KUDO, Masashige（工藤将成）1-1
Profile
Kiryu City、 Gunma Pref.
Master - FUJIYASU, Masahira(藤安将平)
The swordsmith license authorization in 2003
Kudo swordsmith was born in Kiryu city, Kunma prefecture in 1976 and he grew up in Iruma city until he graduated from high school. He was a kid playing alone in the park and rice fields and he liked to make plastic models when he was in elementary school. He used to make jet aircrafts plastic models only which might be influenced by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force in Iruma city. During the middle and high school days, he belonged to the soft tennis and table tennis clubs. Although he was going to college-preparatory school, he was not interested in going to college at all. He was a boy who was interested in craftsmanship such as onigawara and carpenters.
One night when he was a sophomore in high school, he watched a Japanese sword program on TV and it inspired him to be a swordsmith. Intuitively he felt that he wanted to be a swordsmith. However, when he consulted with his parents, they opposed his dream. So he started his self-education by buying some books related to Japanese swords. One day, one of his relatives in Gunma sent him the newspaper article of Living National Treasure Shunpei Osumi swordsmith. He immediately sent a letter to him requesting a tour to watch his work. Then he visited Osumi swordsmith forge several times and during the summer vacation in senior year of high school, he could have a live-experience of 3 days staying 2 nights at his house.
note:
onigawara is one of the decorative tiles to be installed at the corner of roof top. “Oni” means demon and they are aimed at warding off evil to protect that family and house.
