The apprenticeship
He is from Ōita Prefecture and was 57 in December 2024, according to a neighbourhood newsletter that visited his workshop. He learned with the swordsmith Matsunaga, of the 松永日本刀鍛錬所 (Matsunaga Nihontō Tanrenjo) in Arao (Fukuoka). He entered the workshop in 2017; the licence from the Agency for Cultural Affairs dates from 2019, and his independence from 2020.
The Misa workshop
His workshop, the 清明日本刀鍛錬場 (Seimei Nihontō Tanrenjō), is in the Misa district, in the city of Ōita. Every year he opens the forge with the fire-lighting ceremony, the 火入れ式 (hiire-shiki); at the one on 9 January 2023, he, Kōroki Fusaoki and two other swordsmiths folded steel in public. In 2024 he had two pupils.
The sword of Bungo
He drives the project to revive the sword of Bungo (豊後刀, Bungo-tō) with tatara steel made from the iron sand of the Ōno river. On 4 October 2024 he visited the governor of Ōita with Kōroki Fusaoki to tell him about his prize, with his prize-winning swords and tamahagane (玉鋼, tamahagane) made from that sand.
His smith’s name, 平 (Taira), comes from 平高田 (Taira-Takada), the old Takada school; he wants to bring craftsmen together in the Takada district and recreate the dark blue steel of the Bungo swords.
He exhibited current works in the exhibition 大分の名刀 (Ōita no meitō, “The famous swords of Ōita”) at the Ōita Prefectural History Museum, with a panel asking what the sword of Bungo is, “the question that keeps him awake at night”.
He became a swordsmith because it would pain him to see this culture and this tradition lost; he wants to forge for ten or twenty more years and hand the technique on to others.