Horii Taneyoshi
堀井胤吉 (Horii Taneyoshi)
A smith from Ōmi, born in 1821, trained with Gassan Sadayoshi and Taikei Naotane, who served the Zeze domain and heads the Horii line from which the Muroran forge would come.
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Horii Taneyoshi was born in 1821 in Terabe, next to the Ishiyama-dera temple, in Ōmi, into a family of farm-tool smiths. According to the National Diet Library he learned to forge swords with Gassan Sadayoshi, in Ōsaka, and with Taikei Naotane, in Edo, both counted by tradition among the pupils of Suishinshi Masahide. In 1863 he entered the service of the Zeze domain.
After the Meiji Restoration he went back to the countryside but did not give up the forge, and he also worked as a smith to the Imperial Household. From 1893 he was a friend of the writer Shimazaki Tōson. His heir was his nephew, Horii Taneaki, whom he trained and adopted.