Forging Connections: A French Artisan Sharing Japan’s Knife-Making Heritage
From Blacksmith to Cultural Ambassador
Eric Chevalier, originally from Paris, France, has built a remarkable career path that bridges cultures. After training as a blacksmith in France, he found himself drawn to Japan’s deep heritage of craftsmanship. Today, he serves as an inbound coordinator in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, introducing international visitors to Japan’s traditional culture with a special focus on the city’s world-famous cutlery. His story is not only about personal passion but also about how one individual can become a cultural bridge between Japan and the rest of the world.
Chevalier explains that what first fascinated him was not only the functionality of Japanese knives but also the philosophy behind their making—the way craftsmanship is tied to history, daily life, and spirituality. For him, every blade is more than a tool; it is a story carried by generations of artisans.
Sakai: A City of Heritage and Craftsmanship
Sakai has been a city of innovation and tradition for centuries. Located on Osaka Bay, it thrived as an international trading port during the medieval period, attracting goods, people, and ideas from overseas. This cosmopolitan past left behind a vibrant cultural heritage, visible today in both the city’s historic sites and its artisanal industries.
The city is also home to the Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group, a cluster of ancient burial mounds built between the late 4th and early 6th centuries. Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, these tombs symbolize Japan’s early state formation and offer insight into the scale and sophistication of ancient engineering. Standing at the heart of the city is the Daisenryo Kofun, one of the largest burial mounds in the world, stretching nearly 500 meters in length.
In addition to its archaeological treasures, Sakai is widely regarded as the capital of cutlery. For centuries, the city’s blacksmiths have produced blades of extraordinary quality, so much so that even today, professional chefs across Japan rely on Sakai knives for their kitchens. This combination of history, heritage, and living craftsmanship gives Sakai a unique identity that continues to draw global attention.
Sharing the Legacy of Sakai Knives
At the Sakai Traditional Crafts Museum, visitors are welcomed into this world of precision and artistry. The first and second floors are dedicated to knife displays, showcasing a stunning variety of shapes, sizes, and purposes. From delicate knives for slicing sashimi to robust blades for cutting vegetables, each tool reflects the unique needs of Japanese cuisine.
Guiding guests through this collection is Eric Chevalier himself. Fluent in French, English, and Japanese, he ensures that international visitors can fully appreciate not only the technical details but also the cultural stories behind each knife. He explains how Sakai’s blacksmithing traditions date back to the craftsmen gathered during the construction of the ancient kofun tombs. He also emphasizes the remarkable durability of Sakai knives, which, with proper care, can retain their sharpness for more than half a century.
Chevalier’s authority comes from first-hand experience. For nearly five years, he apprenticed at Sasuke, a blacksmith workshop with over 160 years of history. There, he began humbly with tasks such as cleaning the workshop and tending the household shrine before gradually learning the techniques of forging and finishing blades. His dedication impressed his master so much that Chevalier was eventually allowed to inscribe his own name on completed knives—an honor reserved for highly skilled craftsmen.
Since 2018, he has worked as an Overseas Market Development Coordinator at the Sakai City Industrial Promotion Center. His role includes guiding countless groups of international chefs and culinary professionals. Under his guidance, the museum’s knife sales have doubled, and his reputation as a trusted voice in Sakai’s cutlery world has become firmly established.
The history of natural whetstones in Japan goes back some 250 million years to the tectonic formation of the archipelago itself, and continues to thrive today as a foundation of Japanese technology and culture, from architecture to cooking to precision manufacturing. Tanaka is fueled by her passion for seeing – and sharing – whetstones as a window into the natural, cultural, and technological history of her country.
This passion is why the Wabunka plan at the museum includes getting hands on with a traditional Japanese wood planer and even handling a real Japanese sword.
Whetstone and Knife: the Hidden Marriage Behind all Expertly-Presented Culinary Fare
Perhaps most famously, whetstones are a commonplace tool for maintaining Japanese kitchen knives – and a well-maintained cutting edge is essential for masterful cuisine.
