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Visiting Echizen was one of the places on my bucket list for Japan, after I learned it is a hub for traditional crafts like paper and knife making. I'm so glad we went! We had an amazing time and would absolutely recommend it!
July 8th - Travelling to Echizen
Our travel to Echizen started out rather wet since it was pouring in Niigata when we left. The second snag was a message from our knife making workshop. Both on the website and when confirming our reservation there was no information about appropriate clothes, so we both brought a pair of pants, but didn't bring a long sleeved shirt since we figured they would provide the necessary protective gear. However, as we were leaving Niigata, they sent an email requesting that we wear long sleeves.
During a train transfer in Joetsu, we split up and Jesse went on a hunt for second hand clothing stores while I went for a walk and ended up at a hardware store and grocery store for lunch. The grocery store even had a seating area with free wifi! It was very nice to walk through the fields in a rural town, but living here, a car or at least a bike would definitely be needed! Thankfully Jesse found shirts so we didn't have to look in Echizen or get in trouble for not following instructions.
When we arrived at the Shinansen station in Echizen, we were met by one of our hosts. Jesse found an Airbnb for us to stay at which was amazing! It is run by a retired couple who seem to be quite involved in their neighbourhood, and who were excited to share lots of things with us.
They have multiple buildings on their property which is the last on a road next to some fields and a steep hill so it is nice and quiet. They have their house which has a back porch with outside baths, a guest house which has many traditional rooms, a large kitchen, and multiple bathrooms, plus a third side building that is used as a soba making studio. We had the added bonus that we were the only ones staying in the guest house, but it was a lovely traditional building that had clearly been renovated recently and was well taken care of.
After a house tour we headed out on the bicycles they had for us to explore the neighbourhood a bit and get supper and settle in. We ended the evening with a bath overlooking the rice fields and nearby forest.
July 9th - Paper tour
On our first full day in Echizen I booked a tour of the paper district for the afternoon, so after grabbing lunch on our bikes we had our hosts call us a taxi. As a local promotion, you can get taxi coupons for a ride between a number of major points like the paper and knife villages nearby for only 500 yen! That is less than $5 CAD for a 15 minute taxi ride. Plus, our Airbnb was one of the accepted locations, so we could get a ride back for the same price, and buy the coupons from our hosts.
We were a little early, but after a quick walk around the block our tour guides arrived. One was from the local tourism association I think, and he spoke some English but not a lot, while our main tour guide was a nationally licensed English guide, fluent enough to explain lots of the local history and translate at the factories we visited.
We started by walking through the neighbourhood and learning a bit about the traditional building construction, and chatting about Japan vs Canada before we arrived at the first paper factory, named Ryozo. They focused on creating paper with repeating patterns, and practical paper such as for wrapping or making small boxes. Next, we were led into the factory and got to stand out of the way and watch everyone working.
Paper Factory #1 - Ryozo
They were working as a team of 4 to produce large sheets which would be subdivided into individual wrappers for candies to be sold in Kagoshima.
The women on the left and far right were both working at tubs of white pulp, and they took turns laying the first layer of paper on the conveyor belt in the middle of the room. After adding a ladleful of water over the bamboo mat to release the pulp, the mat was removed and the third woman would add a second layer of red pulp on top. Both the white and red layers had lines for the individual wrappers, but the red layer had an additional design of a volcano billowing smoke to represent Sakurajima.
The conveyor belt then moved the paper under the fourth member of the team who is standing on a raised platform at the back facing a large metal wheel. The wet papers stick to the edge of the wheel and are quickly dried by a propane heater as they rotate around to his position. One by one, he peels the finished papers off and stacks them neatly on his right.
After spending some time in the factory asking questions, we then went to a second building nearby with an individual workshop. It was a lot like the workshop that I did with mum and dad, but with larger equipment. Because the frame is larger, it was suspended from strings, so most of the weight of the fame is being held up by the strings, not you.
From left to right: the artisan who helped us during the workshop, Jesse and I holding a paper umbrella they made and our paper safely packaged up, and our factory guide.
Paper Factory #2
After a short walk in the spitting rain we arrived at a second factory for another tour. The style of this factory was very different! They focused more on artistic applications of the paper, and generally made much larger works. A significant portion of their clients are hotels or other fancy establishments who display their products as art, and they also produce huge sheets which are used to make traditional Japanese sliding doors. We got to see the current owner creating a piece with one of their unique techniques which uses a squeeze bottle to apply the pulp in a random but angular pattern to fill the allotted space.
In the display area, my favourite works were these lampshades where they had used to the squeeze bottle to create patterns of flowers and roses. Most of the work was more abstract than I generally like, but it was still neat to compare the two workshops! We were also able to choose a goshuincho, which is a special accordion-folded book to be filled with stamps from Japanese shrines. While stamps are common at train stations and many tourist attractions, these ones are much fancier and are intended to be a spiritual record of where you have prayed, so the goshuincho are made of very nice paper and well crafted.
Paper Shrine
The final thing on our tour was a visit to the local shrine dedicated to the Goddess of Paper. Legend tells of how, approximately 1500 years ago, she came down from the mountains to the folks who were living in the area and told them that, while they may not have good farmland, they did have good trees and water for making paper. She then taught them how to use the local resources to make paper, and the area has been crafting paper by hand ever since. It was a lovely shrine, quite quiet right now, but much busier during the festivals when the local folks give thanks to the Goddess. If the priests had been there we would have added the stamp to our new goshuincho, but since they weren't, our guide had gotten the temple stamp for us ahead of time on a piece of paper.
