Kantei
A man seated before the lit forge, in a workshop lit by the fire.

Photo: the smith himself

Miyairi Yukihira · Kanbayashi Kōhei · Yaita

Life and forging

He entered the forge of a Living National Treasure at eighteen and has been forging in Yaita since 1983.

On this page
  1. Training
  2. In Tochigi
  3. What he thinks

Training

  • He was born in 1957 in Tochigi Prefecture.
  • In 1975 he became a pupil of 宮入行平 (Miyairi Yukihira), a Living National Treasure; on his death he went on to study with 上林恒平 (Kanbayashi Kōhei). The Japanese Wikipedia gives 1977 as the year of Yukihira’s death.
  • In 1980 he received his licence from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and in 1981 he submitted a work to the NBTHK new-work exhibition for the first time, with a 努力賞 (Doryokushō).
  • In 1983 he became independent in Yaita, where he has his forge, in Kobata.
A man in a black apron, seated by the forge under a smoke hood, with a burst of flame.
By the forge. Photo: the smith himself

In Tochigi

  • In 2000 he received the Tochigi Prefecture culture encouragement prize.
  • Since 2004 he has been an examiner for the prefecture’s register of firearms and swords, and he is an adviser to the Tochigi branch of the NBTHK. He has given talks in Yaita, at schools in Tochigi, in Tsuruoka (Yamagata) and at the citizens’ university of Utsunomiya; in 2007 he exhibited with two other Tochigi swordsmiths.
  • From 2011 to 2018 he did the votive forging at the Futarasan shrine in Utsunomiya for the bellows festival (ふいご祭, fuigo matsuri).
  • In 2015 he forged the votive tachi for the 400th anniversary of the 日光東照宮 (Nikkō Tōshōgū), which is displayed in its treasure museum.
  • In 2019 his 2016 tachi entered the catalogue of the NBTHK Heisei no Meitō Meikōten exhibition.

What he thinks

“Swords are weapons”; after the war, he says, the only path left to swordsmiths was the art sword. From his masters he remembers the watchword of passing on the technique without losing it and, if possible, adding a new one. And he sums up: “purely and simply, I like swords”.