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Quick profile
- Name
- 川島 一城 · かわしま かずき (Kawashima Kazuki) HD
- Documented signatures
- 正城 (まさき, Masaki) in his Zen Nihon Tōshōkai profile and on works of 2005 and 2006; 一城 (Kazuki or Ichijō) on a work of 2016 and in the regional list; “Ichijō” in Paris HD
- Change of signature
- He signed 正城 (Masaki) at least until 2006 and has since also used 一城 (Kazuki or Ichijō); it still needs to be confirmed by him II
- Birth
- 1970 (Shōwa 45), in Aki (Kōchi, Shikoku), not in the old province of Aki; exact date unknown AT
- Age in 2026
- 55 (May and July 2026) HD
- Family
- Eldest son of the blacksmith Kawashima Masahide (川島正秀), “鍛工十四代” (tankō jūyondai), who made cutlery AT
- Swordsmith’s licence
- 1994, 美術刀剣製作認可 (Bijutsu Tōken Seisaku Ninka) from the Agency for Cultural Affairs AT
- Forge
- 川島正城日本刀鍛錬場 (Kawashima Masaki Nihontō Tanrenjō), also 川島一城日本刀鍛錬場 (Kawashima Kazuki Nihontō Tanrenjō): both forms are in use HD
- Forge opened
- 2003 AT
- Place
- Osafune-chō, Setouchi (Okayama) HD
- Own Instagram and YouTube
- We have not found them PC
- Association
- Zen Nihon Tōshōkai (全日本刀匠会), Chūgoku-Shikoku branch HD
- Competitions
- NBTHK 現代刀職展 (Gendai Tōshokuten): 入選七席 (nyūsen shichiseki) in 2025 HD
- Mukansa?
- No. Kawashima is not a mukansa: he competes in the general division HD
- Tradition
- Bizen-den; aims at the Fukuoka Ichimonji with jūka-chōji HD
- Motto
- 「剣心鍛道」 (Kenshin Tandō), the motto he keeps by him when forging AT
- Other work
- Kitchen knives, letter openers and kogatana (he publishes them himself) HD
- Apprentices
- Not documented PC
Biography, year by year
Each row carries its level. The biography before 2018 comes mostly from what he publishes about himself and from the profile he wrote himself, so it is attribution (AT) even where it is plausible.
| Date | Event | Level |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Born in Aki (Kōchi), eldest son of the blacksmith Kawashima Masahide (川島正秀), who presents himself as the 14th generation of blacksmiths in the family. | AT |
| Childhood | Works as mukōzuchi, the sledgehammer assistant, in his father’s smithy. In his text “火花を見て育つ！！－父と私―” (“I grew up watching sparks! My father and I”) he tells how he decided to “express the world through the sword” while watching his father’s pieces. | AT |
| 1989 | Finishes secondary school in Aki and is apprenticed to the swordsmith Nakata Masanao (中田正直) in Seki (Gifu). The long video: “18歳で刀鍛冶の道に入る” (“at 18 he enters the path of the swordsmith”). | AT |
| 1989–1995 | Six years in his master’s workshop, one more than the minimum of five, “in gratitude for his training”. | AT |
| 1994 | Swordsmith’s licence from the Agency for Cultural Affairs (美術刀剣製作認可, Bijutsu Tōken Seisaku Ninka). | AT |
| June 1995 | A spell on Rebun island (Hokkaidō), on a farm, to clear his head. | AT |
| November 1995 | Studies the Bizen-den in Tokyo with the mukansa Yoshihara Kuniie III (吉原國家). | AT |
| 1996 | Sets up on his own in the forge of the Bizen Osafune museum and takes part for the first time in the NBTHK new-work exhibition, with a 入選 (nyūsen). | AT |
| 2003 | Opens his forge in Osafune: the first new forge in the area in thirteen years, according to OHK. In archive footage, aged 32, he calls it “夢の出発点” (yume no shuppatsuten), “the starting point of the dream”. | AT |
| Around 2004 | Forges some three swords he considers good; after that, “作っても作っても刀に傷が入ってしまった”: however much he forged, they came out with flaws (疵, kizu). | AT |
| 2005 | Doryokushō (努力賞) at the new-work exhibition with a sword signed 備前国長船住正城作 (Bizen no Kuni Osafune-jū Masaki saku): 75.1 cm, sori 2.9 cm, “conceived after Yoshifusa”, of the Fukuoka Ichimonji. We have not found the primary list. | AT |
| 2006 | Tachi signed 長船住人正城作 (Osafune jūnin Masaki saku), dated 平成十八年花見月 (Heisei jūhachinen hanamizuki): 78.2 cm, sori 2.4 cm, with a black-lacquered uchigatana koshirae (he publishes it himself). | HD |
| 10 September 2007 | 2nd Omamori-gatana Tenrankai of the Zen Nihon Tōshōkai, judged at the Bizen Osafune museum: 6th place in the blade division, Okayama Superintendent of Education Prize. | HD |
| November 2014 | Public vote at the Omamori-gatana Tenrankai: 5th place, work no. 19, with 198 votes. | HD |
| 7–8 March 2015 | Solo exhibition in a house by an architecture studio in Kojima-Akasaki (Kurashiki). | HD |
