Tsukasa Hinoura represents the third generation of his family‘s forging tradition. As a young craftsman, his role models were Nagashima and Shigeyoshi Iwasaki of Sanjo. They enjoy an excellent reputation in Echigo and have done a great deal to advance the knife maker’s art in Sanjo.
A province in northern part of central Japan historically named Echigo is just a region. Here the art of forging looks back on 700 years of tradition. The city of Sanjo is situated in this province, in today’s Niigata prefecture. This is where the Hinoura family has been plying the blade making trade for decades.
Tsukasa Hinoura, born in 1956, works in Sanjo in Niigata Prefecture, has been practicing his trade for 33 years. His blades are known for a refined and long lived edge. His knives are highly sought after in Japan and Europe, and will soon be in Canada as well.
Hinoura san consciously rejects the prefabricated Damascus steel blanks, referred to as “sekisouk-ko”, commonly used in Japan. Many of the country’s knife makers and industrial manufactures that produce Damascus blades use this “instant recipe”, but neglect to make this clear to customers.
Each knife in the series “River Jump” is a one of a kind example of the Japanese knife making art. Hinoura san is among the world’s few knife makers who are skilled in the time honoured Damascus techniques involving torsion. With river jump, he has taken the method even further. By means of torsion, he combines a multi layered Damascus bar with solid mono steel bar. The result is a blade of extraordinary beauty, in which the river like flow of the Damascus surface alternates with the peace of a perfectly even surface -animated and static elements in perfect harmony.