“Japanese culinary arts utilize a variety of knives, from usuba to yanagiba to deba blades, each with a specialized use for which sharpness is paramount. When you see such flourishes in Japanese food as delicate ornamental cuts to highlight the beauty of vegetables, and keep the good flavor of seafood, what you are really seeing is how vital great knives are to the craft.”
The Natural Whetstone and Hone Museum is a Mecca for specialists from various fields whose work utilizes precision blades, and chefs make up no small number of those who visit seeking hones. “In Japan’s culinary world, they say that not only a chef’s skill but in fact their entire attitude toward their craft is reflected in a glance at their knife.”
Precise sharpening and honing brings out a knife’s true potential and ensures its longevity. For Tanaka, the very act of honing kitchen knives with natural whetstones has an almost ritualistic significance, embodying the Japanese spirit of respect for one’s tools, resources, and the little details as encapsulated in the term “mottainai,” literally a caution against waste in every sense which has blossomed from ancient roots into a resurgent modern cultural phenomenon.
Gates Open: Welcoming and Inclusivity
One of Tanaka’s major projects since assuming her position at the museum has been to transform it into a welcoming space with exhibits accessible to people from all walks of life. Previously, natural whetstones represented an esoteric and cloistered realm of specialist artisans and rarified connoisseurs. Recently however – and thanks in no small part to her efforts – they are beginning to attract wider global attention.
“Whetstones are products of nature, and as such they are individuals. Even two stones cut from the same mountain will have their own characteristics and finishes, owing to their respective positions in their geological strata and in the thermal metamorphosis that formed them.”The Natural Whetstone and Hone Museum offers the opportunity for visitors to make their own whetstone/hone to take home with them.
And yet for many the initial selection process can be daunting: where to even start? Tanaka prepares helpful hands-on guidance with examples to understand the characteristics of the various types, listens carefully to get an idea of each person’s needs and habits, and guides them in choosing a well-suited whetstone/hone with confidence. Not only are her explanations accessible to the novice and expert alike, but she even has a microscope on hand to demonstrate the real life effects of sharpening and honing techniques at the smallest scale.
What it Means to be Japanese, as Told through a Whetstone
Tanaka wants people to get to know whetstones not as abstract exhibits, but as real living things with a place in the world. That is why at the close of 2023 she opened her “Kiri no Kobo,” a renovated folk house outfitted with a Goemon-buro traditional small bathing cauldron, firewood for the bath, and of course natural whetstones, hones, knives, and even axes. Try sharpening a wood-splitting ax and chopping wood yourself to prepare a bath the old-fashioned way.
“On my first visit to this old house, I happened by pure chance upon an aoto stone from Kameoka, and an omura stone from my home prefecture of Wakayama, within. It felt like fate.” Visitors can enjoy a leisurely stay in Kameoka steeped in nature, luxuriating the Goemon-buro bath, and planting and harvesting in the fields – coming away with firsthand experience in the traditional Japanese way of life.
Tanaka’s passion for her work is boundless, and there is always more to come. “Right now I’m undertaking a geo-cultural study of whetstones, and also in the process of producing a documentary footage.” Wabunka visitors at the Natural Whetstone and Hone Museum can enjoy having the entire facility and the director’s full attention to themselves for a guided tour. Looking into the face of a 250-million-year-old whetstone with an awareness of the journey it and its techniques took to reach you as you sharpen your knife in the quiet of the museum is a profound experience that lends itself to a liminal, almost meditative mindfulness.
This is no coincidence: letting go of all distractions and finding a singular focus within yourself is said to be a vital step in proper knife sharpening.“The ultra-fine-grain hone used for putting the very final polish on knives is known as an Awasedo, in which the character for Awase describes a harmony, chemistry, or affinity between two people or things – in this case, between the knife and the stone or the person using it.
I think this is important, and it’s why visitors at our museum are encouraged to try it out, find their match, and build that bond.” For Tanaka, her work itself is the whetstone on which she sharpens her own sensibilities and hones her knowledge anew daily. And maybe that’s why her passion for sharing with the world these wonderful tools – and the deep traditions behind them – never seems to lose its luster.