Koryu Ikebana Scissors
Koryu Ikebana Scissors
Wazakura
The three great schools of ikebana each have their own scissors, and each scissors tells you something about how the school understands the work. Koryu - the name means, roughly, the old current - is among the most ancient, founded in the Edo period, and it works from a philosophy of naturalism: the arrangement as something found rather than imposed. The scissors that carry its name have a handle called tsuru, the crane, a large looped form that sits close to the blade. It is a grip of exceptional control, the hand positioned near the point of action, nothing wasted between intention and cut.
These are made in Sanjo, in Niigata Prefecture, where metalworking has been practised since the seventeenth century and where the particular combination of hard winters and inherited skill still produces tools of uncommon quality. The steel is S58C black carbon - a high-carbon alloy that takes and holds an edge cleanly, honest and unadorned. The blades are short relative to the shank, which is long; this proportion makes the scissors forgiving for those new to the form while still offering the precision that experienced practitioners require.
At 185g they are substantial. You feel them in the hand.
Handmade in Sanjo, Niigata. S58C black carbon steel. Length 170mm, blade 45mm.
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About the maker
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.
