Ko-Bizen Takahira

Ko-Bizen Takahira was a swordsmith active in Bizen Province (present-day Okayama Prefecture) in the late Heian period, and is one of the master smiths representing the Ko-Bizen school. The Ko-Bizen school was a group of swordsmiths centered on Tomonari, Masatsune, and Kanehira, who formed the dawn of sword making in Bizen. Takahira, together with Kanehira and Sukehira, was celebrated as the Sanhira (Three Hira).

No reliably extant works by Takahira have been handed down, and he survives only as a name transmitted as a master smith of Ko-Bizen. As a smith of the Ko-Bizen school who, together with Tomonari, Masatsune, and Kanehira, supported the early period of Japanese sword history, Takahira is an indispensable point of reference for understanding how the aesthetic standards of the Japanese sword were formed.