i live in Japan and sometimes have chances to see knife making cities. There are always people talking about how tonya (maybe what you call wholesaler) have fancy houses, fancy cars, fancy offices, and make lots of money, but craftsmen suffer. Many people are trying to make this more equal. In tradition, tonya had a job to take care of and support craftsmen... they deal with customers, help organize, and keep craftsmen busy with work, and craftsmen produce for them. In good times, they order a lot, and in bad times they still try to order to make sure everyone can survive together. They used to spend money to help bring young craftsmen and make sure everyone has good training. In more recent times, tonya have continued to make a lot of money, but craftsmen are not being taken care of. Only recently craftsmen are starting to ask for more. They invest in future. Some tonya are doing same, but not all. In sakai, it is easy to see. In sanjo still you can see. In seki it is hard to see. For example, in Sakai, you can see new Jikko Hamono or Konosuke workshop and president house, but also how craftsmen live. Is very different.
Very interesting, thanks for the insight! There is obviously a lot of in-depth knowledge of the market...
I agree, a lot/batch outage together with a long overdue increase could explain it, but....
There are a couple of factors that IMHO have a bearing maybe even further than material costs as stated previously, since that factor alone can only account for a percentage of the increse...
a) The internal availability of work force of trained craftsmen available as time passes.
b) Organized workforce dynamics such as wage demands. :happymug:
c) Geographic localization of craftsman. As stated. How artisans organize and produce knives, this has evolved somewhat and is different from region to region.
d) Supply and demand. Brand recognition of brands such as Konosuke seem to increase demand, price ¨levels¨ the gap generated between limited availability and increase in aggregate demand generated by surges internally and abroad. Shigefusa or Kato are a good example of this phenomenon! :spiteful:
e) Aggregate pull when enough brands/artisans perceive an increase. The whole industry (Or at least a large part) seems to follow through. Bandwagon effect! :scratchhead:
f) Supply chain, basically how vertically integrated is it? Has to do with bargaining power and specialization.:scared4:
g) Panic purchasses of Knife-nuts! :wink: I'm willing to bet forums such as this DO have an impact, it depends on elasticity of demand at a given time wether the impact is large or small.
h) Size and internal average structure of workshops, relationship with wholesalers and change in bargaining power.
Interesting discussion! :idea2: