Experience/Buy
Echizen Uchihamono is one of the traditional crafts of which Echizen City is proud.It has a history of about 700 years, and was the first cutlery in Japan to be designated as a traditional craft due to the high evaluation of its casting technology and craftsmen's hand-sharpening skills.The value of a blade is created only when it is inserted into the handle.Founded in 1912, Yamaken Woodworks started out by making wooden bowls, and when it was the second generation, the company began making sickle handles produced in the area.However, as mechanization progressed after the war, the demand for sickles decreased, and the company began making "kitchen knife handles," which require less material than sickle handles.During the third generation, the company developed and patented a double-layered pattern, achieving a better finish and a variety of patterns.As the only workshop in the prefecture specializing in "handles" the company produces various types of patterns, including durable and antibacterial ones, and ones made of high-grade materials such as ebony and purple ebony.
In September 2020, Yamaken Woodworks opened a gallery and store called "Etoe".The shop offers one-of-a-kind kitchen knives, accessories, and other small items in limited editions, all of which are decorated with maki-e, a traditional technique used to decorate Echizen lacquerware, on the "handles" of kitchen knives made by the Yamaken Woodworks.
It is run by Takuya Yamamoto, the fourth generation owner of Yamaken Woodworks, and his partner Yuma Yamamoto.Takuya has been a professional for handles for over 20 years in this field.Yuma, who majored in lacquer art in college, trained as a maki-e and lacquer painter in the Kawada district of Sabae City, a lacquer ware production area, and joined Yamaken Wood Works when she got married.
Various traditional crafts such as Echizen lacquerware, Echizen washi paper, and Echizen tansu (chests of drawers) are found in the vicinity of Echizen uchihamono, but until now, each production area has developed its own techniques.In this context, "Etoe" a fusion of traditional crafts x traditional crafts, is attracting attention as showing a new way of being in the production area.
In the gallery, visitors can enjoy the various types and combinations of patterns made by local cutlery craftsmen, and workshops on maki-e and knife sharpening are also held on an irregular basis.Through "Etoe" we hope you will experience the possibilities for expression of traditional crafts that have never existed before.
Text/Ai Ishihara
