TRADITIONAL JAPANESE HAND RAKE - NIWAKI

• Weight: 160 g
• Dimensions: 420 x 300 x 55 mm
• Wood: Bamboo
• Handcrafted in Japan

After studying sculpture in London, Jake Hobson went to Japan to investigate the Japanese relationship with nature and the environment around them.

Jake discovered that Japanese gardens were not just gardens. They were mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, and waterfalls. It was everything he loved; these gardens told stories and referred to real landscapes in Japan.

Niwaki literally means "garden tree"; it is the art of tree pruning, quite different from that of Bonsai, because the roots are not pruned. But Niwaki is much more than that. It implies a philosophy, that of the landscape, of the re-creation of unique microcosms, the vision of a man and his connection to, his understanding of, and his learning from nature.

But all this was possible thanks to the use of tools that shared the same philosophy, created slowly, simply, by hand, by local master blacksmiths with exceptional expertise.

For Jake Hobson, every tool involves three crucial elements:

• good material, mainly high-quality carbon steel
• good design, generally as simple as possible
• good craftsmanship, passed down from generation to generation.

Japanese tools do not skimp on any of these elements: You can feel the quality of the craftsmanship as soon as you hold them in your hand; they simply and perfectly do the job for which they are designed, and they last, holding their edge for a long time, rewarding the user with years, decades, and even lifetimes of pleasure.