Collection: Wazakura

Sanjo, in Niigata Prefecture, has been a metalworking town since the 1600s - a place where blacksmiths have spent four centuries learning what fire and steel can be made to do. One workshop there, founded in 1912, is now on its third generation. The current smith, trained by his father as his father was trained before him, still forges bonsai scissors by hand, testing each steel and each edge against the last.

Wazakura exists to bring workshops like this one to a wider audience without asking them to change. Founded in 2019, the company works with master artisans across Japan - blacksmiths in Sanjo, and craftsmen in Miki, Toki, Yokkaichi and Tokoname - who build garden, bonsai, ikebana and woodworking tools the way they always have: forged and finished by hand, in small runs, using techniques passed down rather than engineered from scratch.

Nothing here is designed to be decorative. A pair of bonsai scissors, a chisel, a saw - these are tools first, made by people who have spent lifetimes making them well. Wazakura's role is simply to make sure that work doesn't disappear for lack of an audience.