About Sakai Kikumori Minomo Kajiya: Sakai Kikumori is one of the most ambitious wholesalers in Sakai. Often Sakai wholesalers would stick with the makers in the region where they have been traditionally dealing like Sakai, Tosa, Miki and Seki. Daisuke Kawamura-san of Kawamura Hamono loves exploring other knife makers in regions like Kyushu. That is one of the reasons why we get Miyazaki-san’s knives from Sakai Kikumori. Sakai Kikumori recently partnered up with Minomo Kajiya in Hitoyoshi-city, Kumamoto. Minomo Kajiya has been around in the area for 10 generations making farming tools. Now grandfather (8th gen), father (9th gen) and grandson (10th gen) are
working together in the workshop.

In 2020, massive rainfall caused the Kuma River to overflow and the river bank to collapse, resulting in 22 deaths and flooding of more than 3000 houses in Hitoyoshi. Minomo Kajiya’s workshop was directly affected and had to be relocated. Luckily, there were no casualties in the family, but they had to go through a very tough time. Those knives are made with Aogami #2 with soft steel cladding. The deep tsuchime is stunning and exclusive to this collaboration. Despite the good feeling spine, the thickness behind the edge is really nice and thin, so things like carrots won’t stand a chance.