Why Tozando Exists — The Italian Kendo Team and the Company That Was Never Supposed to Happen

Tozando was not founded because someone saw a business opportunity. It was founded because a young man agreed to serve as an interpreter for an Italian kendo team visiting Japan — and saw something that he could not look away from. What he saw was not a market gap. It was a group of people who loved something deeply, and who were being prevented from fully pursuing it by barriers that had nothing to do with their dedication or their ability. That moment, and the decision it produced, is why Tozando exists today — and why everything the company has done across thirty-five years traces back to a single principle: if someone is being prevented from reaching something they love, and you can remove that barrier, you should.

The Italian Kendo Team — What Kimura Takahiko Saw

Before Tozando existed, Kimura Takahiko was a young man in Kyoto with a strong connection to Japan's martial arts world and an ability in languages that led to an unusual opportunity: he was asked to serve as interpreter for an Italian kendo team that had come to Japan.

What he observed during that interpreting assignment became the founding moment of everything Tozando has since become. The Italian team's members were carefully maintaining and using equipment that in Japan would long since have been replaced as worn out. When Kimura asked them about it, the answer was clear: without today's internet commerce, bamboo swords, kendo uniforms, and protective armour were nearly impossible to obtain outside Japan. Even when they could be found, the cost was prohibitive.

This was not a minor inconvenience. It was a structural barrier — a wall between people who genuinely loved kendo and the practice of it, erected not by any lack of commitment on their part but by the simple fact that the supply chain for Japanese martial arts equipment stopped at Japan's borders. Kendo and Japan's other martial arts are wonderful — there are many people around the world who want to begin martial arts practice — but equipment distribution, price, and payment methods were acting as obstacles. Kimura saw this and thought: if I can solve these problems and help these people, I will.

In 1989, he founded Tozando in Kyoto. The company's initial purpose was exactly what that Italian kendo team needed: to make Japanese martial arts equipment accessible to practitioners around the world, at reasonable prices, through reliable supply channels. The rest — the nihonto division, Gallery Tozando, the Bizen Osafune Bussankan, thirty-five years of international dealing — grew from that original act of wanting to help.

The Principle That Followed — 常に人々に喜ばれる企業であり続ける

Tozando's founding principle — tsuneni hitobito ni yorokobareru kigyō de aritsuzukeru — translates as "to always be a company that brings joy to people." Every word of it is deliberate.

"Always" — not when it is convenient, not when the market is good, not when the product is easy to supply. The Italian kendo team's members did not need equipment when it was convenient to supply it. They needed it when they needed it. The commitment is continuous.

"People" — not customers, not market segments, not revenue categories. The Italian team members were not customers when Kimura first encountered them. They were people who loved something and were being prevented from fully pursuing it. The distinction matters: a customer orientation asks what people will pay for; a people orientation asks what people need.

"Joy" — not satisfaction, not acceptable service, not the absence of complaints. Joy is a higher standard. A customer who receives what they ordered on time has been served. A customer who receives something that enables them to pursue what they love more deeply has been given joy. Tozando's founding principle sets the higher bar.

"Continue" — the principle is not a state to achieve but a commitment to sustain. Thirty-five years of continuing is the only demonstration of the principle that means anything. Anyone can claim a principle. The question is whether the organisation has continued to embody it when continuation was difficult.

From Kendo Equipment to Japanese Swords — The Same Principle, a Different Object

The expansion from martial arts equipment into nihonto was not a strategic pivot. It was the same principle finding a new application. If the barrier facing the Italian kendo team was distribution, price, and payment — the barriers facing international collectors of genuine Japanese swords were even more formidable: the authentication system was opaque, the export process was complex, the language barrier was complete, and the personal relationships needed to access significant pieces took decades to build.

Tozando's answer to these barriers was the same answer Kimura had given to the Italian kendo team: solve the distribution problem, make the price transparent, facilitate the payment process, and — critically — provide the knowledge and relationships that international buyers could not build for themselves. The nihonto division was built on the same architecture as the original company: identify the barrier between people and what they love, and remove it.

• 1989 — Foundation Kimura Takahiko founds Tozando in Kyoto, motivated by the Italian kendo team encounter. Initial focus: Japanese martial arts equipment for international practitioners.
• 1990s — International expansion Tozando establishes shipping relationships across Europe, North America, and Australasia. The principle of removing barriers — distribution, price, payment — is applied systematically to new markets.
• 2000s — Nihonto division development The Japanese sword division grows as international collector demand develops. Tozando's position in Japan's sword world deepens through NBTHK membership and relationships with smiths, polishers, and appraisers.
• 2010s — Gallery Tozando and modern fine art Gallery Tozando opens in Kyoto's Shogoin district, dedicated to modern fine art swords by Mukansa-level smiths. Participation in LVMH Paris and New York's Salon Art + Design extends Tozando's international profile.
• 2020 — Bizen Osafune Bussankan Tozando is appointed by Setouchi City as designated management operator of the Bizen Osafune Bussankan — adjacent to the museum that houses Sanchomo, a National Treasure — placing Tozando at the historical heart of Japanese sword production.
• 2026 — 37th year Tozando continues in Kyoto, with three showroom locations, shipping to more than seventy countries, and a nihonto collection spanning antique blades from the Kamakura period through works by the finest living smiths.

In Closing — The Company That Was Never Supposed to Happen

Tozando was never supposed to happen. Kimura Takahiko was not planning to found a company. He was planning to help as an interpreter. But what he saw during that interpreting assignment — the worn equipment being maintained with care, the explanation of why replacement was impossible, the quiet gap between what these people loved and what they could access — produced a decision that could not be unmade.

Companies founded to exploit opportunities tend to follow the opportunity wherever it leads. Companies founded to solve a specific problem for specific people tend to remain oriented around that problem, even as they grow. Tozando has grown considerably from its 1989 origins — three Kyoto showrooms, seventy countries, a nihonto division that reaches back to the Kamakura period and forward to the finest living smiths. But the orientation has not changed.

Somewhere today, there is a person who loves Japanese swords and who is being prevented from fully pursuing that love by barriers of knowledge, process, language, or access. Tozando exists to remove those barriers. It has existed for that purpose since 1989. The Italian kendo team that started it all would, we hope, recognise what we have become — and understand why.