Tatara smelting is a traditional Japanese technique for producing steel from iron sand. It began in the 6th century in Kibi Province—now Okayama Prefecture—where craftsmen developed low, box-like furnaces called tatara. These furnaces produced tamahagane (“precious steel”), renowned for its use in swords and tools. The intense, three-day process gradually spread across the iron-rich Chūgoku Mountains, becoming central to Japanese...

Takagi Shoten is a fish processing company based in Ibaraki prefecture that has been operating before World War II.A few years ago, Takashi Takagi-sama became the 6th-generation CEO in his family to run the company. Takagi-sama’s primary goal is to use the highest quality fish in his products.Each can offers consumers the ability to track exactly where the fish they...

 I was too young to grasp the sense of satisfaction he felt locking up the shop that night, all work for the week completed in record time, with his son pretending to be asleep on his shoulder as he carried him to the car. Everyone in my life system sharpened knives. My immediate household was just my father and I...