Motokyuuichi knives are forged in Shimabara City by 4th and 5th generation smiths from the Maeda Family who took over the shop from the Kyuuichi family around 1895. Shoujirou Maeda focused on forging swords at this time but the business gradually transitioned to agricultural tools, hunting tools and craft knives as was typical at the time. They now focus much of their attention on Kitchen knives and offer affordable knives with great performance. The small team of craftsman lead by Maeda-san complete all of the knife making processes in house and use traditional techniques to complete the work including in hammer forging, sharpening and polishing. As far as we can tell, not much has changed in their shop for many years and stepping into their workspace feels like going back in time, just the way we like it.