1
£28
APPAREL
Higonokami folding knife
A traditional Japanese pocket knife, forged in Miki, sold for sixty years to Japanese schoolboys to whittle sticks. Disarmingly beautiful, genuinely sharp.
Check on AmazonGift Finder · 8 curated picks
Japanese gifts for him
Tools, knives, mugs, pens — the utilitarian pleasures
Men are easy to buy for if you accept what they actually want: one good tool, used daily, that gets better with age. Japanese design does this better than almost anywhere. These are the pieces we keep recommending.
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2
£38
GALLEY
Snow Peak titanium mug
The mug of choice for Japanese campers and the kind of person who reads Monocle on a Saturday. Light, indestructible, boils water.
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£22
STATIONERY
Nanu notebook — A5 hard cover
Tomoe River paper that takes fountain pen ink without bleeding. For men who've Discovered Pens but aren't ready to admit it.
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£16
WELLNESS
Hinoki essential oil — Chamaecyparis obtusa
Real Japanese cypress oil — the species matters. Check the label: if it says Chamaecyparis obtusa, you're getting the genuine hinoki scent. Clean, warm, faintly medicinal, the smell of a freshly-built onsen. A few drops in a diffuser and your flat smells like a mountain ryokan.
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£5
STATIONERY
Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen
The brush pen calligraphers actually reach for. Two for under a fiver, and the soft tip is forgiving enough for beginners.
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£20
GALLEY
Kiln-change blue sake set — tokkuri and four ochoko
The speckled blue glaze is a modern homage to yōhen — the kiln-change effect prized in Japanese pottery for centuries. Not made in Japan, but the shapes are correct and the restraint is rarer than it should be in this category. A solid first sake set, priced honestly. Upgrade later if you fall in love with it.
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£12
STATIONERY
Midori MD notebook — A6
The notebook Japanese designers and stationery obsessives reach for. Bamboo-pulp paper, smoother than Moleskine, takes fountain pen ink without a feather. Looks unassuming on a desk; feels right in the hand after a month.
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£15
APPAREL
Komesichi Irodori tenugui — Fushimi Inari foxes
A proper Japanese tenugui from Komesichi, one of the established Osaka-area makers. The mustard-and-vermilion design shows kitsune — the fox messengers of Inari — and the thousand torii gates that wind up Mt Inari in Kyoto. Use it as a hand towel, a headband, wrapping for a wine bottle, or just pinned to a wall. Unhemmed cotton that gets softer with every wash.
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