Yasukuni Yasunori
靖徳 (Yasunori)
A smith from Hiroshima (1881-1957), trained in the Bizen tradition, who was one of the first two smiths of the Yasukuni Shrine forge, in Tokyo, from 1933 to 1940.
Profile
Yasunori was born in 1881 in Nikata, in the Kamo district of Hiroshima, into a family of smiths: he learned from his father, of the second generation, and from Yokoyama Sukeyoshi, who presented himself as the heir of Bizen Tomonari in the fifty-eighth generation. Before coming to Tokyo he signed Ujimasa. The sources do not agree on his family name.
He was 52 when, in 1933, he joined the Nihontō Tanrenkai, the forge of the Yasukuni Shrine, as one of its first two smiths, alongside Miyaguchi Yasuhiro. There he received from the Minister of the Army the name Yasunori (靖徳), which can also be read Yasutoku, with the character yasu (靖) of the shrine; on the blades he made outside the forge he signed Takenori. According to the Token Society of Great Britain, his chōji-midare tempers with tobiyaki (scattered temper spots) pushed to the limit what the committee that reviewed the blades would accept.
He left Yasukuni in 1940 and went on forging in his native region, where he signed Masamune. At the forge he trained several smiths who also carry the character yasu, such as Yasuoki and a second Yasunori (靖憲). He died in 1957, according to the same society.