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An Interactive Whetstone and Hone Museum in the Mecca of Natural Whetstones and Hones

Kyoto Prefecture’s Kameoka City has long been an important hub bridging the urban centers of Kyoto and Osaka with the surrounding countryside. It sprouted up around Tamba Kameyama Castle, founded by the samurai general Akechi Mitsuhide during the 15th-16th Century Warring States Period. Here in a quiet forested area sits the Natural Whetstone and Hone Museum, a world rarity for both its focus on natural whetstones and its interactive exhibits. The whetstones and hones mined in Kyoto’s nearby Tamba Highlands are so highly regarded that Kameoka has come to be called the “Holy City of Whetstones and Hones” for both quality and variety. Visitors will find exhibits covering some 500 natural whetstone and hone specimens from not only Kameoka but other whetstone and hone regions of Japan and the wider world.

Visitors are greeted by a monument to whetstones and hones, adorned with motifs of mining and geological strata

Before she became the museum’s director, Aki Tanaka worked for a consultancy seeking to support overseas expansion of Japan's manufacturing industries. Upon learning that the museum’s previous director was retiring, she saw the clear next step for her experience and passions. “Natural whetstones and hones are an integral part of traditional Japanese artisanal life across such diverse fields as construction, woodworking, cuisine, and sword production and upkeep,” she says, “but despite this, modern mechanization has driven the natural whetstone and hone industry into decline with low-cost, mass-produced, and disposable alternatives to traditional tools. Still, I feel there is immense value in increasing people’s familiarity with natural whetstones and hones.”

Museum director Aki Tanaka continues to research the history and traditions of natural whetstones and hones

A Private Tour with the Director Herself into the History of Natural Whetstones and Hones

Visitors are greeted at the entrance by an installation evoking a natural whetstone and hone mine, in homage to the prominent role that such mining played in Kameoka’s history. Tanaka begins the tour here with the origins of this industry, dating back not several centuries but millions – 250 million years, to be exact – when sediments began accumulating deep down on the seafloor at a rate sometimes as gradual as a single millimeter per millennium. Eventually, plate tectonics thrust these sediments up to the surface of the present-day Japanese islands and transformed them under the awesome heat of molten granite.

An array of whetstones and hones from all over Japan attests to just how widespread such mining regions are in the country

Layered, fine rock hones known as awasedo, mined in Kyoto’s Tamba Highlands, are a resource that many a chef, imperial carpenter, and sword sharpener – to name just a few professions – will readily tell you they cannot do their work without. 

In the museum displays, find exhibits on traditional Japanese swords, carpentry tools, and knives – all tools where precision sharpening is paramount – alongside displays of the world-class whetstones and hones themselves. Tanaka will shed light on each with her commentary, deepening your understanding of the crucial influence of such natural whetstones and hones on the development of Japanese bladed tools. Exclusive to this plan, you will also get a chance to hold a real Japanese sword, and use a traditional woodworker’s tool to experience planing high-quality Japanese cypress.

A rare opportunity to take a real Japanese sword into your own hands

At the display of world whetstones and hones, Director Tanaka introduces international visitors to whetstones and hones from their home countries or neighboring regions, among others, explaining the various characteristics of each in such a way that even those previously unfamiliar with the tools and craft can easily appreciate. The museum also has a microscope available for visitors to peer down at the tiny fossils embedded in the rock of the whetstones and hones, deepening their mysterious allure.

Fashioning a Finished Hone/Whetstone "Facing"

The Museum offers some 200 natural whetstones and hones for trial. Choose between Plan A, featuring an uchigumori fine hone with a slim koyanagi petty knife, and Plan B, an aizu medium-fine whetstone with a versatile multipurpose kiritsuke knife. Uchigumori hones are fine grit, chiefly used to finish swords and blades to a perfect polish. Aizu whetstones are a rare medium-fine variety from Fukushima Prefecture, popular around the world for their elegant white color and ease of use.

Choose your option on site after an explanation from Tanaka

Hones are produced by “facing,” or filing the raw rock on a diamond grindstone. This process causes purple spots to appear on the surface, often said to resemble lotus flower shapes. When the surface is flat and smooth, the stone is then attached to a cypress base made by a local carpenter, taking its finished form.

Lose yourself in the meditative act of filing the stone

By Sharpening and Polishing the Traditional Way, Discover the True Sharpness of Japanese Blades

The koyanagi and kiritsuke knives available to sharpen are both black-hammered blades of hagane steel from Yasuki, Shimane Prefecture, known for its historical roots in producing tamahagane sword steel. Black-hammered blades are hammered the old-fashioned way, by hand, and retain the oxide top layer produced in the forging and quenching process to provide better rust-resistance.

In this Wabunka original plan, have your knife handle laser engraved with your favorite characters. Choose your engraving on site from kanji, hiragana, the English alphabet, numbers, and so on. Engraving makes your knife a true one-of-a-kind original.

A knife made special with engraving

In finishing your knife, receive attentive instruction on how to hold it, position the hone, and sharpen effectively, so that even complete beginners can feel at ease.

Tanaka teaches you how to sharpen and finish the blade with your own hands

Test-cut a sheet of paper to measure the sharpness of your knife. The way a properly-finished blade glides straight through the paper with even the gentlest touch is incredibly satisfying. Next, receive advice on how to maintain your knife and hone, such as by using oils or other rust inhibitors.

Test-cutting a sheet of paper to measure sharpness

The Quiet Beauty of the Natural Whetstone and Hone: Foundation of Japanese Traditions from Swords to Cuisine, Architecture, and More

In recent years, Japanese culinary knives have charmed professional chefs and kitchen staff the world over with their high-performance quality, and the natural whetstones and hones traditionally used to maintain them have thus begun to follow suit. In this experience, learn all about these wonderful tools, make one of your own, and practice using it to sharpen your own knife.

Natural whetstones and hones, long an unsung but vital linchpin of Japan’s traditional cultural arts and industry

Japan’s volatile plate tectonics have blessed the land with top quality whetstone and hone material since time immemorial. Says Tanaka: “High quality natural whetstones and hones made possible traditions of high quality swords, culinary arts, architecture, and various other artisanal techniques, despite the whetstones and hones themselves taking a quiet supporting role. I hope to finally spotlight these vital tools and share them with the world.” Come and discover for yourself the beauty, power, and mystery of these ancient blessings cut from the living rock of the earth.