Oboro kombu – The Art of Shaved Seaweed with Sakai Craftsmen Gōda Mitsunobu and Hasegawa Yū
おぼろ昆布 – 手すき昆布の実演と堺の職人との対話
Kombu, edible kelp (a type of seaweed), is used in a lot of Japanese cuisine and is the basis of the seasoning in various dishes; harvested in Hokkaidō, the northernmost of the main islands of Japan, kombu was historically brought to the city of Sakai in Ōsaka Prefecture via ship through a route known as the ‘Kombu Road’.
In partnership with Sakai City Industrial Promotion Center, Japan House London explored the world of kombu and the processing techniques in Sakai which rely on their skilled craftspeople’s ability to manually shave oboro kombu (shaven kelp) into paper-thin slivers.