"Iron is alive, it can live and it can die depending on the blacksmith."
Knife making is in Anryu-san's blood. His family started as knife makers in the early 1870's. Ikeda started apprenticing as a knife maker under his uncle Katsushige Anryu who apprenticed under his father, Katsutoshi Anryu, after graduating high school in 1959.
Ikeda is a fifth-generation knife maker and has been working as a blacksmith under Anryu-san who taught Ikeda to always strive to make better knives to please the cooks who rely them.