Private Echizen Knife Making Factory and walking Tour

A great insight into the craftsmanship of the region's knife makers. We had a private tour, were able to watch the different workingsteps being done and our tourguides helped explain everything in detail! It was very interesting and we also had so much fun with all the people we met during the tour, thank you so much!

Very good private tour. So much better than going with a bus full of folks from the cruise ship. Our guide helped us purchase some knives with no hard sell whatsoever. She introduced to some amazing artists and craftsmen, then made an excellent suggestion for lunch in a local restaurant. Educational and fun.

My day at Echizen Washi Village was truly amazing. I would even call it spiritual. Sawyer is a great tour guide and translator. He did a great job answering my questions and showing me around the village. The paper mill owners and employees were friendly and inviting, and I felt at home in many of the spaces. The Echizen museum and cultural center were also incredible experiences. I don't know Japanese, but the staff members were all very friendly and welcoming. It's truly one of Japan's national treasures, and I hope more people from around the world can experience it. I'm ready for a return visit! Thank you to Sawyer and everyone at Echizen Washi!

The out if way knife- making area and tour is well worth the side trip from Fukui. Driving to the destination would be the easiest way to arrive but we enjoyed our 35 minutes walk from Oshio train station that led us through rice fields and short walk along a road. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and translated the explanations from the local factory employees very well. We especially liked the craftsmanship at the knife handle making factory and watching the machines finalize the blades. My husband said it was his favorite tour so far.

With a history that goes back 700+ years, this was a such an incredible and rare look into how Echizen knives are made from the handle to the steel knife itself. Sawyer was a great guide and translator to the knife makers, even able to translate some harder questions form English that I had for them. Highly recommend to others.

It was an eye-opening experience to see many different types of knives and the guides have been excellent in English so it was not too difficult to communicate. The knives there look very exquisite and if you have the money, I will highly recommend to buy the knives there. Thanks

An absolutely fantastic experience! The tour was very interesting and informative, and it was great to be able to see the process behind making the beautiful knives, as well as learning a bit about the history of knife making in the area. They are true experts of their craft, and every detail is meticulously thought out and perfected, from blade to handle to the final product. We were also able to speak directly to each of the craftsmen and artisans, which truly set this experience apart from any others we have had before. I also cannot speak highly enough of our wonderful guides. They made sure we were well looked after before and during the tour, and went above and beyond to ensure we made it back to our final destination as smoothly as possible. There was also an excellent translator available so we could ask as many questions as we wanted. All in all, a fantastic experience that I would highly recommend to anyone!

An absolutely fantastic experience! The tour was very interesting and informative, and it was great to be able to see the process behind making the beautiful knives, as well as learning a bit about the history of knife making in the area. They are true experts of their craft, and every detail is meticulously thought out and perfected, from blade to handle to the final product. We were also able to speak directly to each of the craftsmen and artisans, which truly set this experience apart from any others we have had before. I also cannot speak highly enough of our wonderful guides. They made sure we were well looked after before and during the tour, and went above and beyond to ensure we made it back to our final destination as smoothly as possible. There was also an excellent translator available so we could ask as many questions as we wanted. All in all, a fantastic experience that I would highly recommend to anyone!

This is an amazing experience, and worth the trip out to this area in Fukui! I usually never leave online reviews, but this just such an incredible tour. Seeing knife and handle manufacturing was definitely one of the highlights of our trip to Japan. Eri was our coordinator, and everything went smoothly. She helped with transportation as well as even above and beyond with portions of our trip after this experience. Having an english translator was also crucially important in this area. So grateful to have such a helpful staff! Thank you!

What an amazing experience! We were well looked after by Yoshie-san (our guide & interpreter) and Eri-san and Hibiki-san from Craft Invitation/SOE. To start off, we had a short introduction to the history of knife-making in the building belonging to Echizen Knifemakers' Association. From there, we visited Etoe/Yamaken, a studio and mill factory belonging to Takuya & Yuma Yamamoto. The lovely couple specialise in crafting knife handles, some of which have beautiful lacquer art drawn by Yuma-san herself. Takuya-san enthusiastically talked us through the entire woodworking process and showed us the wood blocks which he sourced from around the world. We rounded off our tour with a visit to Ryusen Hamono's showroom and forge. The chairman himself, Mr Koji Masutani, proudly showed us around. It was cool to see their master craftsmen at work, two of whom are over 80 years old and still going strong! Koji-san finished off by giving us a tutorial on how to sharpen knives at home and we headed back to their showroom to have a go at chopping some vegetables with their knives. All in all, a great experience and we were super proud to be everyone's first Malaysian guests. Obviously there was some excited photo-taking all around to commemorate the occasion. Thank you Craft Invitation for a wonderful and memorable experience; we will cherish this for a long time! (^_^)