Cutting-Edge Quality

Ahead of this month’s Women’s Group tour of Tokyo’s “Kitchen Town,” INTOUCH explores the uniqueness of Japanese knives.

The bustle of Kappabashi Street is different from the nearby tourist spots of Tokyo Sky Tree and Asakusa’s Senso Temple. Most shoppers in this quarter of east Tokyo are business owners, searching the arcade of small shops for items to kit out their restaurants.

Aside from appliances, pans, crockery and cutlery, there are welcome signs, furniture, uniforms and even lucky beckoning cats and plastic display food—everything a restaurateur or budding cook could ever need.

While most of the patrons are locals, a few stores specializing in Japanese kitchen knives are drawing increasing numbers of customers from overseas.

“We have seen a boom in clientele from the United States and Europe in the past two or three years,” says Seiichi Kamata, third-generation owner and sharpening master at Kamata Hakensha. “In the past, they mostly were curious about what they could use a Japanese knife for. Now they are coming to buy and simply want to know which ones we recommend.”

Since UNESCO’s designation of Japanese cuisine as an intangible cultural heritage in 2013, interest in the knives used to create washoku dishes has grown.

Kamata says customers are often impressed by the knives’ thin, single-edged blade for fine slicing. This makes Japanese knives distinctive from thick, double-edged European knives and a valuable tool in the preparation of dishes like sashimi or sliced cabbage for tonkatsu pork cutlet.

But this characteristic is important for presentation, too, according to Member Yoshiki Tsuji, headmaster of the Tsuji Culinary Institute in Osaka.

“As European knives are sharp on both edges, they create a rough surface on the item being cut, but Japanese knives give a luster, shiny look to the item, particularly in the case of sashimi,” he says.

From about the eighth century, Tsuji explains, there was a focus on food presentation and “refinement in how ingredients should look.” This led to a need for quality knives.

As Japan embraced modernization during the Meiji period, many highly skilled swordsmiths turned to making knives to survive. Their craftsmanship provided a huge boost to the industry.

Today, Japanese knives are revered not only for their quality, but also for their durability, derived from the hardness of the steel used. Kamata says many of his customers have been using the same knife for 10 to 20 years.

But maintenance is critical. Member Takako Ueda, who will lead this month’s Women’s Group tour to Kappabashi, says that although Japanese knives cut “neatly and nicely,” they are delicate. “Care needs to be taken so that they are always clean and dry or they will get rusty,” she says, “and you need skill to sharpen them.”

Kamata agrees that it is almost impossible for a novice to return a knife to its original condition through sharpening at home. He sharpens and repairs knives for customers at a workshop in his Kappabashi store.

In his own small, dedicated way, Kamata is helping preserve a craft whose roots can be found in the fiery forges of Japan’s swordsmiths.

Words: Kathryn Wortley
Image: Kayo Yamawaki

Explore Kappabashi
Dec 7 | 11:45am–3:30pm