I’d like to first take this opportunity to thank our truly exceptional customers.  You have been unbelievably supportive over the years and for this I am forever grateful.  Without all your support and passion for Japanese sword collecting we would not be where we are today. Arigato gozaimasu!

I am especially thankful to members of the US Armed Forces in Japan (and outside of Japan).  For it was YOU that encouraged me to seek out Japanese nihonto (swords) and provided Unique Japan with the location of our first sword show back in 2010 on Yokota Air Base!

I thought on this page I’d share with you a bit of my life story.  Collecting Japanese swords is a personal endeavour and I feel it’s important that you know something about who you are putting your trust and confidence in.

I grew up in small town called Rosemere, Quebec, a half-hour north of Montreal, Canada.  As a kid, I loved playing soccer (er.. football), hanging around pools, playing tennis, very active.  I was a paperboy, lifeguard, and I became a competitive swimmer right up until my university years. 

In 1993, at the age of 22 and shortly after graduating from the University of Western Ontario majoring in Economics & Business, I moved to Tokyo to become an English teacher and travel the world.

Ask anyone who has lived in Japan for any extent of time, the story is one with a full spectrum of emotional experiences. Outrageous, funny, frustrating, amazing, tough, intoxicating, humbling, stressful, addictive, the list goes on and on…

In short, there is no place on earth quite like Japan.

Although I was hired to teach on a one-year contract with NOVA, full-time teaching was not for me.  Encouraged by a friend back home, I became a freelance model and actor in Japan as Japanese companies are always looking for western faces to market their products and services abroad.  Not long after I started, I began appearing in numerous TV commercials, promotional videos, fashion magazines, etc.  You can watch a video on YouTube that I made about some of these projects.

In 1995, I became the original voice of Albert Wesker for a survival horror video game called Resident Evil (Biohazard) that was released in March of 1996.  Little did I know how iconic of a villain this character would become and how massive of a franchise Resident Evil would be worldwide!  I keep in contact with the Resident Evil community primarily through my son’s YouTube channel called Lexonal where he plays the RE games and sit back and commentate!   It’s great fun! 

In 1997 I headed back to Canada, and studied the up and coming ‘Internet’ and learned how to code in HTML and started creating my own websites.  A year later, I moved back to Japan in 1998 and started MarchForth International Co., Ltd. building websites for major Japanese companies such Nissan, Pasona, Mitsui Bussan. The concept was to encourage Japanese companies harness the power of the Internet to become more international. And have their websites have an international look and feel. 

MarchForth grew to a successful team of international designers and coders and was highly rewarding building a company from scratch. A few years later I became a founding member of a company called Paidy that was sold to PayPal in 2021. 

In the summer of 1999, I met Donna Canning and we got married in Tokyo in 2002.   Donna, is a talented origami and Ikebana artist. We’ve now been married for over 20 years and have three children together, Hannah, Lennon and Nelson (the barbarian!).

Itching to work on our own project, we harnessed a great admiration for history and those who make awe-inspiring objects with their hands. True artisans, in every sense of the word.  Well, I can honestly say that craftspeople in Japan take the cake for their discipline and relentless pursuit of perfection. It’s simply in their DNA.  

In short, the objects have a spirit, a soul.

Thus with the help of Donna and the team at MarchForth, we set out to build Unique Japan to be a trusted source for the finest crafts from Japan, and deliver to the world. This was no easy task, but build it we did, and we went live with Unique Japan in June 2006.  Kitchen knives from Takefu in and Daruma dolls from Takasaki were the early best sellers.

To say the least I am very passionate about antique samurai swords, and it has been the focus of Unique Japan since 2010.  For me, and for many that own an antique samurai sword, it embodies the divine soul of Japan and it’s culture. The team work that goes into every piece, the energy you can just feel the history in every piece. 

Unique Japan operates differently from other Japanese sword dealers in that we have a presence both inside Japan and outside the country.  This allows us to offer quality swords from all time periods, but we also provide a wide-range of sword support services such as sword polishing, applying for shinsa certification at the NBTHK and NTHK-NPO, custom koshirae projects and much more.

Our friendly and reliable team in Japan is headed by Ayumu Ogusu who leads all types of Operations, Miss Yuki Ando assisting him and Nomura Joji  is my trusted right-hand man whom I have known since starting MarchForth over 20 years ago.  Eric Bossick leads all the world-class photography work, whom I cannot speak highly enough as a professional and friend. Our studio is located in Meguro.

Donna and I now live in the coastal city of Southend-on-Sea (an hour east of London) with our three children after spending nearly 20 years in Japan. This move now makes it even more possible to share Unique Japan with an audience outside of Japan, especially here in the UK and in Europe.

I am still travelling back and forth to Japan on sword buying trips and private meetings with VIP clients. If you ever want to reach any of us, simply use our contact form here.

Thank you for visiting Unique Japan. We look forward to working with you.

Warm regards,

Pablo Kuntz
Founder, Unique Japan