Yuji Toya (Takefu Knife Village / Traditional Craftsman) - A new generation of craftsmen who not only create products but also take on the responsibility of promoting and selling them

The trajectory of the unique 'Echizen Uchihamono' brand

Even though there is a production area, no one knows the name 'Echizen Uchihamono.' If you search all over Japan, you won't find it sold under that name anywhere. Mass-produced, cheap, die-cut blades were on the rise, the work for wholesalers was decreasing, the work for craftsmen was decreasing, and the population was aging. If we continued like this, it wouldn't sell in 10 or 20 years either. There was a sense of crisis that 'if we don't do something, it will be the end.'

In the midst of this predicament, about 20 people from our parents' generation, who were in their 30s and 40s in the 70s, gathered to discuss the future of Echizen Uchihamono. Entering the 80s, we brought in Kazuo Kawasaki, a world-renowned designer from Fukui Prefecture, to create a unique brand that incorporated the concept of industrial design into the traditional craft of Echizen Uchihamono. Furthermore, in 1993, the remaining 12 of us established 'Takefu Knife Village' as a cooperative, serving as the base for the cooperative and as a shared workshop and direct sales store. The total construction cost was 300 million yen. There were no subsidies we could rely on, so we took on 30 million yen in debt each to build it. We did this even though we were already in debt for our own workshops.

Creating our own brand and having our own shop required a significant amount of resolve, and I heard that some wholesalers told us they would cut ties if we went ahead with our own brand. Even so, I think the reason we tried to do it was because of a strong desire not to let it end with us.

At 'Takefu Knife Village,' we have shared all workshops and equipment since the beginning, operating on a system where we write down what we use in a notebook and pay a usage fee accordingly. Since it started with about 10 masters who had always worked alone, people around us said, 'There's no way this will work, it will go bankrupt immediately.' But it has continued ever since. Now, young people are joining one after another, and the energy is rising.

Another feature is that there is constant technical exchange. In this workshop, the person who forges the blade and the person who sharpens it are right next to each other, so they can immediately tell each other what is good or bad. If they were in separate locations, you wouldn't go out of your way to tell them unless you drove to that blacksmith's shop, so you wouldn't bother. You would just send the finished product to the wholesaler. Because we can imitate each other's work, everyone's level has improved. There are seniors and juniors to consult with, and we can talk about anything. If this were just a workshop with only my parent and me, I don't think we would have said a word.

The reactions of people who come to visit the factory lead to pride in our work

The best thing is that our parents' generation didn't try to keep the young people to themselves, but raised us by saying, 'Don't stay here forever, go independent.' Usually, I think masters would dislike their employees becoming independent, but they were masters who let the young people take on challenges to make a name for themselves. That was entirely for the sake of the production area. Even if you think only about your own profit, if there are no young people, work won't come there. Work comes where there are people. There is a long-term awareness of the purpose of revitalizing the production area. When someone becomes independent and sells well, the name of Echizen Uchihamono as a whole is sold, and everyone benefits.

Since we established it 30 years ago, we have always allowed the public to visit the workshop. Many people come from outside the prefecture to see it, and some people want to work here after visiting the workshop. We have also had a direct sales shop with an attached gallery since that time. Many in the masters' generation were only good at making things and were not good at promoting or selling them, but in our generation, some are actually better at that. There was a desire to sell things with our own names on them. As they sell, it becomes fun, and you start to want to show your face more.

Because the people who see our work say it's amazing, it became a source of pride in our work. I hope it becomes a profession that people call cool and aspire to. We also do things like workshop tours for elementary school students; it takes time and doesn't make any money at all, but we do it as sowing seeds. Those seeds are sprouting, and we are seeing more people who say, 'I came to visit when I was in elementary school' coming back again as adults. We have been enthusiastically doing that kind of seed-sowing for a long time.