Sharpness Only Achievable by Artisans

Kurotori Forge began as a branch of the main Kurotori (Kawashima family), recognized as one of Tosa’s leading blacksmiths. In its early days, the forge mainly produced forestry blades essential to the local community, such as planting sickles and branch-cutting hatchets.

Blacksmiths who make agricultural, fishing, and daily tools are called "field blacksmiths (野鍛冶)," notable for crafting tools tailored in size and weight to the user’s needs. This forge continues this field-blacksmith approach, handling everything from production to maintenance.

"Drawing on the foundation of durability and sharpness in forestry blades, we’ve evolved as a field blacksmith by serving the requests of the local community. Today, we fulfill detailed requests such as adjusting the shape or balance of knives, creating practical blades tailored specifically to individual customer needs."

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, demand from inbound customers has risen, and some requests can even lead to a two-year wait.

While some machinery is used as needed, the majority of manufacturing is still done by hand. They forge about 50 pieces and perform heat treatment on about 200 per day, but due to the time-consuming process of heat treating and sharpening, only about 10 finished blades are completed each day.