Kantei

From Osaka to Higashi-Yoshino

Life and forging

A Law graduate who learned from two Living National Treasures and has spent more than fifty years at the same forge.

On this page
  1. Training
  2. Recognition and public commissions
  3. The forge
  4. Teaching and books

Training

He was born on 1 October 1941 in Osaka, the second son of the 14th Kawachi-no-kami Kunisuke. He graduated in Law from Kansai University in 1966, having earlier studied archaeology with Suenaga Masao; he then became an apprentice of Miyairi Akihira, who later signed Yukihira and was a Living National Treasure, to learn the Sōshū-den. That is how he tells it.

In 1972 he set up on his own and opened his forge in Hirano, in Higashi-Yoshino. In 1984 he joined the Living National Treasure Sumitani Masamine to learn the Bizen-den, and in 1995 he studied the Yamato-den.

A man with a cloth tied round his head works beside a hearth with flames and sparks.
Kawachi Kunihira at the hearth. Photo: 宮田昌彦 (Miyata Masahiko) · © 宮田昌彦 (Miyata Masahiko)

Recognition and public commissions

In 1989 the village of Higashi-Yoshino declared him an intangible cultural property, and in 2005, Nara prefecture. He forged tachi and spears for the 61st and 62nd ritual rebuildings of the Ise shrine (式年遷宮, Shikinen Sengū). The dates do not match: Wikipedia gives 1993 and 2013, the years of the rebuildings, and he gives earlier years of forging (from 1972 to 1987, and 2007).

Between 2005 and 2006 he took part in the reconstruction of the 七支刀 (Shichishitō, the seven-branched sword) of the 石上神宮 (Isonokami Jingū) shrine, and in 2010 he proposed that the original had been cast and not forged. He received the 現代の名工 (Gendai no Meikō) award for Technical Excellence in 2010, the Medal with Yellow Ribbon in 2014 and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays, in 2019.

Teaching and books

He has taught on the courses of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, at the Tokyo University of the Arts and at Kansai University, according to him. He published 『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”, 2003) with Manabe Isai, and 『復元七支刀』 (Fukugen Shichishitō, “The Shichishitō reconstructed”, 2006). He has appeared on NHK programmes such as 「美の壺」 (Bi no tsubo, 2016) and 「英雄たちの選択」 (Eiyū-tachi no sentaku, 2020).