Traditional craft
Echizen Uchihamono
越前打刃物
Hand-forged kitchen knives, sickles and hatchets from Echizen in Fukui, a 700-year tradition and Japan's first designated cutlery area.
Key facts
- Officially recognised
- 12 January 1979
- Type
- Metalwork
- Region
- Chubu
- Official name in Japanese
- 越前打刃物
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 越前市
Fire-forged and hand-finished
Echizen Uchihamono are made mainly by traditional Japanese fire forging and hand finishing. Sickles and kitchen knives lead the range, with nata hatchets and scissors, and the blades are prized for their sharpness and ease of use. They are made in Echizen city in Fukui, also home to iron-fitted Echizen Tansu chests.
Two signature techniques
- Mawashi hagane-tsuke: the steel is flattened diagonally from one corner into a diamond shape as it is joined to the blade.
- Nimai-hiroge: two blades are stacked and hammered quickly from both sides, so both thin out evenly at once.
- The blade is then finished by hand.
A swordsmith from Kyoto
In the early Muromachi period, a swordsmith from Kyoto came to the area looking for land suited to sword-making, and made sickles for the local farmers. In the Edo period the Fukui domain protected the trade and Echizen blades were sold across Japan. In 1979 Echizen became the first cutlery area designated as a traditional craft.
Good to know
- Tell the maker what you cook most; Echizen knives come in many shapes.
- Pack knives in checked luggage, never in your carry-on.
Questions travellers ask
How old is Echizen Uchihamono?
About 700 years, dating to the early Muromachi period.
What is nimai-hiroge?
Hammering two stacked blades together from both sides so both thin out evenly.
Where it comes from
More crafts from the same area
Local foods from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
- Echizen-Fukui: 400 years of towns built in stone
- Esashi: the herring town that outshone Edo
- Kitamaebune: the merchant ships that made Japan's port towns rich
- The railway across the sea: Nagahama, Tsuruga and Imajo
- The Six Ancient Kilns: pottery born and raised in Japan
- Wakasa and the Saba Kaido: the mackerel road to Kyoto
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.