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Seki, Sakai, Saga, Tosa... any of these rings a bell? Probably not. For knife connoisseurs, however, they are the main clues about the source of blades and steel. Japan is divided in regions and prefectures, each of them famous for its craft, but there are several key centers of metallurgical and forging industry where the knowledge has been passed on to younger generations for centuries. To resolve the dilemma regarding the origin of our knives, we pinpointed the forging regions and “our” blacksmiths on the map. |
SMITHIES
1. HIROSAKI / Aomori Prefecture
2. TSUBAME-SANJO / Niigata Prefecture
3. TOYAMA / Toyama Prefecture
- Sukenari
4. ECHIZEN - TAKEFU KNIFE VILLAGE / Fukui Prefecture
- Hideo Kitaoka
- Hiroshi Kato
- Yoshimi Kato
- Kei Kobayashi
- Makoto Kurosaki
- Kunio Masutani
- Takeshi Saji
- Yu Kurosaki
- Takamura Hamono
5. SEKI / Gifu Prefecture
6. MIKI / Hyōgo Prefecture
7. SAKAI / Osaka Prefecture
8. TOSA / Kōchi Prefecture
9. SAGA CITY / Saga Prefecture
STEELWORKS
a / TAKEFU SPECIAL STEEL / Echizen, Fukui Prefecture
- VG-1
- VG-5
- VG-10
- SG2
- Cobalt Special
b / YASUGI SPECIAL STEEL / Yasugi, Shimane Prefecture
- SLD
c / AICHI STEEL / Tōkai city, Aichi Prefecture
- ZA-18
- AUS-10
- AUS-8
d / HITACHI METALS / Osaka, Osaka Prefecture
- Aogami 1
- Aogami 2
- Aogami Super
- Ginsanko
- HAP-40
- Shirogami 1
- Shrogami 2
- ZDP-189
e / KOBELCO STEEL / Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture
- R2
