OSHU, Japan — Katsunori Suzuki is one of some craftsmen in Japan nonetheless producing forged iron cookware by hand utilizing laborious conventional strategies. The president of the 172-year-old foundry the place he works says she needs to maintain the custom alive, even when it prices way more to supply.
Suzuki makes use of moist sand and some different substances to make the molds utilizing a way referred to as “tegome,” or “hand stuffing.” He spends hours tamping the sand in an iron body to compress it simply the correct amount to create the mildew, by which he carves detailed designs for the pot.
When the mildew is prepared, Suzuki fetches buckets of molten iron and hurriedly carries them again to his workspace so the temperature stays at about 1,450 levels Celsius (2,462 levels Fahrenheit) when it’s poured into the mildew.
After the iron cools and solidifies, the sand mildew is damaged into items with a hammer and the cookware is eliminated. Any extraneous items are minimize off.
Suzuki, 59, who has labored within the Oigen forged iron foundry for 40 years, then follows the identical course of to make a mildew for a smaller piece of cookware, corresponding to a lid. Making one pot and a lid takes him a whole day.
Within the following days, the cookware, nonetheless tough, can be despatched to different staff who grind off smaller burrs, polish the floor and bake it at a excessive temperature to make it rust resistant.
Along with the energy and dexterity wanted to make the molds, the standard methodology requires expertise to situation the sand with simply the correct amount of moisture to match the climate circumstances.
On the finish of the day, Suzuki waters the sand that was used for the mildew to start reconditioning it to make new molds.
Kuniko Oikawa, Oigen’s president, stated the standard tegome methodology is taken into account inefficient and expensive, and most foundries have deserted it. As an alternative, they use molds made out of different supplies and mechanize the pouring of molten iron for mass manufacturing.
Like the opposite foundries, the Oigen manufacturing unit till lately had solely a mechanized manufacturing line. Oikawa, nonetheless, did not need the standard methodology to die out.
The fifth president of the family-owned firm, based in 1852 in Iwate prefecture close to the iron-rich Kitakami Mountains in northeastern Japan, determined to carry again the tegome methodology after speaking to a retired craftsman who nonetheless knew the right way to do it. The realm is known for forged iron merchandise, with its strategies believed to have been launched over 900 years in the past.
Oikawa stated she doesn’t know of anybody else at the moment utilizing the tegome methodology for forged iron cookware.
“There could also be retired forged iron craftsmen who understand how, however I don’t know anybody who continues to be working at a foundry that makes use of tegome,” she stated.
“It would turn out to be solely historical past as soon as it’s gone. As an alternative of prioritizing economics, we need to respect our predecessors who preserved the forged iron commerce. We additionally suppose there’s something new and inventive” about it, she stated.
In 2022, Oikawa created a brand new model, Mugu, to supply high-end forged iron cooking pots designed by an artist who has been with the Oigen foundry for over 50 years. The identify is derived from the native pronunciation of the Japanese phrase muku, which suggests pure.
Suzuki is coaching Seksuk Suebsai, a Thai citizen who started studying tegome after transferring to the world in 2023. Suzuki, Seksuk and some others make the sand molds for the Mugu pots.
The Mugu pots value $337-$374, in comparison with $224 for Oigen’s most costly machine-made pot. They’re accessible on the Mugu web site or at Oigen’s manufacturing unit store.
“They’re pure as a result of they’re made out of the goodness of iron,” Oikawa stated. “As a result of they arrive from Iwate prefecture, I needed to place Iwate’s wilderness and local weather within the iron. That’s why I selected the native pronunciation of mugu as a substitute of muku.”
