Special Experience
Kyoto
Available Today: Personalize Your Own Japanese Knife & Hone in a Premier World Hone Production Region
Overview
The Tennen Toishi-kan, or Natural Whetstone and Hone Museum, is an interactive museum situated in the lush forests of Kyoto Prefecture’s Kameoka City, known for its world-class natural whetstone and hone production. This plan includes various hands-on experiences such as natural hone processing, knife sharpening, and test cutting – as well as a private tour from museum director Aki Tanaka, who does not usually make herself directly available for tours. Get up close and personal with traditional Japanese swords, kitchen knives, and carpentry tools like hand planes. As a keepsake, take home a natural hone paired with a highly sought-after Japanese culinary knife.
Key Features
・Dive deep into Japan’s artisanal culture, learning about Kyoto’s traditional natural hones and what makes them such prized tools among cutlery enthusiasts the world over.
・Enjoy an exclusive private tour from museum director Aki Tanaka, who is not typically available for tours
・Craft your own natural hone/whetstone and sharpen an engraved Japanese knife with it – then take both items home with you as keepsakes of the experience.
Kyoto
from
¥33,000 /person
1 - 6 participants
120 min
Available in English
Cancel free up to 6 days before
* If fewer than 2 participants, the minimum fee will be JPY 66,000
Details
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Natural Whetstone and Hone Museum
Natural Whetstone and Hone Museum
This hands-on interactive whetstone and hone museum in Kameoka City, Kyoto Prefecture exhibits the city’s famous Tanba Aoto and Awasedo alongside precious natural whetstones and hones from all over Japan and the wider world alongside works from the city’s various traditional industrial crafts, and aims to spread Japan’s traditional artisanal craftwork to future generations around the world.
Customer's Voice
Really fun and informative experience and really friendly and helpful staff.
C.L. United States
We had a great experience. It was truly great to learn from an experienced master and she was very nice.
A.S. United States
Amazing experience. It was engaging, educational and fun!
R.R. Canada
Location
Natural Whetstone Museum
Kameoka, Kyoto
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November 2024
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If your first choice is not available, we will confirm your booking based on your other preferred dates and times.
Experience fee
Minimum fee JPY 33000 × 2 participants
JPY 66,000
*Minimum: 2 participants; JPY 33,000 × 2 will be charged for bookings below the minimum.
Price may change after date is selected.
Additional options fee
Interpretation in English
JPY 0
Other
Service fee (5%)
JPY 3,300
Total Price
JPY 69,300
tax & service fee incl.
Extra charges may apply for the following
- ・Interpretation / Dependant on experience schedule and language
- ・Optional add-ons / Souvenirs, delivery, etc.
Kyoto
from
¥33,000 /person
1 - 6 participants
120 min
Available in English
Cancel free up to 6 days before
* If fewer than 2 participants, the minimum fee will be JPY 66,000
Things to know
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We also accept bookings from corporate clients and travel agencies.