Nationality: British
Time Living in Japan: Over 20 years
Employer: Self-Employed
Current Job Title: Japanese Sword Specialist
Areas of Expertise: Japanese art sword history, culture and appreciation (particularly Emperor Gotoba and the Gobankaji); Samurai history and culture (particularly the Shinsengumi and the Boshin War); Japanese Mythology; Archaic Japanese Iron and Steel Manufacture (Tatara); Japanese sword martial arts.
Education: MA, UC Berkeley
Published Work:
・Ono Yoshimitsu’s World of Juka-Choji (translator), Hayashibara Museum, 2006
・The Facts and Fundamentals of Japanese Swords (translator), Kodansha USA, 2010
・Nihon no Bi: Nihonto (translator), Gakken plus, 2016
・Swords of Japan (translator), Tokyo Bijutsu, 2016.
・Pinnacle of Elegance-Sword Fittings of the Mitsumura Collection (translator), Nezu Museum, 2017
・Kyo no Katana (translator), Kyoto National Museum, 2018
・Samonji Masterpieces (translator), The Japanese Sword Museum, 2019
・Shumi Doki! Token Lovers: Nyumon (2022), Tankyu (2023).
・Japanese Swords and Armor: Masterpieces from Thirty of Japan’s Greatest Samurai Warriors (Tuttle), 2024. Also, available in Italian, French, Spanish (and Taiwanese, 2026)
DVDs:
・Art of the Japanese Sword, Empty Mind Films, 2010.
・Forgive – Don’t Forget, Gravitas, 2018.
BIO:
Paul Martin is from England and resides in Tokyo. A former curator at the British Museum, he is currently a Trustee for the Public Foundation: The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Sword Culture (NBSK), as well as a recognized specialist for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, and has his own columns with Sankei Shinbun’s JAPAN-Forward, and Japan’s oldest martial arts magazine, Hiden.
In 2006, he became the first non-Japanese to win the sword appraisal competition at the Japanese Sword museum. He went on to win a second time in 2018.
Paul has appeared in many documentaries all around the world, translated several major sword books and exhibition catalogs, and is quoted by the Bizen Osafune Sword Museum as “one of the foremost non-Japanese specialists on Nihonto.” He is a regular presenter of Japanese swords on Japanese TV, as well as being the lead specialist on NHK’s Shumi Doki! Token Lovers (Nyumon and Tankyu) for two seasons (unprecedented by a foreign specialist), and two appearances on, Matsuko no Shiranai Sekai.
A former three-time English Karate Champion, Paul practices martial arts in Japan and holds a 6th Dan in All Japan Kendo Federation Iaido.
Favorite Things About Living in Japan:
I get to do what I love as my career, while being totally immersed in the culture and feeling very close to its history. I love meeting the descendants of famous samurai, it makes it all feel so recent.
Favorite Places to Visit in Japan:
Emperor Gotoba’s gravesite, Okinoshima (Shimane prefecture), and to watch Iwami Kagura at the Tatsunogozen Shrine at Yunotsu (Shimane prefecture). Shinsengumi related sites across Japan.