In Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 2, the swordsmith who makes the Bride’s sword is Hattori Hanzo.
Hanzo is a retired master sword-maker living in Okinawa. Bill describes him as the greatest swordsmith who ever lived and says Hanzo once made a sword for him. After learning that the Bride is seeking revenge against Bill, Hanzo agrees to create a new blade for her despite having sworn never to make another sword.
The character is played by Sonny Chiba, a major Japanese martial-arts-film star who had influenced Tarantino’s cinema interests. The training and forging sequence connects the Bride’s revenge story to the traditions of samurai films and martial-arts cinema.
Hattori Hanzo is a fictional character in the film, though the name evokes the historical Japanese samurai and ninja leader Hattori Hanzō. The movie’s swordsmith is not presented as a biography of that historical figure.