Nigara Forging

Bladesmith

Toshihisa Yoshizawa is president and CEO of Nigara Forging, a fourteenth-generation family business in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, making quality knives and steel construction products. He was trained from a young age to follow in the Nigara family tradition as a bladesmith. Go Yoshizawa, Toshihisa Yoshizawa’s eldest son, will take over the business one day.

More than 350 years ago, the ancestors of Nigara Forging were appointed as armourers to the ruler of the Tsugaru Domain. Much later, in the early days of the Shōwa era (1926–1989) one of their descendants, Kunitoshi Nigara, the noble fifth generation, distinguished himself in the production of excellent Japanese swords. During this period he was recognized as one of the Living Treasures of Aomori Prefecture. He passed on his expertise as a bladesmith to Toshihisa Yoshizawa.