is a name of a Japanese school of swordsmiths from Higo province who produced swords in the ''Bizen'' tradition during the feudal period of Japan.''The connoisseur's book of Japanese swords''
Kōkan Nagayama, Kodansha International, 1998 9784770020710 P.34, 106, 197

Dotanuki School

The Dotanuki school evolved in Higo Province with its ancestry going back to the famous "Enju Kunimura" (延寿国村). Enju Kunimura founded the Higo Enju school in approximately 1305. Kunimura was born in

Yamato province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, the ...

to the swordsmith Hiromura. He moved to

Yamashiro province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai. It overlaps the southern part of modern Kyoto Prefecture on Honshū. Aliases include , the rare , and . It is classified as an upper province in the ''Engishiki''. Yamashiro Province included Kyoto its ...

, became a student of Rai Kuniyuki, and later married Kuniyuki's daughter. Kunimura then moved to Higo and founded the Enju school. There are only six blades by Kunimura known to exist. The Dotanuki school emerged in the small Higo village of Dotanuki in the mid-16th century, following the decline of the Higo Enju school in the latter part of the Koto period. The Dotanuki school founder is said to be Dotanuki Masakuni, he was called Oyama Kozuke no Suke and his original signature was Nobuyoshi. The famous general

Katō Kiyomasa was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Azuchi–Momoyama and Edo periods. His court title was Higo-no-kami. His name as a child was ''Yashamaru'', and first name was ''Toranosuke''. He was one of Hideyoshi's Seven Spears of Shizugatake. Biography ...

honored Masakuni with one character of his name, and from that point onward Nobuyoshi was known as Masakuni. However, the majority of his works are only signed "Dotanuki Kozuke no Suke". Dotanuki swords quickly gained great popularity among the warrior class due to their superior cutting ability. The Dotanuki smiths cared little for aesthetics, but instead focused on strength, sharpness, and durability in the field. They were renowned for producing blades which would endure the harshest conditions, the most difficult battle field situations and survive to return to battle day after day, year after year.

Fictional references

The dōtanuki has appeared in several entertainment outlets, featured as a blade wider and thicker than any normal build of katana.

Ogami Ittō is a Japanese manga series created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. First published in 1970, the story was adapted into six films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, four plays, a television series starring Kinnosuke Yorozuya, and i ...

in the

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

Lone Wolf and Cub is a Japanese manga series created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. First published in 1970, the story was adapted into six films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, four plays, a television series starring Kinnosuke Yorozuya, and is ...

'' had a dōtanuki (using the spelling 胴太貫 “torso–thick–penetrate”) as his principal weapon. The katana named ''Gassan'' in

Soulcalibur II is a 2002 fighting game developed by Project Soul and published by Namco and the third installment in the ''Soulcalibur'' series of weapon-based fighting games. It is the sequel to ''Soulcalibur'', which was released in July 1998. Originally in ...

and

Soulcalibur III is a fighting video game produced by Namco as a sequel to ''Soulcalibur II'' and the fourth installment in the ''Soulcalibur'' series. It was originally released for the PlayStation 2 in 2005. An improved arcade version, ''Soulcalibur III: Arcad ...

is a dōtanuki. ''Gassan'' is wielded by

Heishiro Mitsurugi , better known as just Mitsurugi, is a fictional character in the ''Soulcalibur'' series of fighting games by Namco. He is a mainstay and one of the most iconic characters in the franchise as one of only four characters to appear as a playable cha ...

in Soulcalibur II. Many works of

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

write ''dōtanuki'' with different characters as 胴田貫 (roughly "torso–

paddy Paddy may refer to: People *Paddy (given name), a list of people with the given name or nickname *An List of ethnic slurs#P, ethnic slur for an Irishman Birds *Paddy (pigeon), a Second World War carrier pigeon *Snowy sheathbill or paddy, a bird ...

–penetrate"), with a folk etymology claiming it is because when used to cut the torso of a cadaver lying down in a paddy, the sword would pierce right through it and into the field. This name and story apparently originated in fiction, as they are not found in any historical manuals or catalogues.

References

External links

Information about nihonto and dōtanuki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dotanuki Japanese swordsmiths