Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on September 2011

Deep amid the clanking metallic music of Asakusa’s Kappabashi Dogu St. (Tool St.), where merchants have peddled their kitchen-related wares for almost a hundred years, you can find Tsubaya Cutlery Store. There, you can indulge your slicing and dicing fantasies with over 1,000 kinds of knives, including some designed for those accursed left-handers. You might go for the Desert Iron Wood Damascus Steel model (13cm petty knife, ¥34,000; 27cm butcher’s knife, ¥80,000). Or go more economical with a hammered Damascus steel butcher’s knife for ¥14,500, among many others. In case you didn’t know, Damascus steel is created by an ancient art that forges 63 layers of metal to create the finest blade known to man. Cutting edge or what?

Tsubaya Cutlery Store. Tel: 03-3845-2005. Open daily. http://e288.jp.