The origins of the Kiami School are rather obscure and authorities, when they mention it at all, seem to differ over the details. The consensus, however, appears to be that their origins lie in the Province of Aki in the south of Honshu and Wakayama even records a tsuba signed Hiroshima ju Kiami, Hiroshima being the capital of Aki Province. Haynes (catalogue no.7, lot 67) states that the school, which he chooses to call Goami, originated with a certain swordsmith called Kai Masanaga who worked in the Hiroshima area and one day "added tsuba making to his art as a sword smith'". Joly, however, in the Naunton catalogue states "The first Kiami, Kanenobu, worked in Aki and is said to have been the second Hoan, but it is probable that Kanenobu was the traditional name (torina) of the family as there are great differences in age, style and technique in the pieces signed Kanenobu." This latter point is particularly valid since, as Joly also mentions, there appear to be three quite distinct groups of work which have come down to us today bearing the name Kiami.
The first group is signified by the use of a Tembo-style hot-punched design of mon, calligraphic characters and even flowers. The rather thick iron from which this type of tsuba was made has a slightly coarse grain to it and often nunome work in gold and silver has been used to embellish it. Whilst the nunome work is reminiscent of Shoami decoration, Haynes comments that the kokuin or stamped decoration is usually far superior to that produced by the Tembo. There are some relatively plain, sukashi decorated tsuba that have been given to the Kiami School in the past and Joly illustrates one in Naunton, as no.1127. It is this group that Torigoe refers to in Tsuba Geijutsuko as being "in the Choshu manner".
The last group, characterised by openwork with nunome zogan decoration, is much more in the tradition of some of the Shoami workers, particularly the Awa Shoami whose elaborate use of nunome reaches a peak in the Kenjo or presentation pieces, reputedly made as gifts to be presented to the Shogun by the provincial Daimyos on their semi-annual arrival in the capital.
The Kiami pieces are even more decorative as their makers would make excellent use of ke-bori and relief technique which would be used to both emphasise and to counter-balance the abundant nunome.
Extract from "Tosogu - Treasure of the Samurai"