行) with a 76.51cm long blade and an inscription which reads 国行 (Kuniyuki), the forge date is unkown, though Kuniyuki active period was around 1250 CE.
He was in the possession of a branch family of Yūki-Matsudaira clan who ruled over Akashi domain. The Matsudaira clan claimed descent from the Minamoto clan, it originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). Over the course of its history, the clan produced many branches, most of which are also in Mikawa Province. In the 16th century, the main Matsudaira line experienced a meteoric rise to success during the direction of Matsudaira Motoyasu, who changed his name to Tokugawa Ieyasu and became the first Tokugawa shogun.
After the Meiji Restoration and the abolition of the han system, the Tokugawa and Matsudaira clans became part of the new nobility.
Akashi is now part of the National Treasures collection under the name of “Tsurikane Kiri”.
Akashi’s smith, Rai Kuniyuki, was considered to be the first practical founder of the Rai school* and was the father of Rai Kunitoshi, whose works include Aizen Kunitoshi and Hotarumaru. His being their self-proclaimed guardian likely stemmed from this.
In fact, while in the citadel he says:“Ahh… When you see Hotarumaru and Aizen Kunitoshi, please do take care of them. After all, I’m their guardian.”
Akashi especially dotes on Hotarumaru like a brother. Hotarumaru is said to have been taken by the Allied Occupying Forces after the defeat of Japan in the Pacific War as part of the weapons confiscation act, especially of Japanese swords. From then on Hotarumaru went missing, rumoured to have been lost at sea.
Ingame is said that Akashi might’ve wanted to become a traitor and join the Combined Leftist Forces (6-1 map) to change history in order to prevent the Pacific War from happening, and thus Hotarumaru could’ve then escaped the fate of being confiscated and later callously abandoned to where Akashi couldn’t reach.
Despite being the fastest sword he is also the laziest as we can see in many of his lines:“You see, my lack of motivation is actually my selling point. Try not to expect annnything out of me.” | “Push me all you want – I won’t work. Ahh… but if it’s got something to do with Hotarumaru, I’ll think about it.” | “Oh, oh, I’m grateful. Now I have an excuse to rest… Ah but I’m injured, for real.”
He is currently kept at Japanese Sword Museum (Tokyo) and for now is not on display, but the past exibition was January 5 – March 27 2016.
*The Rai school originated in Kyôto, Yamashiro province, somewhere in the mid-Kamakura period, and that in terms of workmanship it is probably linked to the Awataguchi school. These are the facts we have about the school’s origins, now to the theories. Most old relevant sources quote Kuniyoshi (国吉) as founder of the Rai school and the Kanchin'in-bon mei-zukushi (観智院本銘尽) from Ôei 30 (応永, 1423), the oldest extant sword document, states that Kuniyoshi was a Korean smith who had immigrated, or who had came to Japan, and sees the origins of the school’s name in the term raigoku (来国).
Raigoku means namely literally “came to [our] country” and so the first character was adopted as name of the school and the second character, koku/goku or in its Japanese reading kuni, was adopted as tôri-ji (通字), as distinctive character used in the names of all people belonging to a single clan or school. So raigoku extended by another character became “Rai Kuni-X”, e.g. “Rai Kuniyoshi” (来国吉). This theory, i.e. that Kuniyoshi was from Korea and had immigrated to Japan where he founded the Rai school, is also found amongst Fukunaga Suiken’s (福永酔剣) seven theories on the Rai school’s character “Rai” forwarded in his publication Nihontô-daihyakka-jiten (日本刀大百科事典).
Two more of these seven theories are pretty similar, namely one says that the Rai school’s ancestor – no concrete name is mentioned, just “ancestor” – came from Korea, and one says that Kuniyoshi’s ancestor was from Táng China (唐, 618-907). So these two theories too go with the assumption that the school’s use of the character “Rai” goes back to an earlier immigration. Another, similar theory from the seven says that Kuniyoshi’s supposed son Kuniyuki (国行) was a copper craftsmen from another country (no specification here) who came to Japan, and because his skills were of use for the country, he was granted with the family name “Rai” by the court. This practice was pretty common and we can confirm from historic sources that several Korean immigrants were naturalized by the court and received family names.
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