Craftsman
小田幸徳
YukinoriOda
The story
In Sakai, forging a knife and sharpening it are two different jobs held by two different people. Yukinori Oda (小田幸徳), now retired, did the second one: his name sits on the sharpeners' roster, 研師, of the association that certified him. He worked in-house, sharpening inside Sakai Takayuki's factory rather than taking blades out to a shop of his own.
That association's register, 堺打刃物伝統工芸士会, holds the rest of the record. It has him in the craft since 1954, certified a Traditional Craftsman, 伝統工芸士, in 1987, and awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Silver Rays, 瑞宝単光章, in 2007. It also names him a Sakai City Monozukuri Meister, 堺市ものづくりマイスター. Under technique it gives him one entry: kasumi, 霞研ぎ — the finish on a clad blade where the hard steel core and the softer jacket around it come up as two different tones. He also served as head of a sharpeners' association, though the record we have does not name which one.
James met him in 2014, at the Aoki Hamono factory. He wrote about the trip on kitchenknifeforums that November, and what he singled out was Oda's sharpening. We still hold the photographs from that day, and we know which man in them is Oda.
His way out was not one clean step: he retired, came back out and worked again, and is now retired for good. We are not going to put a year on that, because the account we trust does not give one. The sharpening on the current Doi-forged Sakai Takayuki top lines belongs to Mitsuo Yamatsuka (山塚光雄) and others now. Oda is on this site as one of the hands the Sakai system was built on, not as a maker whose work we still carry.
In photographs
From our 2014 visit to the Aoki Hamono factory in Sakai
Frequently asked questions
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We trust this information is correct at the time of writing, but it is not an official document and details may change without notice. If you spot an error, tell us and we'll fix it.
