Life and forging

His life

• 1982. Born in the city of Tottori.
• 2002. Enters the Faculty of Engineering of Tottori University.
• 2008. Becomes an apprentice to the smith Aoki Morie (青木盛家).
• 2015 and 2016. Moves on to train with Osafune Sukemitsu (長船助光) and then with Kubo Yoshihiro (久保善博).
• 2017. Completes the NBTHK course for smiths, the 美術刀剣刀匠技術保存研修会 (Bijutsu Tōken Tōshō Gijutsu Hozon Kenshūkai).
• Until 2022. He is one of the resident smiths at the forge of the 備前長船刀剣博物館 (Bizen Osafune Tōken Hakubutsukan), in Setouchi, with Andō Hiroyasu and Osafune Sukemitsu; the museum’s profile of January 2021 gives him as resident in Setouchi. He leaves on 31 March 2022, by his own account. The museum’s current page gives only Andō.
• Today. He forges in the city of Tottori, in the old province of Inaba; the Zen Nihon Tōshōkai lists him in its Chūgoku and Shikoku section as 大橋悠史 (Ōhashi Yūshi), with the smith’s name 悠史 (Yūshi).

In his own words

In 2022 he was interviewed for two and a half hours by a virtual presenter who is a sword enthusiast: who he is, why he wanted to be a smith, the cat and dog hamon, how one becomes a smith, life in the craft and the succession. He says he took to figurative hamon while training next to the Osafune museum, starting from the kikusui-ba of the mid-Edo period, and that he wants to take the craft towards what can be measured. We take this from a poor-quality automatic transcription; we have not been able to quote it word for word.

Today

From what he shows himself, in Tottori he divides the year between the forge and the fields: in September 2026, the rice harvest.