| August 2016 | Sword signed 一城 (Kazuki or Ichijō), dated 平成二十八年八月日 (Heisei nijūhachinen hachigatsu hi): 70.2 cm, sori 2 cm, with the proper name 羽切 (probable reading: Hakiri; he publishes it himself). | HD |
| 2018 or earlier | He states the goal himself: “鎌倉時代に作られた名刀、山鳥毛（やまとりげ）を目指しています” (“My goal is the Yamatorige, the great sword of the Kamakura era”). | HD |
| 23 October 2018 | Takes part in Tokyo in the press conference launching the project to bring the Sanchōmō back to Setouchi (山鳥毛里帰りプロジェクト, probable reading: Sanchōmō Satogaeri Purojekuto), alongside the mayor, Takehisa Akinari. | HD |
| February 2019 | The novelist Wagahara Satoshi visits his forge. Kawashima: “このやり方は、およそ千年、変わっていません” (“this way of doing it has not changed in about a thousand years”); he folds the steel some twelve times. | AT |
| 8 November 2019 | Ceremonial forging as an offering (刀剣鍛錬奉納, Tōken tanren hōnō) at the Bizen-no-kuni Sōjagū, with Kawashima as the offerer and the swordsmiths Kamiyama Kihei and Osafune Sukemitsu on the sledgehammer. | AT |
| December 2022 | The documentary 『揺らぎの聲』 (Yuragi no Koe), by Nishiyama Yūki, about a year of his work, is announced. | HD |
| 2022–2023 | Chosen to forge the tachi offered to the Yukie shrine (靱負神社, Yukie Jinja) in Osafune, dedicated to the god of the forge: the first forging before the shrine since 1925. | AT |
| 5 August 2023 | Ceremonial hardening before the Yukie shrine (神前奉納焼入式, probable reading: shinzen hōnō yaki-ire-shiki), at 19:30. | HD |
| 15 March 2024 | The long Japanese Industry video is published; on 26 September 2026 it has 7.29 million views. | HD |
| 28 November 2024 | Presents in Setouchi the sword that travels to Paris: “武器以上の"日本人が持つ美の感性"をパリの人に見てもらいたい” (“I want people in Paris to see, beyond the weapon, ‘the Japanese sense of beauty’”). | HD |
| 17 December 2024 – 11 January 2025 | Paris, Maison de la culture du Japon: exhibition “Céramiques et sabres de Bizen”, with Kawashima (“Kawashima Ichijou”) and Andō Hiroyasu. | HD |
| 10 April 2025 | NBTHK 現代刀職展 (Gendai Tōshokuten) 2025, tachi, katana, wakizashi, naginata and yari division: 入選七席 (nyūsen shichiseki). | HD |
| 10–13 October 2025 | MEET YOUR ART FESTIVAL 2025: talk on traditional craftsmanship with the Bizen potter Mori Taiga. | HD |
| February–April 2026 | The crowdfunding for the documentary reaches its target. Planned release: December 2026. | HD |
| April 2026 | 現代刀職展 (Gendai Tōshokuten) 2026: he is not listed among the prizewinners or the selections (it is not known whether he entered a work). | HD |
| 20 May 2026 | Presents the wakizashi for Paris: 42.2 cm, chōji hamon, 銘「花都和心」 (mei; probable reading: Kato Washin; “city of flowers, Japanese heart”). It is finished over almost two years by him, five Osafune craftsmen and a cord-wrapper from Gifu, coordinated by the polisher Yokoyama Tomonobu. | HD |
| 28 May – 3 June 2026 | Exhibition in Paris and lecture at the Maison de la culture du Japon, “Gendaitō : le monde fascinant des sabres d'art japonais contemporains” (28 May 2026, 94 attendees). | HD |
| 2 July 2026 | OHK report: he lives at the forge, with well water and no gas; he is preparing a tsuchioki “一文字の山鳥毛を手本にして” (“taking the Ichimonji’s Sanchōmō as a model”) and wants to finish an utsushi of the Sanchōmō “soon”. | HD |
The signatures, work by work HD
He himself published four signatures, with their work:
- 備前国長船住正城作 (Bizen no Kuni Osafune-jū Masaki saku), on the sword of the 2005 Doryokushō;
- 長船住人正城作 (Osafune jūnin Masaki saku), with the date 平成十八年花見月 (Heisei jūhachinen hanamizuki), on the 2006 tachi;
- 備前長船正城作 (Bizen Osafune Masaki saku), on a tantō;
- 一城 (Kazuki or Ichijō), with the date 平成二十八年八月日 (Heisei nijūhachinen hachigatsu hi) and the proper name 羽切 (probable reading: Hakiri), on the 2016 sword.
When he changed from 正城 (Masaki) to 一城 (Kazuki or Ichijō), and whether he now uses both, could not be confirmed with him.
What could not be verified PC
- His exact date of birth.
- An independent source on his father and on the fourteen generations.
- How long he was with Yoshihara Kuniie III.
- Whether he has or has had apprentices.
- The measurements and signature of the 2024–2025 Paris sword and of the Yukie shrine tachi.
- Why what he used to publish about himself is no longer online.