Masahiro FujitaMasahiro Fujita

Masahiro Fujita is originally from Hokkaido. He studied animal husbandry in high school and forestry in college. After learning about tools used for harvesting lacquer, his interest in becoming a toolmaker grew, leading him to the world of blacksmithing. While traveling to blacksmithing regions across Japan, he discovered Kochi and enrolled in the "Blacksmith Training School." Today, he continues to craft his own knives, carefully attending to every step of the process, from forging to sharpening.

Fujita's knife-making is characterized by a flexible approach that doesn't adhere to a single technique. He seeks the optimal balance within his own methods by incorporating the techniques and philosophies of various blacksmiths he learned from at the training school and on the job. As he states, "Everything is connected from beginning to end," he sees forging, heat treatment, and sharpening not as separate steps but as a continuous flow. That's why he approaches every task with the same earnestness.

Fujita's goal is to create "tools" that support people's lives and work. He says that in the future, he wants to challenge himself to make not only kitchen knives but also blades used in various fields such as forestry and animal husbandry. The name of his workshop, "Onihiro," embodies his desire "to dedicate himself to serving others with his own strength," like the oni (ogres) of Onijinja Shrine in Aomori who helped the local people.