(also known as Yasunori, 7 January 1909 - 1 March 2003) was the last

Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Empire of Japan, Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, First Sino-Japane ...

swordsmith Bladesmithing is the art of making knives, swords, daggers and other blades using a forge, hammer, anvil, and other smithing tools. Bladesmiths employ a variety of metalworking techniques similar to those used by blacksmiths, as well as woodworkin ...

Early history

Kotani Kenzo was born on 7 January 1909 as the eldest son of a

toolmaker Tool and die makers are highly skilled crafters working in the manufacturing, manufacturing industries. Tool and die makers work primarily in toolroom environments—sometimes literally in one room but more often in an environment with flexible, ...

Kure is a city in the Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 208,024 in 106,616 households and a population density of 590 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . With a strong industrial and naval heritage, ...

, Hiroshima Prefecture. In his adolescent years he was apprenticed to his uncle Kajiyama Tokutaro (his mother's brother) who, along with his younger cousin Kajiyama Toshimichi, became (sword assistants). In 1933 they were summoned to Tokyo to work at the Yasukuni Shrine. The Army and Navy were concerned that the number of swords extant were too few to accommodate the needs of the growing officer corps. With backing from the Household Ministry, the Army Ministry, and the Ministry of Culture, a swordsmithy (the , "Japan sword and forging society") was established on 8 July 1933. Kajiyama Yasutoku and Miyaguchi Yasuhiro were appointed as swordsmiths by Army Minister General

Sadao Araki Baron was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II. As one of the principal nationalist right-wing political theorists in the Empire of Japan, he was regarded as the leader of the radical faction within the polit ...

. The

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

was taken from the shrine and affixed with a character from their personal names () to form their sword names. Kotani Kenzo and his cousin Kajiyama Toshimichi were their uncle's assistants.

Yasukuni Shrine 1933–1945

In 1933, Kotani was summoned, along with his uncle and cousin, to Tokyo from Hiroshima to work at the Yasukuni shrine. On 10 July 1935 Kotani, as the senior sword student (), became the next official Yasukuni Shrine swordsmith and was given the name by the Minister of War, Lieutenant General Hayashi Senjuro. From 1935 to 1938 he won more prizes at the shrine than his uncle and other senior swordmakers like Ikeda Yasumistu and Miyaguchi Yasuhiro. During that time, he won eight or nine prizes annually for high quality. He was selected to make swords for officers such as Field Marshal

Hisaichi Terauchi Count was a '' Gensui'' (or field marshal) in the Imperial Japanese Army, commander of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group during World War II. Biography Early military career Terauchi was born in Tokyo Prefecture, and was the eldest son of ...

and Prince

Morihiro Higashikuni , formerly was an Imperial Japanese Army officer who was a member of a cadet line of the Japanese imperial family, grandson of Emperor Meiji and husband of Shigeko Higashikuni, eldest child of Emperor Hirohito and Empress Kōjun. Early life ...

Yasunori used this name throughout his time at the shrine and worked not only the longest but was the most prolific, having produced over 1600 swords during his time there. In 1938, General , '' aide-de-camp'' to the Emperor, awarded the character from his name to Yasunori, as he had earlier done for Yasunori's uncle, Yasutoku, on 13 September 1934. Their new names and were to be signed on swords made outside the shrine.

Working style

Swords made by the Kajiyama group strive to emulate the Nagamitsu/Kagemitsu style of the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

as directed by the Directors of the Nipponto Tanrankai. Swords by this group were done in or style in . Sometimes can be seen in their work, particularly in that done by Yasunori and his uncle Yasutoku. Yasutoshi (Yasunori's cousin) made his swords truer than both his father in that he made his out of pure . Their Nakago were finished in (Yasutoku) or (Yasunori and Yasutoshi) and generally in a of 60–66 cm. However, he sometimes produced special orders with longer lengths like 69–70 cm. When the war ended in September 1945, crafting at the shrine ceased. Yasunori did not return to swordmaking until 1970 and stopped making swords in 1983.

Sources

* Fujishiro, Okisato Yasukuni-to, Token Bijutsu, June 1981 * Han, Bing Siong, The Significance of the Yasukuni Shrine in Contemporary Sword History, 1989 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kotani, Kenzo 1909 births 2003 deaths Japanese swordsmiths People from Kure, Hiroshima

Early history

Yasukuni Shrine 1933–1945

Working style

See also

Sources