Knife Culture

 Japanese knives are known throughout the world and some of the best. Today we are going to explore a couple of workshops where the knives are being made the old-fashioned way in a fire and forge.

At our first stop this morning we were invited into an older gentleman‘s workshop to watch him forge a knife. He starts with a piece of metal that will be heated to a very high temperature in his oven and then he will beat it into a shape that will ultimately be a knife. He also will take two kinds of metal and buying them together in order to make a very strong knife. He does have an automatic machine that pans the blade to make it very thin. After the first process, he then has to take it over and cut it into the shape that he ultimately wants. He does not do the sharpening at his shop, it is sent out to another location. The knife handle is also put on someplace else. He was very generous to let us try some of the forging techniques that he uses. He did have knives for sale that he had made.

The next knife shop the next shop we visited use the same techniques that we had seen in the previous shop. What made this knife factory different was that they also make the samurai swords. The area where the swords are made is actually considered spiritual because the perimeter of the room contains the symbols that we have seen at some of the temples and shrines. This location had an actual shop in the front where they were selling their knives.

For lunch, we drove back into Osaka to a Korean barbecue restaurant where we were all growing our own meat. It was a nice break from some of the other meals we’ve had. Afterwards, we walked around the streets, which seemed  very touristy with their brightly painted store frontsand characters sitting out front. The Osaka Tower which resembles the Eiffel Tower is in this area. There is a slide that you can go down that’s attached to the outside of the tower.

We walked to a wholesale knife shop, which carries knives made by several of the area craftsman. One of their salesman was able to explain all the intricacies of the knives and why having a very sharp one makes such a difference to how food tastes. He said many famous chefs shop here for knives to take back to their kitchens.

After we all finished our shopping we hopped into our van to drive to the Nara region. We’re spending the next three nights at Cofunia, a reclaimed farmhouse with 4 very unique rooms.  Ours had a living area and bathroom downstairs and our bedroom upstairs.  It felt a little like we were in a Hobbit house.

For dinner or host made us a hotpot meal enhanced with appetizers and dessert.  The hotpot ingredients were from local plants and fermented tomato broth. It was felt very healthy.

Tomorrow: Visiting the sake shrine