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Year by year
| Year | Event | Level |
|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Born in Fukuoka prefecture, into a family with no connection to the sword. | HD |
| High school | In his second year he reads 『刀匠が語る日本刀の魅力』 (Tōshō ga kataru nihontō no miryoku, “The appeal of the Japanese sword, told by a swordsmith”), the book by Kawachi Kunihira. He admires his way of life and decides to become a swordsmith. | HD |
| 2008 | Enters as uchi-deshi, a live-in pupil, at Kunihira’s forge in Higashi-Yoshino (東吉野, Higashi-Yoshino), in Nara. | HD |
| — | Receives from his master the name Kunizane (國真): the 國 (kuni) is that of Kunihira (國平). | AT |
| 2014 | Licence from the Agency for Cultural Affairs to forge swords. | HD |
| 2015 | First entry in the NBTHK competition, then the Shinsaku Meitōten, with the tachi 初鍛 (Hatsu kitae). | HD |
| 2016 | The tachi 花月 (Kagetsu) is his last work at his master’s forge. | AT |
| 2017 or 2021 | His own forge, 國真鍛刀場 (Kunizane tantōjō), in Yamazoe. He says he opened it in 2017, and the 2017 NBTHK catalogue already gives him as “山添住” (Yamazoe-jū), resident of Yamazoe; the 2024 NBTHK journal dates it to 2021. | PC |
| 2022–2024 | In the NBTHK catalogues he is listed under another civil surname; in 2025 he goes back to the previous one. | HD |
| From 2022 | Signs 金田清水國真 (Kaneda Shimizu Kunizane), and still does in 2026; in 2017 he signed 金田國真 (Kaneda Kunizane), and in 2021, 神野山人金田七郎國真 (Kōnoyama-bito Kaneda Shichirō Kunizane). | HD |
| — | The sources do not say why he changed his civil surname or his signature. | PC |
「刀を通して、人生の支えになりたい」 (Katana o tōshite, jinsei no sasae ni naritai: “through the sword, I want to be a support in the life of whoever owns it”). The sword is no longer a weapon, he says, but it still accompanies its owner.
