Mr. Kuwabara is a small blacksmith from Nagasaki and he works on his own and does all the processes to make a knife himself, including inserting the hard steel into the soft iron. The only part that is not made by him is the handle. We were attracted to these because of the single authorship of the blades as well as the fact that he hand sharpens each knife with water stones which is unusual these days. We think you will enjoy the cutting ability of these rustic, hand made tools from the south of Japan.