Visit to Matsubara in Nagasaki. It is a beautiful spring day in Nagasaki, and we were honored to visit Matsubara's forge and were also given a tour of Nagasaki's historical sites.
Tanaka Kama Kogyo is the name of the owner of Matsubara's knife forge in Nagasaki. He is the 4th generation blacksmith in his family and he forges the blades by hand with great precision. For example, he laminates the steel by hand (warikomi). It is a time-consuming process where he cuts a groove in softer metal and inserts the core steel by hand entirely according to traditional methods. The steel is called shirogami, which is a very pure carbon steel that takes a fantastically thin and sharp edge. The quality of the edge depends very much on hardening and heat treatment. We have used Matsubara's knives ourselves and can attest that the quality of the steel is really, really good.
