Kantei
Five photos together of the workshop: a box, the smith in white before the fire, a wooden figure, a heap of iron shavings and a log with a knife.

Photo: the smith himself

From Niigata to Tokyo

Life and forging

He was born in Echigo, learned in Tokyo under Yoshihara Yoshindo, forged in Niigata and in Okayama, and today signs as a resident of the capital.

On this page
  1. Training
  2. Licence and forges
  3. Outside the competition

Training

  • He was born in 1948 in Kurosaki (Nishikanbara district, today the city of Niigata). He became interested in the sword as a student.
  • In 1969 he became a pupil of 吉原義人 (Yoshihara Yoshindo), from whom he takes the character 義 (yoshi) of his smith name, and stayed with him until 1976. In 1972 he graduated from the College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine of Nihon University.
  • The Japanese Wikipedia, in its entry on Yoshihara Yoshindo, lists him as his pupil, a mukansa and an intangible cultural asset of Katsushika.

Licence and forges

  • In 1975 he received his licence from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, joined the Zen Nihon Tōshōkai (全日本刀匠会, Zen Nihon Tōshōkai), the swordsmiths’ association, and submitted his first work to the NBTHK new-work exhibition.
  • In 1976 he opened his forge in Niigata. In 1994 a forge was set up for him in Okayama, the 桑野刀剣鍛錬所 (Kuwano tōken tanrenjo), and his works of those years bear 於備前國 (oite Bizen no kuni, “in the province of Bizen”).
  • Today the NBTHK lists give him in Tokyo, and his recent works bear 東都住人 (Tōto jūnin, “resident of the eastern capital”). His workshop is in Takasago, in Katsushika ward.
Four photos together: steel bars leaning on a shelf, a half-finished blade, a man with glasses writing at a table and a workshop machine.
Steel bars, a half-forged blade and the work at the table. Photo: the smith himself

Outside the competition

  • In 1991, a solo exhibition on his jūka-chōji at the Hayashibara Museum in Okayama, “大野義光 重花丁子の世界 ―古備前を追う―” (Ōno Yoshimitsu jūka-chōji no sekai: Ko-Bizen o ou; the world of jūka-chōji: in pursuit of Ko-Bizen).
  • In 1996 he made the copy of a black tachi of the 正倉院 (Shōsōin), the 黒作大刀 (kurozukuri no tachi), and he forged spears and votive swords for the renewals of the Ise shrine (式年遷宮, shikinen sengū). The Ise dates do not match: Katsushika ward gives 1993 and 2013; he gives 1989, 2006 and 2008.
  • In 2005 he exhibited with the Yoshihara school at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, and in 2007 he gave a forging demonstration in London.
  • He appeared in the Discovery Channel programme “Weapon Masters”, filmed at his Okayama forge. The year, 2006 or 2008 depending on the source.
  • In 2012 Katsushika ward designated him an intangible cultural asset; the Japanese Wikipedia also records it.
  • In February 2025, for his fifty years of forging, he held his first solo exhibition in Tokyo, with a talk of his own and copies of the Sanchōmō and the Tonbokiri. It was announced by the Zen Nihon Tōshōkai.
  • He appears as a judge, up to 2026, in the lists of some technical new-work exhibitions organised by another foundation in the field, in which he had exhibited as a guest in 2014.