Newly Forged Japanese Katana by Masaya (正也) — The Swordsmith of Mino

A Mino swordsmith born to the forge, honored with the 2024 Kanzan Prize, who sets his sights on mastering all five of the classical sword traditions.

Masaya (正也), whose given name is Yoshida Masaya (吉田正也), is a modern swordsmith working in Mino Province (present-day Gifu). Raised beside the fire of a working forge and trained by his own father, he is one of the accomplished younger smiths carrying the traditions of the Japanese sword into the present day — a maker whose work has already been recognized with one of the field's most prestigious honors, the Kanzan Prize.

The path to the forge

Masaya's road to swordsmithing began at home. His father was himself a swordsmith — the smith Yoshida Masaaki II (二代 吉田正明) — and it was watching and absorbing his father's craft that drew Masaya to the anvil. Rather than coming to the forge from the outside, he grew up within the living tradition of sword-making, and chose to make it his own life's work.

Profile and training

In April 1999, at the age of twenty, Masaya formally entered his father's forge and began his apprenticeship as a swordsmith. After years of rigorous training in every stage of the craft — from the forging of the steel to the shaping and tempering of the blade — he obtained his swordsmith's license at the age of twenty-five, and has worked as an independent maker ever since, continuing to refine both his technique and his eye.

Awards and recognition

Masaya has built a steady record of results at the leading juried exhibitions. In 2024 he was awarded the Kanzan Prize at the Modern Swordsmith Exhibition (Gendai Tōshoku-ten), hosted by the NBTHK — a highly prestigious honor among today's makers. He has also been recognized at the Omamori-gatana ("guardian sword") Exhibition and at the Sword-Craft Technical Exhibition for newly made Japanese swords (polishing and mounting), marking him as a smith of proven, award-winning ability.

His aim — the Five Traditions (Gokaden)

Masaya's ambition is a demanding one: to master and work freely in all five of the great classical traditions of the Japanese sword — Bizen, Sōshū, Mino, Yamashiro and Yamato. Each tradition has its own distinct steel, temper and spirit, and to command all five is the mark of a truly complete swordsmith, in the manner of the great revival masters. He is especially noted for his renderings of the flamboyant Bizen style, including homages to the celebrated "Yamatorige" (his Yamatorige utsushi), and he continues to study and forge toward the full range of the Gokaden — fusing sound traditional method with his own aesthetic to create blades that carry the beauty and spirit of the Japanese sword to the next generation and to the wider world.