Knife experience in Sakai City or surrounding areas

[elana]

I'm headed to Osaka in a few weeks. I know Sakai is famous for their knife makers and it's only about an hour away. Are there any particularly good small family owned workshops to visit where you can see them at work? Also I think I read somewhere about a knife making experience in Sakai. That would be cool too.

I know Kyoto has Aritsugu and they are famous and all that. I have a petty knife from the one in Tokyo but I think they are different companies. Willing to spend up to $200 on a gyuto or santoku and prefer a smaller workshop that maybe doesn't sell internationally online. I have two aogami knives (yanagi and nakiri), and I was thinking of an aogami super gyuto or santoku, but I'm flexible with the steel used.

 

[TheDza]

Takada is very responsive and speaks great English. He may have some stock but it's always a toss up.

Jikko is cool to go to to see the shop front, very posh, very fancy

You can also consider Baba Hamono, Konosuke, Hado, Ashi. I made the unfortunate mistake of going to Sakai on a Saturday and most places were closed. Can consider messaging in IG or emailing ahead of time

Also check out the museum, very cool displays and plenty of knives to buy


If you're in Tokyo, stop by Kappabashi. Kama Asa is

 

[Yoshi]

I was at Sakai a month ago, lots of shops as mentioned in the reply above. There's also the knife museum where you can buy knives.

Takada only had two knives in stock, and konosuke with 2. Baba has around 10.

So yes I would suggest email in advance to see what they have.

Most of them also close for about 2 hours for lunch break.

 

[elana]

Takada is very responsive and speaks great English. He may have some stock but it's always a toss up.

Jikko is cool to go to to see the shop front, very posh, very fancy

You can also consider Baba Hamono, Konosuke, Hado, Ashi. I made the unfortunate mistake of going to Sakai on a Saturday and most places were closed. Can consider messaging in IG or emailing ahead of time

Also check out the museum, very cool displays and plenty of knives to buy


If you're in Tokyo, stop by Kappabashi. Kama Asa is

Thanks for the tip. I was thinking of going on a Saturday but I'll rethink that plan I'll google for those makers. This is the Takada you're talking about? https://www.instagram.com/takadanohamono

Last time I was in Japan, I went to Tokyo and I did stop by Kappabashi. I remember going into Kama Asa based on the gmaps photos. The stairs to the second floor are very distinct. I'm not going to Tokyo this time. Just a short trip to Osaka and the Kansai region.

 

[elana]

I was at Sakai a month ago, lots of shops as mentioned in the reply above. There's also the knife museum where you can buy knives.

Takada only had two knives in stock, and konosuke with 2. Baba has around 10.

So yes I would suggest email in advance to see what they have.

Most of them also close for about 2 hours for lunch break.

Thanks, I'll email them then before I head to their shops.

 

[henkle]

For those of you in the know, generally speaking, are knife prices in Tokyo significantly (or even a little) better than what you can find online?

 

[elana]

For those of you in the know, generally speaking, are knife prices in Tokyo significantly (or even a little) better than what you can find online?

When I went to Tokyo in 2019 I spent a LOT of time looking at knives, and I found that for some shops that sell multiple knife brands in Kappabashi (they aren't the maker), it was cheaper to just buy off of chefknivestogo. I ended up buying directly from the makers. I got a yanagi at Kanesoh, a petty from Aritsugu, and a nakiri from Masahisa. Turns out I don't love using the Nakiri (and somehow I cut myself on it twice within the first few months of use) or I would have wanted to look for a Kyoto style one while I'm in the region.

 

[EShin]

I'm headed to Osaka in a few weeks. I know Sakai is famous for their knife makers and it's only about an hour away. Are there any particularly good small family owned workshops to visit where you can see them at work? Also I think I read somewhere about a knife making experience in Sakai. That would be cool too.

I know Kyoto has Aritsugu and they are famous and all that. I have a petty knife from the one in Tokyo but I think they are different companies. Willing to spend up to $200 on a gyuto or santoku and prefer a smaller workshop that maybe doesn't sell internationally online. I have two aogami knives (yanagi and nakiri), and I was thinking of an aogami super gyuto or santoku, but I'm flexible with the steel used.

There’s a webpage with most places that offer visits or knife making experiences in Sakai: https://sakai-openfactory.jp/category/shokushu/hamono/
It’s in Japanese, but with google translate or so you should be able to translate it. I’m not sure how much English is spoken, but I think at least Baba hamono which is close to Mr. Takada’s workshop should be fine. Note though that the knives of Baba hamono and Takada no hamono are a lot over your budget. For your budget, Ashi hamono seisakusho, Enami hamono seisakusho (kajiya_dentoukougeishi on instagram) or Fujii hamono seisakusho are great choices. They don’t offer knives in aogami super though which aren’t made in Sakai anyway. And as others have pointed out, don’t forget to contact in advance.

