MitsuoYamatsuka

The story

Sharpener, not blacksmith. In Sakai those are two different trades, and Mitsuo Yamatsuka (山塚光雄) has spent his working life on the second side of that line.

He has been at it since 1973. That year comes from the national register of traditional craftsmen, and it is worth saying that Sakai City's own paperwork says 1974. James looked at the two and told us to take the national record and cite it, so that is what we have done.

The register lists his signature technique as kasumi, カスミ研ぎ, the hazy finish where the hard steel and the soft jacket come up as two distinct tones. Aoki Hamono's roster widens it to single-bevel, mirror and double-bevel sharpening. Sakai City went further when it made him a craftsmanship meister in 2015, describing the thing he is actually admired for: single-bevel kasumi and natural-stone finishing, done while correcting the shape and the posture of the blade rather than merely abrading it. That last part is the whole job. A sharpener who only removes metal will hand you a sharp knife with a wandering line.

He was certified 伝統工芸士 in 1999. Retailer accounts say he set up his own workshop, 山塚刃物研磨所, in 1985, and record a prefectural craft merit award in 2014.

You will find his name on knives someone else forged. Retailer listings put him as the sharpener on a Doi-forged Hien, and on the Rinka, a blade forged by the blacksmith Yamatsuka Takuji and engraved by Michiko Kubota. That is Sakai in a single object: three specialists, one knife, and no one of them able to finish it alone.

Aoki's roster says he stands at the sharpening station daily and is passing the craft to his two sons, both sharpeners, each described as carrying the technique they had from their father. There is a separate Yamatsuka line of blacksmiths on the same roster. The sources do not tell us how the two families connect, so we have not guessed.

These days he also marks other people's work. A Sakai City release in 2025 has him sitting on the examination committee that certifies the next generation of traditional craftsmen, and demonstrating knife sharpening abroad.