The most important part of this trip is to again visit Sakai Takayuki to discuss about the status of my custom line.
This is the main office of Aoki Hamono
The very first thing you see when you go in is this huge knife cabinet, and this is just a small part of their full collection.
Itsuo Doi - Forging Sakai Takayuki Hienn Kiritsuke Yanagiba
We then went to visit their factory, and shot a complete video about how to forge a blade from start to finish, presented by master Itsuo Doi. (too see the video in high-def, please check it out here:
)
Mr. Itsuo Doi forging Sakai Takayuki Hienn (Kiritsuke Yanagiba)
Cutting the blade according to template
stamping the back
the steel punches, the left is the famous "Doi" logo that was shared by his grandfather Kazuo Doi and father Keijiro Doi; middle is "Sakai Takayuki" (堺孝行) and the right is "Blue 2" (青二鋼).
Finished Sakai Takayuki "Hienn" kiritsuke yanagiba before heat treatment.
Hirosugu Tosa - Sharpening Sakai Takayuki Hienn Kiritsuke Yanagiba
the next stop was visiting Mr. Hirosugu Tosa, a master sharpener who produces some of the best sharpening work at the Sakai city. Tosa-san received the highest award of Dentou Kougeishi (Traditional Skilled Craftsman, 伝統工芸士).
Unfortunately one of my camera was out of battery so I didn't take any photo. Video to be uploaded soon.
[Restored July 2026: this 2014 post was lost in a site migration and has been brought back from the Internet Archive, with all seven original photographs recovered at full quality from our own photo archive.]
