Seki Cutlery Festival
56th Seki Cutlery Festival, October 7th (Sat) & 8th (Sun)
Held in the Gifu area, this festival celebrates the metal crafting history of Seki and Japan
This is a great place to experience Japan's metalsmithing history that has evolved to a center of today's kitchen knife industry. For locals, this is the largest festival of the year. So, it's about more than kitchen knives. The main stages celebrate tradition. The street vendors sell local foods and crafts. And there is a generally upbeat and joyful tone around the whole city.
You'll find:
- Martial Arts Demonstrations
- Swordsmithing Demonstrations
- The outdoor knife show (with tables of craftspersons making more than simply outdoor gear)
- And certainly, cutlery is available, often directly from the manufacture and from approx. 50 different producers that set up booths down mainstreet, tables in a larger room of a business and a few other areas of town.
Getting there
Seki is North of Nagoya. You'll likely get there by taking two trains to the North of Nagoya. One will be to Gifu. The next will be to Seki. If you're lucky, and you book early, you can stay in Seki. If not, you might end up in Mino.
Mino is also lovely. There is a Fairfield by Marriott up there. It's nestled nicely on the east of the Nagara River that flows out of the mountains in the area. If you get up early, you'll likely see folks camping and fishing the river. It's real nice.
Note, you'll need to take a 25 min walk to a train station to get to town, or get a car or taxi. They all work.
One you're in town, you can seek out the booths and the food and the culture.
Make a plan to stop at the Gifu Cutlery Hall. It's full of knives made locally and information for getting around. Take a brief walk to the Seki Swordsmith Museum if you'd like more in that line of making. Or stop in to the Feather Razor Museum across the street.
The festival is down main street and full of tents. Many of those makers are larger in scale. For the more specialized makers head to the Outdoors Show
Enjoy the food. Enjoy the texture of the city. 
If you get invited to an old sword forge... say "yes." While I promised not to share pictures of the swords this one of me trying a sweetfish for the first time is fair game. It turns out these are the fish the fisherman were fishing earlier in the day in Mino.
