Sakai traditional crafts museum and shop

Sakai Traditional Industry Hall is a facility where visitors can view and experience Sakai’s various traditional industries. On the first floor, the “Takumi no Hiroba” area offers displays and hands-on learning about items such as rare cutlery and knives said to be used by 90% of professionals, as well as incense, chūsen-dyed cotton, dantsū rugs, kelp, bicycles, and wagashi sweets. The shop “Sakai Ichi” also sells local specialties such as keshimochi and kurumimochi, along with vividly colored tenugui towels. On the second floor is the Sakai Cutlery Museum, featuring exhibits of knife-making process models, type samples, and displays of Sakai cutlery and Sakai forged blades. In the 16th century, when tobacco was introduced from Portugal and tobacco leaves began to be cultivated in Japan, “tobacco knives” for cutting tobacco leaves came to be made in Sakai. The Tokugawa shogunate granted these blades an official Sakai seal and sold them exclusively, which made Sakai cutlery widely known nationwide. Sakai forged blades were designated a “Traditional Craft Product” by the Minister of International Trade and Industry (now the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry) in March 1982, and in October 2007, “Sakai Hamono” and “Sakai Uchihamono” were registered as regional collective trademarks.