Imaizumi Toshimitsu

Imaizumi Toshimitsu was a modern swordsmith born in Saga Prefecture in 1898, widely regarded as the "founder of the Bizen sword revival" for reviving the declining sword production of Bizen Osafune. According to the touken-world.jp directory of contemporary swordsmiths, he left his hometown in 1924 in pursuit of the craft and settled in Akasaki Village, Kojima District, Okayama Prefecture, where he began studying sword forging on his own.

From 1934 he devoted himself to the serious study of Bizen Osafune forging techniques and spent the remainder of his life reviving the Bizen tradition. Bizen Province had flourished as a major center of Japanese sword production from the Kamakura through Muromachi periods, but its traditions had largely lapsed by the modern era. Through independent research and recreation of these techniques — and by training successors — Imaizumi restored a living link to the Bizen lineage.

For these achievements he was awarded the rank of Mukansa (exempt from screening) by the Japan Art Sword Preservation Society (NBTHK) in 1970 — the highest rank below Living National Treasure, reserved for smiths who have won special prizes multiple times at the annual new-work exhibitions. The Bizen Osafune Sword Museum in Setouchi City, Okayama Prefecture, houses an attached "Imaizumi Toshimitsu Memorial Museum" displaying his tools and accomplishments. He continued forging into his mid-nineties and died in 1995 at the age of 97, remembered as a rare craftsman who dedicated his entire life to reviving the Bizen sword.