Yoshikazu Tanaka 田中義一

Yoshikazu Tanaka is a knife craftsman, who focuses on making knives only with Shirogami steel and Aogami carbon steel. With over half a century of experience in making knives, he trusts his own intuition and skills more than modern tools. For example he tells the temperature of the steel by looking at its color, rather than using a thermometer. But at the same time, he seeks improvement over time, and uses usual tools during the knife-making process. He uses pine charcoal, ash of straw and a temperature-controlled kiln for heat-treating and forging his knives. At the moment, he only makes 30 knives a day with his team in his workshop located in Sakai City.