Day 7: Kyoto – Knives @ Shigeharu (重春)

After acquiring a pair of ceramic knives from NTUC a few months back and discovering that the sharp edges could chip if I drop them, it got me started on finding out more about culinary knives.

Through the Internet, I was enlightened about the types, uses and care of kitchen knives. I learned that a good knife makes a difference to cooking, shorter preparation time and better cuts. It makes the whole experience of cooking enjoyable too. Japan is well known for producing top quality chef knives and since we would be traveling to Japan, I planned to shop for one.

Aritsugu knives are well known in Kyoto and the shop is located in the Nishiki Food Market. I wanted to buy from the shop initially but I nearly fainted after one look at the offerings there. Too expensive for our budget!

I read though that I could get similar quality at 30% cheaper and hand-made some more from a shop named Shigeharu. This shop has an impressive history – it dates back to the Kamakura period (1190-1329).

We had an easy time locating this shop as it is a few bus stops away from Mitsui Garden hotel. It is situated along Horikawa dori (between Sanjo dori and Oike dori). The bus stop to alight at is called Horikawa Sanjo. Day 7 evening though saw rain and wind, and we had to brave the elements quite a bit to get to the shop, even if it was easy to find.

The owner of the shop and also the knife-maker catered to our requests for stainless steel chef knife – this is the commonly used knife in the kitchen for cutting vegetables and meats – by bringing out a range of different thickness and grade of stainless steel. By the way, there are also the carbon steel varieties but these would rust if the user is not diligent in keeping them dry after use. There are knives for right- and left-handed as well. I requested for a demonstration on sharpening the knife as I have yet to do it with a whetstone. He was trying to tell me to sharpen 55% right side and 45% left side…I wasn’t sure what he actually meant, but when he said 50-50% is alright, I’m saved!

The owner could speak little English and hence he wrote numbers and drew simple diagrams on a piece of paper to communicate with us. :) He was a very kindly gentleman, and he dug out a Lonely Planet English-Japanese phrase guide when he concluded that this was like chickens and ducks trying to communicate. Upon informing him that we’d decided on a particular knife, we were figuring out how to ask him to have it sharpened for us when he automatically took our new knife out of its box and proceeded to sharpen it.

By the look of his rough hands with a plaster on one of them even, you could tell how much time he had spent on making his knives. We paid 8,000円 for the knife and 2,000円 for a whetstone. Another tick on my checklist of things to do in Japan. Mission accomplished! :)