About

The Nihon Craft Guide is written by Taku S., based in Japan. I also write The Nihon Spirits Guide, a sake and whisky site for the same kind of reader: someone outside Japan who wants a straight answer about whether something is genuinely well-made, not just marketed as "Japanese style."

Japanese lacquerware, ceramics, tea ceremony goods, and kitchen knives all have the same problem for a buyer overseas: it's hard to tell a piece made by an actual regional workshop from a mass-produced import that borrows the aesthetic. I check retailer inventory directly, cross-reference maker and region information against Japanese-language sources, and note honestly when a "Japanese-style" product isn't the real thing.

This site is new, and I'm upfront about that — recommendations here are built from research and verification, not decades of personal collecting. Where a claim is based on direct testing versus published specs and maker information, the article will say so.