【Seki, Japan】 Japan’s number-one producer of famous swords

Swordsmithing was born in Seki City during the Kamakura period. It is said that the founder of the sword, Motoshige, moved to this area and started swordsmithing.

High-quality baking clay, pine charcoal for furnaces, high-quality water, and water transportation on the Nagara and Tsubo rivers… Many swordsmiths gathered in this area, which has ideal climate conditions for swordsmiths. In the Muromachi period, there were more than 300 swordsmiths, and Seki’s swords, which were said to cut well without breaking or bending, spread throughout the country.

Since then, Seki’s swords have been highly praised for their simplicity and robustness and were especially favored by samurai on the battlefields during the Sengoku period. Seki City prospered as Japan’s number-one producer of famous swords. This outstanding traditional technique has been handed down by modern swordsmiths and is certainly still alive in the modern cutlery industry.

The cutlery industry in Seki City began as a swordsmith. The products created by combining tradition and modern technology are now wide-ranging from kitchen knives, scissors, razors, and nail clippers to knives. And now it has become a production area for cutlery that is exported to countries around the world.