Bladed Tools

In this edition of of Japanology Plus, host Peter Barakan pays a visit to the city of Sakai, which is part of Osaka Prefecture in Western Japan. Sakai has been known for bladesmithing since the Muromachi period (1333–1568), but it was during the Edo period (1603–1868) that blade making really took off. In this period of peace and prosperity, Japanese culture flourished. The emergence of sushi as the fast food of the age called for a range of knives for street-side vendors. The bonsai tradition, meanwhile, spawned a range of delicate shears and squeeze-scissors, a genre of tool that was also turned to the shaping of wagashi confections for the tea ceremony, and the fashion and beauty needs of an increasingly style-conscious populace. Indeed, this is the area of Japanese bladesmithing that continues to evolve, as we also find out with reporter Matt Alt’s visit to a factory in Gifu Prefecture that manufactures a range of scissors with accessible and eco-friendly design in mind, and also at a workshop in Tokyo that produces super high-precision medical implements that are in demand among brain surgeons around the world: a genuine link from Japan’s past to the future.