Katsushige Anryu

“Iron is alive; it can live or die depending on the blacksmith.” – Serious words from a serious blacksmith. With over 50 years of blacksmithing under his belt, Katsushige Anryu doesn’t mess around, blacksmithing is in his blood. He’s always striving to make better knives, so as to please the chefs that use them. In 1959, after graduating high school, he started apprenticing under his father, carrying on a family tradition of forging knives that has carried on since 1870. Awesome.

Despite his age, Anryu-san continues as one of the figure-heads in Takefu Knife Village, where him and several other craftsmen work to preserve their art.