Creating Culture: Volume Three

Hello, everyone.

My name is Ryo Tanaka, and I am the third generation president of Sakai Ichimonji Mitsuhide.

In this column, I will focus on talking about knives directly, their makers, and continue to discuss the keyword "creating culture."

Please read our previous columns too, if you are curious.

We have been having some incredibly hot days as of recent, and I hope you are handling the weather well.

This time, I want to discuss the following question:

"What are the challenges we face in our highly regarded food and tool culture?"

Let me share my thoughts individually on current cultural consumption, at least in the kitchen knife sector.

Firstly, there is a shortage of craftspeople.

Kitchen knife artisans have supported Japan's food culture for many, many years and have overcome a large number of serious issues.

The influx of inexpensive foreign products, the collapse of the bubble economy, and more recently the COVID-19 pandemic are just some of those.

In such a harsh market environment, many knivemakers have asked themselves:

"Is it okay to let children do such difficult and laborious work?"

In a workshop run by a small number of people, apprentices will inevitable incur business losees as part of their training cycle.

If production time or materials are needlessly wasted, deliveries to retailers may not be made on time and a business can easily go into the red as a result.

On the other hand, of course, apprentices need to be paid and be given the sapce to grow into qualified artisans.

This raises the possiblity though that the people you have worked so hard to grow will branch out and go independent, becoming your rivals in the sector.

When hitting retirement age or at least getting closer to it, it is natural to be hesitant to introduce new machinery or train young workers in today's cultural climate.

Many artisans as a result have made the decision to "close down their business in their own generation."

This is a challenge for the entire knifemaking industry, including retailers. We have not been able to provide the environment or compensation that makes artisans go: "I want to raise the next generation!"

Thank you as always for reading.

Next time, we will talk about the second issue in cultural consumption.

Ryo Tanaka - 3rd Generation President
Sakai Ichimonji Mitsuhide