The Blade & Tool Makers of Banshu Miki, Hyogo — Directory | Okami Blades

Miki (Banshu) · Maker Directory
三木の刃物

The Blade & Tool Makers of Banshu Miki, Hyogo

A verified directory of makers in Miki — Japan's oldest blacksmith town and the home of the Higonokami. From folding knives to kitchen blades, each links to a full profile with contact details.

Miki (Banshu, Hyogo) is Japan's great tool-and-blade city — famous for saws, chisels, planes, and the pocket-sized Higonokami as much as for kitchen knives. Its "Banshu Miki Uchihamono" craft was designated by METI in 1996, and forging here reportedly traces back over a thousand years.

These four makers span Miki's range: the iconic Higonokami forge, a cultural-property family workshop, a classic kitchen-knife factory, and a lone small-knife artisan. Every profile includes a company-profile block with verified contact detail (and honest gaps where none is public).

4 Miki Makers & Forges

01
Nagao Kanekoma (永尾かね駒)
Miki, Hyogo · Founded 1894
The home of the Higonokami (肥後守) — Japan's iconic friction-folder. Reportedly the sole maker of the genuine registered-trademark Higonokami, five generations on.
HigonokamiAogami/SKFolding
Full profile →
02
Misuzu Hamono (三寿ゞ)
Miki, Hyogo · Founded 1946
A three-generation family forge, reportedly the first in Japan to make a stainless warikomi (san-mai) kitchen knife. VG-10 Majun line; its main building is a registered cultural property.
VG-10San-MaiFamily Forge
Full profile →
03
Miki Hamono (三木刃物製作所)
Miki, Hyogo · Founded 1935
A Banshu Miki kitchen-knife maker working Aogami Super, white/blue carbon, and VG-10 Damascus. Sold through authorized dealers — factory craftsmanship without direct-sales markup.
Aogami SuperVG-10 DamascusCarbon
Full profile →
04
Nishiguchi Cutlery (西口刃物)
Miki, Hyogo · small-knife craft
A little-documented but genuine Miki small-knife workshop — hand-finished blades, including a signature fish-shaped knife, worked by a craftsman trained by his father. Artisan-scale.
Small KnivesHand-FinishedArtisan
Full profile →
A note on Miki's character. Miki is as much a tool town as a knife town — its heritage runs through carpentry blades and the Higonokami folder, not only kitchen knives. We focus on the makers most relevant to knife buyers; contact fields that aren't public (several emails; Nishiguchi's full details) are marked honestly, never invented.

The blacksmith town of Banshu Miki

Read the full Miki regional guide, or compare Japan's knife regions.

Read the Miki Guide →
Related reference