Sakai's Food Culture

kitchen knife

Knives are essential for cooking. Sakai was said to be the birthplace of everything, and the manufacture of guns and textiles was also one of the earliest places to start in Sakai. However, the development of Sakai cutlery dates from the Toyotomi period through the early Tokugawa period. Knives used to shave konbu into oboro konbu require a process called "akita" where the blade edge is bent before shaving, and this requires a knife that combines sharp cutting edge with flexibility that allows it to adhere to the konbu. It can be said that the ability to meet this difficult requirement is due to the 600-year-old craftsmanship of Sakai cutlery. The Sakai Traditional Industry Hall houses the Sakai Cutlery Museum, and the techniques of Sakai forged cutlery live on in cutlery factories throughout Sakai city.

tea ceremony

The tea ceremony, or chanoyu, in which tea is prepared and served using matcha (powdered green tea), is one of Japan's most prized arts. Matcha, introduced by Eisai during the Kamakura period, began to spread primarily in Zen temples, and knowledge of tea cultivation and steaming techniques also spread. During the Nanboku-cho period (1185-1333), tea competitions, in which participants guessed the tea of a particular region, became popular among the samurai class. In response to this entertainment-oriented style of tea, the wabicha style emerged, influenced by Zen philosophy and embodying the ideal of a life detached from the secular world. Murata Juko first pioneered the origins of wabicha, incorporating simple Japanese tea ware from Shigaraki and Iga styles into tea utensils, which had previously been primarily Chinese-style, and embodying the concept of "tea and Zen unity." This philosophy was embraced and spread by Sakai merchants who had amassed great wealth through international trade. Among these Sakai townspeople were Takeno Jo'o and his disciple Sen no Rikyu. Rikyu perfected wabicha, which became popular among the samurai class and led to the modern-day tea ceremony. As a city where the culture of tea ceremony developed, Sakai also became a popular place for making sweets to accompany tea, and Japanese confectionery shops with over 400 years of history are still in business today. Sakai City also currently has an ordinance in place to spread the "spirit of hospitality" through the tea ceremony.

*Image of Sen no Rikyu (Sakai City Museum)

Sen no Rikyu

Sen no Rikyu, a tea master of the Azuchi-Momoyama period who perfected the wabi-cha style and was also known as the "Tea Saint," was born into a merchant family that operated a warehouse for imported goods at the port of Sakai. At the age of 19, he began studying under Takeno Jōō and dedicated 51 years to the art of tea until his untimely death at the age of 70. He served as tea master to powerful figures of the time, including Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and was praised as the greatest tea master in the world. He advocated a stoic approach to the tea ceremony, eliminating all unnecessary elements and insisting that "expensive items and specialties are unnecessary," and created a smaller tea room, the "sousan tea room," establishing the spiritual world of "ichigo ichie" (a once-in-a-lifetime encounter) and tea ceremony as a comprehensive art. His name is not only associated with the tea ceremony, but also with Japanese traditions, such as the chopstick shape known as "Rikyu chopsticks," the color "Rikyu gray," and the cooking method known as "Rikyu-yaki." The "Thatched Tea House" also had a major influence on Japanese architecture. The style of tea ceremony he perfected, "Wabicha," was passed down to subsequent tea ceremonies, and his descendants continue to practice it as the Sansen school of tea ceremony.

Back