STORY
A local factory with a 100-year history offers “high-quality sake vessels for savoring a moment”
This “shitatari,” which allows you to savor a moment of true quality, was created in 2019 by Nakagawa Preision Machinery Works, a factory with over 100 years of manufacturing history, located in the monozukuri (craftsmanship) city of Osaka . Nakagawa Precision Machinery Works, with its century-long expertise, was exploring ways to create a novel product using its strongest proprietary skill: the ability to thinly cut stainless steel, a notoriously challenging material to machine.
While engaging in spirited discussions—perhaps slightly tipsy—at an izakaya (Japanese pub) with product designer Kosuke Suzuki (Breath.Design), we agreed to pursue a project centered around their shared affection for sake. Thus, shitatari was born. Stainless steel tableware is often manufactured using plastic deformation methods like pressing or metal spinning because stainless steel is so difficult to machine. However, to achieve the specific form requested by the designer, it was essential to sculpt the shape by cutting it from a solid block of stainless steel.This required utilizing over ten different types of cemented carbide tools and completing more than five distinct machining processes. Through this precise engineering, they achieved the remarkable thinness of the cup’s drinking rim (just 0.9t) and the subtle, critical balance of the joint between the vessel and its saucer (a Registered Utility Model).
We hope that through this product, which embodies the beautiful, fleeting moment of sake’s birth realized by our 100-year expertise, you will find the fusion of aesthetic sensibility and craftsmanship, the pursuit of simplicity and functional beauty, and a sense of extraordinary within the ordinary in your daily life.
