Shiro Kamo

The story

Shiro Kamo (加茂詞朗) is a certified traditional craftsman at Kamotou Hamono, 有限会社加茂藤刃物, the Echizen forged-cutlery workshop inside the Takefu Knife Village cooperative at Yokawa-cho, Echizen City, Fukui. The cooperative's own member page names him its 代表 and labels him 伝統工芸士 (a traditional craftsman), recording the business as 各種鍛造包丁、そば切り包丁製造: assorted forged kitchen knives, and the manufacture of noodle-cutting knives.

The national Traditional Craftsperson register carries him too, recording 加茂詞朗 in the 越前打刃物 comprehensive division, certified 25 February 2004 (平成16年2月25日). The craft his title belongs to is older than his certification: Echizen forged cutlery, 越前打刃物, was designated a national traditional craft in January 1979.

The workshop is older than the study group it helped found. Its own page dates the founding to 1955 (創業1955年), and the cooperative's story page names Shiro Kamo in the founding cohort that established the Takefu Forged Blade Industry Study Society in 1973, his company among the ten founding businesses.

The corporate registry fixes the workshop at 福井県越前市余川町第22号91番地 (the Takefu Knife Village address) and records the company as a 有限会社 under the reading カモトウハモノ.

The cooperative's page sets his specialities as 蕎麦切り包丁 (soba-kiri, noodle-cutting), 紙断ち包丁 (paper-cutting) and 魚卸包丁 (fish-breakdown): purpose-built forms made alongside standard forged cutlery. A dated record from December 2019, the 第22回日本伝統工芸士会作品展, shows one: he received the 伝統的工芸品産業振興協会賞 for a soba-kiri with a 33 cm edge, forged from a billet of twenty alternating layers of hard and soft iron.

The cooperative's member page lists an apprentice roster of four for the workshop, with entry dates running to 2024.