Yoshikazu Ikeda

Ikeda Tanrenjo (池田鍛錬所) is the forge of Yoshikazu Ikeda (池田美和) in Sakai. He began making knives in 1967 under his father, a blacksmith, set up on his own in 1983, and describes himself as carrying on Sakai's forged-knife technique. He makes mainly professional Japanese knives, such as water-quenched honyaki (mizu-honyaki) and suminagashi, and honyaki is his specialty.

His own profile page says that when he started under his father he wondered whether he would last the summer staring at the red charcoal. He says his hands are not clever but clumsy and stubborn, stubborn enough to hammer the metal again and again.

His page lists his honours: certified as a traditional craftsman by METI in 1988, the Sakai City Special Contribution Award in 1999, the Kansai Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry Award in 2004, and Osaka Prefecture's Master Craftsman in Naniwa in 2014.

The knives we list are all honyaki. In Blue 1 there are mizu-honyaki yanagiba and K-tip yanagiba, some as sets with moribashi; in White 1, a mizu-honyaki sakimaru takohiki with a Mt. Fuji hamon, a kachikaeshi gyuto set and a wave hamon yanagiba sold as a blade only; in White 3, honyaki sakimaru sujihiki, some with a Mt. Fuji hamon, and a gyuto. There is also a Western-handled honyaki sakimaru sujihiki.