Comfortable to use, careful but not overdone handiwork

Yutaka Yazaki, the eighth generation master of Ubukeya, has been working in this field for almost 50 years. What makes his job worthwhile is when customers are satisfied with the sharpness and quality and love the product for a long time. Many customers like Ubukeya's edged tools and have been favoring it for several generations.

What is the secret to being used with love for a long time? "I don't have a particular point but, that we should always adjust them to the same state so that they are easy for customers to use." We value the ease of use and maintaining the quality.

“When you get better at sharpening the blades, you want the knives to look nice and shiny. I get carried away and spend hours sharpening a single knife. For example, swords displayed in the museum are meant to be polished beautifully but we grind tools, not swords. And when I'm pleased with myself, my boss often scolds me by saying "How many hours have you spent sharpening that knife? and how much money are you supposedly going to get?"

Artisans need to handle dozens of knives a day. "I've been told many times that there is a certain level of grinding knives. While working with care, I have to increase the amount of work I do in a day in order to keep customers from waiting, so there is some conflict in my mind. However, I think it's important to know when to wrap up the work." As a craftsman, I want to refine my skills, and I try to give back to my customers the comfort of using my tools, and I try to do my work with the care that is appropriate for the tools.

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