Kantei
Vertical poster: a swordsmith with glasses and a cloth on his head works before the hearth amid sparks; a large title in Japanese.

Swordsmith of Shōbara · NBTHK mukansa

Kubo Yoshihiro (久保善博)

A Shōbara swordsmith, pupil of Yoshihara Yoshindo, who studies utsuri and furnace steel with laboratory methods: his life, his work, his prizes and his videos

Kubo Yoshihiro (久保善博), who signs 善博 (Yoshihiro), left agricultural chemistry for Yoshihara Yoshindo’s forge and has forged since 2001 in Shōbara (Hiroshima). He pursues the Kamakura Bizen-den with furnace steel (たたら, tatara) and studies it like a scientist. He won the Takamatsu-no-miya Kinenshō in 2015 and in 2017, when the NBTHK made him mukansa. This short monograph tells what can be checked about him, with the level of evidence of each fact.

頼山陽史跡資料館 (Rai San'yō Shiseki Shiryōkan)

1965
Born in Amami-Ōshima (Kagoshima)
1994
Swordsmith’s licence
2015 and 2017
Takamatsu-no-miya Kinenshō (高松宮記念賞)
2017
NBTHK mukansa
On this page
  1. Quick profile
  2. In short

Quick profile

Name
Kubo Yoshihiro HD
Kanji and reading
久保善博 (Kubo Yoshihiro); signs 善博 (Yoshihiro) HD
Birth
1965, on the island of Amami-Ōshima (奄美大島), Kagoshima HD
Where he forges
Saijō (西城町, Saijō-chō), in Shōbara (庄原市, Shōbara-shi), Hiroshima, since 2001 HD
Master
Yoshihara Yoshindo (吉原義人), since 1989 HD
School or tradition
That of Yoshihara; the Kamakura Bizen-den, with furnace steel AT
Licence
1994 AT
Rank
NBTHK mukansa since 2017 HD

In short

What we know. He himself told in the NBTHK magazine, on receiving the 2017 Takamatsu-no-miya Kinenshō, how he came to Yoshihara Yoshindo’s forge in 1989, how he learned the iron furnace in Shimane and how he achieved utsuri in 2006. In 2017 the NBTHK made him mukansa; since then he has exhibited outside judging, and in 2024 with a chokutō forged from Gunma magnetite. He is a holder of intangible cultural properties of Shōbara (2010) and of Hiroshima Prefecture (2016), and in 2021 his copy of the 大般若長光 (Daihannya Nagamitsu) was donated to the Bizen Osafune Japanese Sword Museum.

What we do not know. Whether his Takamatsu-no-miya are two or three, the exact year of his grand prize at the Reiwa exhibition and his prizes of the nineties and two-thousands, except those cited.

Sections

  1. From Amami to Shōbara Life and forging From university to Yoshindo’s forge, the Shimane furnace, his own forge in Shōbara and the scientific papers.
  2. Bizen-den · utsuri Work and style The Kamakura Bizen-den, the utsuri achieved in 2006, the Daihannya Nagamitsu and the works the NBTHK has exhibited.
  3. Two Takamatsu-no-miya and the mukansa Prizes His prizes in the NBTHK competition, the rank of mukansa and those of the masters’ exhibitions, with their discrepancies.
  4. Setouchi and Hiroshima Videos The videos of the city of Setouchi on the Daihannya Nagamitsu and a report by Hiroshima television.
  5. Bibliography and credits Sources The sources consulted and the credits for every image.