 

[elana]

There’s a webpage with most places that offer visits or knife making experiences in Sakai: https://sakai-openfactory.jp/category/shokushu/hamono/
It’s in Japanese, but with google translate or so you should be able to translate it. I’m not sure how much English is spoken, but I think at least Baba hamono which is close to Mr. Takada’s workshop should be fine. Note though that the knives of Baba hamono and Takada no hamono are a lot over your budget. For your budget, Ashi hamono seisakusho, Enami hamono seisakusho (kajiya_dentoukougeishi on instagram) or Fujii hamono seisakusho are great choices. They don’t offer knives in aogami super though which aren’t made in Sakai anyway. And as others have pointed out, don’t forget to contact in advance.

Thanks for the details and information. I'll reach out to them in advance for sure. I'm headed to Osaka in about 3.5 weeks but the itinerary isn't fixed yet. I'll be in Japan for 5-8 days.

 

[Yoshi]

Thanks for the details and information. I'll reach out to them in advance for sure. I'm headed to Osaka in about 3.5 weeks but the itinerary isn't fixed yet. I'll be in Japan for 5-8 days.

No point emailing to far out, there's a kaiju at kono the week before I was there and it's gone by the time I got in

 

[elana]

No point emailing to far out, there's a kaiju at kono the week before I was there and it's gone by the time I got in

You think a week to week and a half in advance is enough lead time?

 

[Yoshi]

You think a week to week and a half in advance is enough lead time?

That would probably give you a slightly more accurate picture of the stock level.

But then again Sakai is not really that far away from Osaka, and it's not a completely lost even if you don't get what you want, there's still plenty to see there

 

[elana]

That would probably give you a slightly more accurate picture of the stock level.

But then again Sakai is not really that far away from Osaka, and it's not a completely lost even if you don't get what you want, there's still plenty to see there

True And the knife museum looks nice, so at least there is that.

 

[elana]

Just wanted to follow up here. Thanks everyone for your recommendations. I upped my budget to $250 from $200, which helped. $250 was about 40,000 JPY at the current FX. I figured with the current FX I could get a way nicer knife than I could have gotten for the same USD just 5 years ago (last time I visited Japan). I contacted Takada about one week in advance. So first I went to Takada and he had several knives in stock. I got a 180mm santoku in his singetu line white 2, it was a bit over my budget but with the excellent exchange rate to USD, not wildly out of my budget.

After Takada I had intended to visit the knife museum because it was raining pretty badly, but when I got there, it was closed. I was later informed that they started closing one Tuesday per month so I was unlucky. I know for sure I had checked it previously and it said open Tuesdays so I was so surprised when I looked on Google again and it listed Tuesday as closed. When another shop told me they closed one Tuesday per month, it made sense.

After Takada and my failed attempt at the knife museum, I waited for the rain to let up and then I went to Baba. They had some nice knives in stock. If I hadn't picked up the one from Takada, they had a VG-10 kiritsuke gyuto that looked real sweet and was even under adjusted budget of $250. I would say their selection was my second favorite and they had like 20 different knives in stock. VG-10, White (I forget if 1 or 2 since I wasn't looking to buy at this point), and a few Chromax. Most of their knives are made in Seki, not in Sakai, but they are still their designs.

Then I went to Murata and one of the owners/shopkeepers (assuming she is the owner) spoke excellent English. So she told me about the museum closing. She also told me about the makers in the immediate area, most of which I had bookmarked.

I walked over to Mizuno and met the maker who does his own forging in his workshop in the back. He walked me through the workshop, but he wasn't working on any knives that day. He also forges swords, which must mean he's really skilled. His good knives were at a minimum 2x over my budget and up from there. He had some Honyaki knives with a really nice hamon. He had a giant one-meter water quench in the ground at his workshop, I'm sure to accommodate both the knives and swords. And he showed me the clay treatment on one knife he was working on.

After that I tried to find Jikko but I didn't see any signs or anything in the location indicated by both Google Maps and the Murata shop owner. I walked around for maybe 5 mins looking for something that resembled a knife shop but I didn't find anything.

Finally I popped into Sakai Tohji Knife. I believe they make knives for other brands. Nothing so interesting there, but it was across from the tram station I intended to take back to Osaka.

Hopefully this helps anyone looking to go to Sakai in the future.

I had messaged Enami hamono seisakusho on IG and he replied that he was available, but because Takada was closed on Monday, I had to go yesterday, which was the same day I flew home. So instead of having a full day to wander around Sakai I only had a half day. I also was planning to visit Ashi but they close from 12-1pm and that's exactly when I was able to get over there.