Great Experience in Asakusabahi!

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Yamabushi

Yamabushi

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2012
Messages
207
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Location
Tokyo, Japan
Living in central Tokyo I cycle around extensively and see a lot interesting things. Many years ago I spotted a small knife shop in Asakusabashi that looked interesting, but couldn't go in because it was closed due to holidays. It's tucked in a little out of the way spot so I forgot about it for several years, but during my research into Kato-san (Fujiwara Yoshiaki) recently it flashed back up on my radar. Again, on several attempts I had problems with it being closed due to various reasons, but today I was finally able to go in. The name of the shop is Morihei which may already be familiar to some of you (Maxim?). What looked like a small unassuming shop from the outside gave way to a much bigger store inside. After looking around and talking with a female staff member for 10-15 minutes and telling her about my interest in kitchen knives, straight razors and my ongoing martial arts studies, she asked me to wait a minute. Shortly she returned with the Morihei president, Mr. Oguro. We began to talk a bit and he seemed to take a liking to me and invited me upstairs. All I can say is WOW! I am not (yet) a Japanese natural stone guy, but what an amazing collection!! After showing me that, he brought me into his private office and proceeded to go into is vault and bring out an amazing very wide beveled yanagiba that he explained was made by Kato Kiyoshi-san's father. I'm kicking myself now that I didn't think to take any photos of the knife. In my defense, I was caught up in the moment and a bit surprised at the amazing hospitality Oguro-san displayed.

After talking a bit more, and returning to the first floor, I had to run. Before I left, Oguro-san asked if we could take a photo together, and then invited me back to do some sharpening with him, an offer I definitely intend to take him up on! Here are a few photos from the visit, please pardon my winter city cycling attire :D :

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Wow.... that was awesome.

Thanks for sharing. :goodpost:
 
That looks amazing! I really like the look of the shop, as well. The black cabinet/drawers and the parquet floors really set off the whole feel. Damn, I want to own a place like that....
 
Oguro-san told me that the shop has been there for more than 80 years! And, the 2nd floor that I mentioned above is not the elevated area that you can see in the photo. Perhaps the area I'm referring to is technically the 3rd floor? In any event, there is an entire floor above what you see that is packed from wall to wall with natural stones. There are only some tiny spaces to walk between the stacks and stacks of them.
 
Thanks for sharing - that must have been a fantastic experience.
 
Looks like a shop you could spend days in and still not see everything. Wonder what the load rating of the floors are where all those stones are:)
 
They've also got an online site and you can buy from them, and they do seem to get foreign customers and compared to some won't run away if they do. Unfortunately, compared to other stone sellers in Japan their prices are not on the cheap side - perhaps partly because they're based in Tokyo, which should make them more expensive - and good luck getting them to respond to emails. (I've maybe sent them 3 I think and they replied once, 2 or 3 months after; a friendly email though.) I think I'm allowed to say that Maxim has visited in the past, bought something that was recommended but which he didn't test (Aoto I think - always risky), and it turned out not to be too great, he says. They do look to have some great stuff, though.

Yamabushi, I'd guess that Mr Oguro asked to take your photo because now you're going to pop up on their blog site. ('A nice foreigner visited the shop.')

If you're in Tokyo there aren't many options if you want to see tennen toishi, compared to Kansai at least, but this is one of them. I tried to visit once around the Golden Week holidays last year and, sadly, it was closed. Not difficult to find with the map.
 
Would be awesome to visit a shop like this one! Thanks for sharing man!
 
Asteger said:
They've also got an online site and you can buy from them, and they do seem to get foreign customers and compared to some won't run away if they do. Unfortunately, compared to other stone sellers in Japan their prices are not on the cheap side - perhaps partly because they're based in Tokyo, which should make them more expensive - and good luck getting them to respond to emails. (I've maybe sent them 3 I think and they replied once, 2 or 3 months after; a friendly email though.) I think I'm allowed to say that Maxim has visited in the past, bought something that was recommended but which he didn't test (Aoto I think - always risky), and it turned out not to be too great, he says. They do look to have some great stuff, though.

Yamabushi, I'd guess that Mr Oguro asked to take your photo because now you're going to pop up on their blog site. ('A nice foreigner visited the shop.')

If you're in Tokyo there aren't many options if you want to see tennen toishi, compared to Kansai at least, but this is one of them. I tried to visit once around the Golden Week holidays last year and, sadly, it was closed. Not difficult to find with the map.
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Sorry if I am misunderstanding the tone of your post, but it seems rather cynical. To clarify I have no affiliation with the shop and in no way vouch for their service, or the quality or the pricing of their Jnats. Japanese natural stones have not yet been an area of interest for me and I, therefore, know very little about it. I will say, however, history and experience has shown that I am a very good judge of character. With that in mind, I didn't get any sense whatsoever that Oguro-san was trying to leverage my visit or take advantage of me in any way. On the contrary, he struck me as being very sincere and absolutely passionate about the virtues of sharpening with Jnats. As for the photo, he didn't ask me to take one, he asked if he could take one a bit of a distinction there.

Respectfully,
Pete
 
Great story! It is wonderful when shared interests can transcend linguistic or cultural barriers.
 
sorry about that, should have seen the first link. Thanks though
 
Very cool. If/when (and it's hopefully when) you go back and sharpen some knives with him, please let us know anything new or interesting you learn!
 
JDA_NC said:
Very cool. If/when (and it's hopefully when) you go back and sharpen some knives with him, please let us know anything new or interesting you learn!
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I've got a couple of custom Heiji's that should be coming towards next weekend (he just sent me some photos this morning, see below), but then I'm off to Europe and Israel to lead some martial arts seminars, but after I get back to Japan at the end of February, I definitely intend to see if Oguro-san was sincere about his offer. If it works out, I'll definitely report back and will definitely try to take some photos and/or video. Here are my in progress Heiji's, BTW:
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Yamabushi said:
Sorry if I am misunderstanding the tone of your post, but it seems rather cynical. To clarify I have no affiliation with the shop and in no way vouch for their service, or the quality or the pricing of their Jnats. Japanese natural stones have not yet been an area of interest for me and I, therefore, know very little about it. I will say, however, history and experience has shown that I am a very good judge of character. With that in mind, I didn't get any sense whatsoever that Oguro-san was trying to leverage my visit or take advantage of me in any way. On the contrary, he struck me as being very sincere and absolutely passionate about the virtues of sharpening with Jnats. As for the photo, he didn't ask me to take one, he asked if he could take one a bit of a distinction there. Respectfully, Pete
Click to expand...

Oh, dear. In my old age am I starting to sound weathered and cynical and not even know it? I don't think so, or at least hope not. And of course that wasn't my intention either, which was just to relay everything I know about the place but also that for me things ended up being a bit disappointing (closed when I visited, though not yet a holiday, and no email responses). However, I did say they seem to have lots of nice stuff and your nice visit does make Morihei sound interesting again. As for Oguro taking a picture of you, that was meant with a bit of humour on my part; I've visited elsewhere in Japan and ended in photos that I knew would soon appear on a blog, which they did, me looking my usual silly self. So, your story reminded me of that, and also something similar on the Morihei blog. (Photo below, and - no - that's not me.) I don't imagine anyone would think you were 'leveraged' or anything either. No, your post was a nice read and I wish there was more tennen toishi talk here, so well done.

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No worries Asteger, I just wanted to clarify my nice experience and lack of any ulterior motives. BTW, that is the 3rd time that link has been posted in this thread! :rofl2:
 
Yamabushi said:
No worries Asteger, I just wanted to clarify my nice experience and lack of any ulterior motives. BTW, that is the 3rd time that link has been posted in this thread! :rofl2:
Click to expand...

Oops! But let's hope someone posts it again, just to be sure.
 
Wow, thats amazing thank you for sharing. Visiting a store like that is definitely on my bucket list, dream come true.
 
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