Saji Samurai's Brand of Knives

In the mid-nineteenth century in actuality, a blacksmith named Murakami Jiroemon in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, was commissioned to make a copy of a Western-style folding knife as a pencil sharpener suitable for elementary-aged children, and this copy was the prototype for the fatigori.

The early Hiromori had a slim, willow-leaf blade, a brass folding sheath, and a chrysanthemum-shaped spacer, similar in appearance to the surgical knives used in the West at the time.

The folding knives forged by Murakami Jiroemon were first sold in Hirata-cho (part of Gifu Prefecture), so they became known as "Hirata knives," and soon workshops were opened in neighboring areas, and as the hilts of the knives were engraved with the words "Hirasumori" and "Wakizumi-mori," the knives were used to make a variety of different types of knives. "Wazumi Mamoru" were engraved on the hilt, and gradually these two names became the names of the knives. Later, as the number of knife producers increased in various regions, the name "Hatsugumori" was established and is still used today.