Itsuo Doi

The story

Itsuo Doi (土井逸夫) is a Sakai forging blacksmith (鍛冶師) on the craftsman roster of Aoki Hamono, the maker behind the Sakai Takayuki brand. The roster gives his specialty as 打物, forged work, and says he keeps making blades day after day in the belief that steel grows stronger the more it is forged.

He trained under his father, Keijiro Doi (土井敬次郎), whom the same roster calls a father praised as a master craftsman, and took on his secret techniques (秘伝の技). Keijiro died in November 2017, aged ninety. The process the Doi forge hands down is low temperature joining with controlled hammer forging, on Yasuki Aogami #2.

Aoki Hamono's own page for the Hien (飛燕) series describes a katana-evoking Aogami #2 blade and credits it to him as the Sakai smith who inherited the secret techniques across three generations. He forges double-bevel knives too: the maker's news page credits him with the Homura Guren (焔紅蓮) series, Aogami #2 kurouchi in a 150mm petty, a 180mm nakiri and a 240mm gyuto.

He once held the traditional craftsman title (伝統工芸士) and later gave it up, as Sakai Takayuki confirmed to us when we asked; the reason is not known.

We first visited his forge in July 2014, in summer heat that had us sweating from about five meters away while he worked fully covered against the forge. We came back that November, again in April 2022, just after Covid, and again in December 2023, when we photographed him at the charcoal forge. The photographs and the story of those visits are in Three visits to Itsuo Doi, on our blog.