The Process of Making Higo Zogan: Gold Inlaid Into Iron, a 400-Year-Old Samurai Craft

A 400-year-old craft, born to adorn the swords and armor of samurai — and kept alive today by hand. 🗡️✨

In the old castle town of Shinmachi in Kumamoto, Yuji Osumi has spent 46 years practicing Higo Zogan: the art of carving grooves into black iron and inlaying pure gold, 18-karat gold, and silver to create a striking contrast of light and shadow. 🖤💛

In this video, the fourth-generation master of "Higo Zogan Mitsusuke" shows us the full process — laying gold leaf, hammering it in with a piece of deer antler, raising rust with a secret family liquid he won't even teach his apprentices, and simmering the piece in tea until the iron turns deep black. ☕🔥

It's a craft once worn by samurai, now reborn as accessories for everyday life. A quiet conversation with a man devoted to passing it on. 🙏

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━