The Philosophy in Making a Japanese Knife

Japan is made of more than 6,800 islands. The big four islands namely, Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku comprise about 97% of the entire country. Being the tenth largest country in the world, Japan has 127 million population. Japan plays a major role in the import and export industry.




For centuries, Japan had tribal groups in and out of her islands; the rise and fall of emperors, and experienced so many defeats and victories in wars. All these experiences formed Japan’s rich history and culture that extended to cutlery used in preparing food.
 

In cooking, Japanese people respect seasons and pattern their preparation of food on it. They will use of what are available ingredients during a particular season. Though dishes differ from place to place, but Japanese people take great concern when it comes to food preparation and presentation. How the food looks when it is served is a big deal to them. In this tradition stemmed out the outstanding Japanese way of manufacturing knives.
 

In Japan, knife making is not just a business, but a way of life. For Japanese people, their knives are as important as their food. After all, their knives are not only tools in preparing food, but represent them as a nation and as an individual.
 

There are several steps in making a Japanese knife but there is no one step that is more important than the rest. Each step is given full attention and care; this is why, it takes time to craft a beautiful Japanese knife. For a knife maker, speed cannot and will not replace quality.

History

As early as the fifth century, local craftsmen in the city of Sakai were required to make sharp tools to build the kofun. But only in the sixteenth century that Sakai began crafting knives. The demand was brought about by the introduction of tobacco in Japan by the Portuguese. They needed tools to cut the tobacco. Since then, Sakai became the capital for sword making.




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