Craftsman
NobuoHanaki花木信夫
The story
Nobuo Hanaki (花木信夫) is the public operator of Sukenari (株式会社スケナリ), the kitchen-knife maker from Fuchu, Toyama City, Toyama, Japan, whose registered house mark is 佑成. The company's current official commerce disclosure prints 花木信夫 as its 運営統括責任者, the term the company uses for the person who runs the operation. That same disclosure is the one that identifies the seller as 株式会社スケナリ, and it does not give a Roman-alphabet reading of his name.
Sukenari has made knives continuously since its founding in 1933, a date the Toyama Chamber of Commerce industrial-tourism feature records and a 2018 Peninsula Tokyo press release independently echoes. The company was founded by Toukichi Hanaki (花木藤吉). The corporate registry (gBizINFO) carries its number, 2230001005023, against a head office in Fuchu-machi Dojo, Toyama City. Production is in-house: the company's main factory in Toyama makes all of its knives.
James has dealt with Sukenari first-hand since 2016. On his first visit to the factory, in April that year, Hanaki was the president of the company, and he himself hosted the K&S party — showing us the forging, then joining us for a good dinner together at Shikisai, a restaurant in Toyama. That is the relationship we still have with him.
His title has moved since that visit. Today the official disclosure lists Hanaki as 運営統括責任者, the operations head, rather than president. The relationship is the one that started on that first trip; only the title on the paperwork has changed.
Sukenari is a stocked maker at Knives and Stones; the current Sukenari lines live on the maker hub.
