The Corona pandemic raises the global demand for Japanese cooking knives

In a small Japanese town that was once famous for samurai swords, craftsmen are sharpening and polishing cooking knives, and they can barely meet the global demand for these tools, which has increased dramatically since the spread of the Corona pandemic.

Exports of these high-quality Japanese tools reached a record level of 12 billion yen in 2021 ($93.8 million), twice what they were twenty years ago, according to Japanese customs authorities.

Exports witnessed a significant increase of 33% compared to 2020, due to the large proportion of people resorting to cooking at home with the spread of the “Covid-19” pandemic.

However, for many years, Japanese knives have been prized by chefs from all over the world for their quality and durability.

Katsumi Sumikama, owner of the "Sumikama" cookware company located in Seki, near Nagoya (central Japan), attributes this success to "the combination of technology and traditional craftsmanship."

In order to obtain an exceptional knife for preparing sushi in an excellent way or cutting thin slices of wagyu meat, his company uses machines that work with very high precision, and then the final touches are placed on the product manually.

"We are unable to meet the high demand" for knives even though we are working at maximum capacity, Sumikama told AFP.

The popularity of seki knives dates back to the 14th century.

The director of the company notes that the cleanliness of the rivers and the surrounding raw materials was "ideal for making swords" of high-quality iron extracted from sands containing a high proportion of iron compounds.

This activity declined with the demise of the samurai at the end of the nineteenth century.

But after World War II, factories in Seki began producing and exporting small knives.

This trade met with success in the beginning, but a crisis affected the sector in the seventies of the twentieth century, especially with the emergence of competing Chinese knives that were sold at unbeatable prices.

Then the Seki artisans began to manufacture high quality knives.

At that time, German brands such as Zwilling dominated this market, while Japanese luxury products were rare.

In the 1990s, Sumikama began producing knives, each costing several hundred dollars.

To give the knives a Japanese feel, the company added a wavy visual effect similar to the look of traditional katana blades, with a logo composed of Japanese kanji characters.

But at first, the company wasn't confident about entering the high-quality knife market.

"We were focusing on the idea that Japanese knives would only be bought by consumers if they were cheaper than German ones," says Sumikama.

However, the move achieved its goals and the company now sells its products in more than 50 countries.

French chef Olivier Audos has been a fan of Japanese knives for more than twenty years.

He says in an interview with Agence France-Presse from his restaurant, "Chéz-Zolivier" in Tokyo, that these knives "have become famous all over the world."

He adds, "I know many French chefs who buy knives from Japan every time they visit, while some of them buy quantities of them for their entire work team."

He explains that these knives "work perfectly in terms of cutting foods," noting that details in cutting can change the quality of the dishes.

Odos points out that the negative side of Japanese knives is that they have to be “taken care of very regularly” by sharpening them with stone, and if they receive the necessary care, they will serve for a long period of time.

On Kabbashi Street in Tokyo, famous for its shops selling cooking utensils, trader Daisuke Kumazawa says Japanese knives have been gaining popularity abroad for a decade.

He believes that there is a direct link with the popularity of Japanese cuisine.

In 2018, he opened in France a branch of his "Kama-Asa" store, which dates back about a hundred years, while the two stores are achieving success, according to Kumazawa.

He seeks to make his customers see Japanese knives as more than just cooking tools.

"We want them to know why these knives are so good, and what the craftsmen who make them want to convey," he says.

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