Banshu Hamono in Everyday Life

Have you heard of Banshu Hamono?
Japanese blade brands are now drawing attention from around the world for their sharpness and durability. Here, we'd like to introduce their history, usability, and practical uses once again as tools for everyday living.

Banshu Hamono is produced in the Banshu region in the southwestern part of Hyogo Prefecture. It is said to have originated from sword forging, and today it continues as a traditional local industry of Ono City, producing household blades and sickles.
Its history is long: razors were first produced in 1744, followed by nigiri-basami (traditional hand-forged scissors) and kitchen knives in 1807, and knives in 1911.

For over 250 years, craftsmen have continued to make items suited to the needs of each era, further evolving through accumulated techniques. Since the original industry was sword forging, the blades used are made of hagane (carbon steel).
While the term has taken on various broader interpretations today, hagane originally refers to an iron alloy hardened through quenching. It is a technique in which iron is heated, hammered, and pressure is applied to increase its strength while shaping it into the desired form.

On the Hardness and Sharpness of Hagane

One characteristic of hagane is that "it cuts extremely well but is prone to rust." A hard blade contributes to excellent sharpness, and hagane's cutting performance is truly guaranteed. On the other hand, compared to stainless steel, it is more vulnerable to water, and rust can form if moisture is left on the blade. Items exposed to water include kitchen scissors and flower-arranging scissors, but since blades are rarely left unattended after use, simply remembering to wipe them down before putting them away means there's no need to find this troublesome.

Banshu Hamono products come in a wide variety of items.
Let us introduce some of the most representative ones.

Kitchen scissors are indispensable for work in the kitchen.
Many people use them mainly to open food packaging, but we encourage you to try actually cutting ingredients with Banshu Hamono kitchen scissors.

Take green onions or garlic chives, for example.
Cutting just a small amount for miso soup with a knife and cutting board can be a bit of a hassle, and the ingredients can even get crushed in the process. With kitchen scissors, you can simply snip them right over the pot and be done. There are many other ingredients you can cut with kitchen scissors too, such as nori, shiso, asparagus, and lettuce.

Take chicken, for example.
When cutting with a knife, the skin can be difficult to cut through, often requiring repeated pushing and pulling. With scissors, there's no need for that—since the ingredient doesn't slip, you can cut it easily.

Take baby food, for example.
Preparing meals for a young child can be quite a task. Boil some noodles, place them on a plate, and use kitchen scissors to cut them into short pieces. Cut bread or onigiri into easy-to-eat sizes.

Kitchen scissors truly have a remarkable range of uses within the "kitchen" space. Among the specialized lineup of Banshu Hamono, these kitchen scissors may well be the item that sees the most daily use.

Even those who don't sew on a regular basis will occasionally need to reattach a loose button or mend a slightly frayed hem.
Even without taking on ambitious needlework with tailoring scissors, this small nigiri-basami is perhaps the one tool you'll always need.

Well-suited for cutting thread and trimming fabric in fine detail, this design has evolved into many variations over Banshu Hamono's 230-year history, shaped in response to customer requests.
Among the many options—including those with rounded tips to avoid damaging fabric, or curved blades—we have selected the simplest and easiest-to-use type.

With just the right amount of spring—neither too stiff nor too loose—it cuts with a satisfying, effortless snip.

In the Banshu Hamono production area, there remain a rare few craftsmen who still forge blades entirely by hand, from a single iron rod through to the final process—a method that has become uncommon today. Made using high-carbon Japanese steel, these scissors offer excellent sharpness as well as outstanding wear resistance.

The life of flowers can be extended through proper mizukiri (water cutting).
Mizukiri refers to properly treating the water-uptake end of a cut flower's stem so that the flower can absorb water efficiently.

The most important thing in mizukiri is to cut the stem cleanly at an angle without crushing the cross-section of the water-uptake end or the vascular tissue within. For this, we recommend using scissors made specifically for flowers.
Banshu Hamono's flower scissors feature a sharply angled blade that avoids crushing the fibers at the cut surface, improving water uptake and allowing you to enjoy your flowers for longer.

Koryu style is also available.

We recommend these hair-cutting scissors especially to those who trim their own bangs or cut their children's hair.

Also used by professionals, these scissors feature a blade line ideally calculated for efficient hair cutting. Their most distinctive feature is the screw joint, which uses two bearings to minimize resistance when cutting hair, reducing strain on the hand during use.

The cutting feel is remarkably light, making even cutting your own hair an enjoyable experience.

Banshu Hamono pays careful attention to packaging as well. Open the neatly presented kiri (paulownia wood) box, and you'll find the blade wrapped in beautiful fabric. This fabric is Banshu-ori, a local woven textile.

Banshu-ori refers to the cotton textiles produced in Nishiwaki City, Hyogo Prefecture. Made with yarn-dyed plain weave, it's used as shirting fabric, and is characterized by patterns such as checks, stripes, and borders. Isn't it wonderful that Banshu hamono (Banshu blades) are wrapped in Banshu-ori, a local industry rooted in the very same region?
(The patterns of Banshu-ori are subject to change without notice. The patterns shown on the product pages are just examples.)

Seeing such a lovely package—Banshu hamono wrapped in Banshu-ori and kiri (paulownia wood) box—makes you want to give it as a gift to someone. But many people worry that giving blades as a gift might be taboo, right?

Indeed, you often hear that blades are a no-go as gifts. This is likely because blades evoke the idea of "cutting ties." However, interpretations of this have changed quite a bit in recent times.

Blades have historically been treated as sacred objects that "ward off evil and cut open the future." Think of the knife used to cut the cake at a wedding, the axe used at a ship's launching ceremony, the protective sword given to boys at Shichi-Go-San, or the scissors used for ribbon-cutting at various ceremonies—blades are used to celebrate new beginnings.
In this way, blades serve as symbols of forging ahead into life and the future, and there's no problem using them as gifts.

Still, how the recipient feels about it matters. In that case, why not add a short note explaining why you chose a blade as a gift? Banshu hamono, being easy to use in everyday life, should make for a very welcome gift.

As mentioned earlier, if water remains on the steel, rust can form.
It's important to always wipe the blade after use. The maker recommends applying oil periodically. Lightly wipe with sewing machine oil, camellia oil, or silicone spray, and for long-term storage, keeping it in the included kiri box also has the effect of preventing moisture damage.

The most important thing for maintaining a pleasant, lasting sharpness is, apparently, "not using the blade for anything other than its intended purpose." Since the edge and structure of the scissors are designed differently depending on what they're meant to cut, you shouldn't force them to cut something they weren't made for.
Banshu hamono scissors come in a specialized lineup tailored to different uses, so it might be nice to collect a full set of Banshu hamono for various purposes.

Resharpening by the Maker

Unlike sharpening a kitchen knife, sharpening scissors is considered difficult even for specialty blade shops.
Scissors for cutting fabric and thread require different edge shaping at the tip than those for cutting plants and flowers, and since scissors cut with two blades working together, even a perfectly sharpened edge won't cut well if the alignment is off. For this reason, please leave resharpening to the craftsmen of Banshu hamono. Their system allows them to track which craftsman made the product you purchased, making it possible to provide sharpening that's as close to perfect as can be.

Because of the nature of the material, steel is strong and long-lasting, meaning you won't need to replace it often. There are other more affordable scissors out there, but when you consider using them for years to come, it really drives home how important it is to have good sharpness, ease of use, and thorough after-sales support just in case.

▼Click here for the full list of Banshu hamono products