Isokazu Kubota

Isokazu Kubota, the master craftsman of sports-equipment manufacturer Mizuno Technics Corporation, holding baseball bats (belonging to Hideki Matsui,#55, and Ichiro Suzuki, #51) in a private workshop for VIP customers.

Geoff Johnson for TIME

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Correction Appended: March 25, 2008

BATMAN In the past, a katana, a Japanese sword, was a samurai's soul. The warriors may be long gone, but the samurai spirit lives on--particularly among Japanese professional baseball players. Take the Seattle Mariners' All-Star center fielder Ichiro Suzuki. Between games, Ichiro gives his bat the katana treatment: keeping it protected in a sealed aluminum case. After every game, he takes it to his locker and shows his gratitude for its service by going through the ritual of cleaning it.

Ichiro's reverence for the bat came to him during a 1992 visit to the wise man of batmaking, 64-year-old Isokazu Kubota, master craftsman for equipment manufacturer Mizuno Technics Corp. Over the past 49 years, Kubota has made custom-designed wooden bats for more than 1,500 professional players, including Pete Rose and Hideki Matsui.

Kubota's bats have won such a following because of his innate knowledge of the character of wood. He can discern the weight, pliancy and even the width of the rings of a piece of wood by look, feel or the knocking sound it makes. He can harvest a dozen or so promising blocks out of a thousand he might examine--and then transform them.

When making a bat for Ichiro, for example, Kubota shaves it to 31 oz. to 31.75 oz. (880 g to 900 g), taking into account the 0.25 oz. (7 g) of lacquer that will be added. He places the sweet spot--the point of peak springiness--2 in. to 2.4 in. (5 cm to 6 cm) from the top, which is where Ichiro wants it.

The happiest moment of Kubota's career was when Ichiro tallied his 258th hit of the 2004 season, breaking George Sisler's 84-year-old major-league record. "It felt so lucky to witness the breaking of a record that was set before I was born," says Kubota. "That might not happen even once in 100 years' time."

The original version of this article misspelt the name of Isokazu Kubota.