This shrine has some unique architecture which our guide explained. Shrines have 2 prayer spaces; the one at the front is accessible to the public, and an inner space for special ceremonies performed by the priests. Because this shrine is right next to the mountain, the local people wanted to raise the rear inner chamber up higher than usual. That way, if there was a landslide, the rear of the shrine would hopefully not be buried. The roof of a typical shrine has 2 tiers, but because the floors of this shrine are such different heights, that means the roof ended up with 4 tiers instead. So, despite it being a relatively small shrine, it has an unusually intricate roof.
After the tour
Our guides kindly called us a taxi back to our Airbnb, where our host showed us how to catch crawfish from the pond. He had small pieces of bamboo with a string tied at one end for the rod, and a piece of dried squid was the bait. Once you positioned the squid in front of a crawfish it would grab on with it's claws to try and eat the squid, and then you carefully lifted it out. It was a lot of fun, and he said you can eat them, although I expect they are a lot of work to prepare since they are so much smaller than lobsters.
July 10 - Knife Making! 🔪
While we were both looking forward to this workshop, Jesse was especially excited for it. We debated taking another 500 yen taxi to the factory, but decided instead to take the bikes since it was only 5 km away. Thankfully the weather cooperated and only started spitting a little bit as we arrived.
To begin, we met our master knife maker who would be guiding us through the process (and fixing our mistakes) as well as our two translators. The primary translator had really good English! As a kid his family moved often between the US and Japan for his dad's work, and he has kept up with his English. Our second translator was there to learn from the first. His English was more on par with what we expect. He understood us and could answer, but conversation was slower as he searched for the right word.
They make two kinds of knives; carbon steel and stainless steel. We got to choose which one we made, and Jesse chose stainless while I made a carbon steel knife. They cut well because they both have a carbon steel cutting edge, but because the carbon steel will rust really quickly (like, potentially in minutes), the stainless makes for a more convenient knife, although it still needs more care and maintenance than your average knife.
To begin, we worked at a forge with a belt hammer. The craftsman had a small whiteboard where he drew out the patterns that we were supposed to follow on the blank with the hammer. While it was easy to start the hammer (there is a pedal to step on) I found it startling when it began pounding, and you had to be careful that you didn't accidentally hit too close to an edge because you could deform the metal beyond recovery. It was also tricky because as we worked the blank it began to curve, and if you didn't angle and lift your hands to compensate it would rattle the tongs in your hands quite a lot.
After the master refined our shape and the blades had cooled significantly we broke the extra slag off the outside by bending the metal. They had these wooden logs with deep dents in them. By hammering the metal over the dent it bent the piece and the majority of the slag flaked off quite easily. It felt wrong to be putting such an agressive curve in the blank!
Next we went to the main workshop to use one of the more delicate belt hammers to further refine the shape until the metal was large enough to be punched out using a huge press. Then, we punched out the knife blank! At this point it has no edge, it is simply the right shape. (below from left to right: using the second hammer, shaped blank before punching, the loaded press, and the punched out blank)
The punching leaves a rough edge all around so we sanded the back edge (the blade and handle don't matter since they will be sharpened or covered later) and then the last thing before lunch was to harden the metal.
We covered the blades in slag which is the brown muck leftover from sharpening and it helps to form a protective coating on the final knife. By carefully heating it in an intense gas flame before plunging it into water for only a second, and then letting the metal cool down gradually from there, the blade will be hard enough to hold an incredibly sharp cutting edge. However, if you mess up the timing you won't know that you ruined the knife until you have sharpened it so the master was watching and guiding us quite closely. Then it was time for lunch while we waited for the blades to cool!
We went for lunch with the translators and had a good time chatting and discussing various things, and then we returned for a shorter afternoon of sharpening and engraving the blades.
To sharpen, we started with a large grindstone to remove excess material from the blade. It was a slow process, and nerve-wracking since your fingers are right next to the whetstone but we both managed without any injuries the entire day! Next, we moved to sharpening with a typical knife whetstone with lots of guidance. And that was the blades done! The masters took them to do some final polishing while Jesse and I had the chance to practice our engraving. We both decided to engrave our names in Japanese into our knives, but that means using a small hammer and chisel to indent lines and curves into the blades. After a fair bit of practice on spare metal left over from punching out soba knives, we both went for it. They turned out pretty well! Nowhere near as elegant as the model, but perfectly legible kana!
The very final step was adding a handle, which was done by choosing from their pre-prepared handles, and then adding some resin pellets. After we heated the tang (the part that goes in the handle), we pushed it into the resin and it melted and fused the handle to the blade. And that was it! Two knives!
Clockwise from top left: Marlena cutting paper with her sharp knife, sharpening our knives with the stationary whetstones, Jesse cutting paper with his knife, both of us with our knives under the workshop sign, our knives in front of the Japanese garden at the AirBnb.
Above: Shaving the dried fish into bonito flakes. Below: our final dish all plated up.
Soba making
Echizen has a long history of many things, so in addition to the paper and knives, they are also known for their soba, and our Airbnb host is well versed in how to make it. After cycling home in the rain from making our knives, we had a few minutes to get dried off before we headed to the side building to make soba! First we added some water and mixed the dough. Then it was flattened in a circle by hand and with a rolling pin. The most magical part of soba making to me is how they make the dough square. They roll it up around the rolling pin and somehow the dough doesn't stick to itself, but it does put more pressure in the middle which begins to form a point. After rotating and repeating the procedure to make a square rather than a circle, the dough is folded up and sliced through to form individual noodles.
Our hosts then prepared the full meal with dipping sauce, fresh green onion and daikon radish, as well as bonito flakes (top left is a piece of dried fish that I am shaving), and shrimp, eggplant, and fish cake tempura.
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