Kiyomaro Yamaura (Kiyomaro Minamoto) was born in the Komoro domain, Shinano province, in 1813.He went up to Edo (Tokyo) in1831 and he devoted himself to making swords under Sugane Kubota who later became the president of the martial arts training center of the Tokugawa shogunate.He was invited to Hagi by the Hagi domain in 1842 and resided in the Hagi castle town for two years, engaged in making swords.During the years he kept a close friendship with clansmen such as Seifu Murata who led the Reform of Tempo, Seigai Hazama who worked as a domain painter, and so forth.
Bearing the various precious experiences in Hagi in mind, Kiyomaro went up to Edo again and set up a blacksmith’s shop at Yotsuya, Edo, and made many fine swords.From that time Kiyomaro came to be well known, and he was named “Yotsuya Masamune” after “Masamune” who was a famous swordsmith in the Kamakura period.There came to be a great demand for swords made by Kiyomaro by many people but surprisingly he committed suicide in the height of his reputation in 1854.
Even now swords made by Kiyomaro has fascinated many people.About 40 fine swords chosen from amongmany made by Kiyomaro are about to gather in this exhibition for the first time in the West Japan. |