From the outside, the modest home of 61-year-old Edson Suemitsu looks little different from others in this middle-class neighborhood of Curitiba, a sleepy city in southern Brazil.
But enter the gates and you'll find a lush garden, overarched by a large, red Japanese torii. In the garage, more often than not, Suemitsu can be found hunched over a grindstone or workbench, working on one of the hundreds of swords he has made over the years.
Suemitsu is by no means the last person to make a living producing katana, a type of curved sword used by samurai in feudal and ancient Japan. Yet, as a life-long resident of Brazil, a country better known for beaches and soccer, he may be the most improbable.
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