Kunitomo Tobei Yoshimasa (国友藤兵衛能當)
Kunitomo Tobei Yoshimasa was the name of the smith, the Kunitomo Tobei family that produced teppo (gun) in Goshu Province which flourished as a place of teppo production until the Edo period. It is the 'brand name' of Tobei workshop. As for a person who has the name, 'Tobei,' KUNITOMO Ikkansai is very famous.
KUNITOMO Tobei Shigeyuki (born in 1778 and died in 1840) was a teppo smith born in Kunitomo village, Sakata-gun, Omi Province (present-day Kunitomo-cho, Nagahama City, Shiga Prefecture).
His original name was TSUJIMURA, but teppo smith in the Kunitomo region had to use the name, 'KUNITOMO'.
His family used the name, 'Kunitomo Tobei Yoshimasa' as their smith's name for generations
He was named Ikkansai and 'Kunitomo Tobei' generally means Ikkansai. He was known as a teppo smith as well as a craftsman who developed high-performance air guns equipped with a bottle filled with accumulated air pressure called 'kiho' and reflecting telescopes.