[UPDATE 23 Nov 2008: All the photos in my online archive here, Tsukiji knife photos ]
[UPDATE 10 Oct 2008: The full story is now on the wesbite of Rex Features: here]
I’ve been taking photos of a 240 year old knife shop in Tsukiji fish market. This is the owner of the shop sharpening a cooking knife. If you buy a knife at the shop you can bring it back to be sharpened for free.
Here he is with a tuna knife (the knives tuna dealers in the market use to slice up the fish). He told me that the knives were a blend of Japanese sword-making techniques and Western knife technology.
sharpening a tuna knife
The tuna knife is taller than he is! For a long time the shop was the sole tuna knife supplier at Tsukiji.
[...] aplomb that you might not get a really good look at them. Now you can. I discovered some excellent photos of tuna knives from a small shop in Tsukiji by Tony McNichol via MetaFilter this afternoon as I was using the [...]
This is very interesting to know. I would like to visit his shop, but as you know Tsukiji is a maze of shops. Would you happen to know where in Tsukiji it is?
Hi Tony,
It’s really hard to explain! If you ask for “Azuma-san the knife shop” in the outer market I’m sure someone will help you though.
Tony
[...] Tsukiji knife photos on tokyo photojournalist Sharpning Japanese Knives on The Japanese Food Report [...]
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