About Mr Matsunaga and Japanese swords
Mr MATSUNAGA, Genrokuro is a living professional samurai sword smith who has devoted himself to making Samurai swords throughout his life up until today. Not only does he make Samurai swords everyday, but also accepts visitors to show how he makes his sharp and durable swords.
This is a great opportunity for you to learn how Japanese swords are made in traditional methods and also experience to wield a REAL Samurai sword to cut a Tatami-roll which is said to be as tough as human bodies.
Japanese swords used to be worn by Samurai until they lost its position as the master of military force until the year 1876 when the new government (Meiji government) achieved a great restoration to shift the old-fashioned society to the modern civilized society.
Samurai swords are well known to be unbreakable, unbending and razor sharp. For centuries, Samurai swords have been considered the soul of Samurai up until now.
After the Meiji restoration, many of sword smiths had no choice but quit living on sword making. Many of them shifted to manufacturing kitchen knives or/and agricultural tools, but Mr Matsunaga chose to be one of the few professional Samurai sword smiths in this modern period. He is now raising his last apprentice.
What you can do
During this visit, you will inspect his workshop and learn how he forges samurai swords using quality materials in traditional methods. AND you can also try wielding a REAL Samurai sword to cut off a rolled Tatami pole, lectured by a sword master or by Mr Matsunaga himself. Just check out the following footage to learn more and deeper.
Gallery
His workshop is situated in Arao city, northern part of Kumamoto, so I’d recommend you to combine a half day Kumamoto city tour in the morning to this visit to Mr Matsunaga’s workshop.
Location
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