Both the Kirimaru Field Kotanto and the Sakura Stream Kotanto were made as a commemorative pair from the same piece of reclaimed 1965 Series 2a Land Rover leaf spring steel. The handles and scabbards were also made from the same block of reclaimed wood, and even the silk storage bags were sewn from the same reclaimed silk obi (kimono belt). One features antique gunto sakura menuki and the other vintage gold and silver kirimaru kamon menuki.
Both are finished in natural fukiurushi with bamboo pegs carved from susudake, a piece of bamboo that served for a century or more as part of the ceiling or roof in a kominka, darkened and hardened by decades of smoke wafting up from the irori hearth. After a dramatic journey from Vancouver Island the kotanto are now safely in the private collection of a husband and wife in California.
See the process of making each knife on their respective pages:
Kirimaru Field Kotanto
Sakura Stream Kotanto
