Tools for Food
Corinne Mynatt explores the world of Japanese cooking utensils, bridging minimalist design with intricate culinary tools. Her project, “Tools for Food,” delves into the history and craftsmanship of items like Japanese graters, uncovering the rich traditions behind these essential kitchen tools.
(Japan) “In my private life, I’m a minimalist.” That may be surprising, given Corinne Mynatt’s field of research: the Tennessee-born design expert devotes herself to tools from the world of cooking—of which there seems to be an almost endless amount. Starting with a simple French garlic press made of cast aluminum —which is how her “Tools for Food” project began—to Japanese wire mesh sesame roasters and Swedish pots on stilts.
London-based and working as a curator within a design context, Mynatt tracks down such objects, researches their backgrounds, catalogs and presents them. Her research locations are flea markets as well as homeware stores and supermarkets in foreign countries, like the Kappabashi Kitchen Street in Tokyo. But libraries and museums are important treasure troves as well.
“Tools for Food” started on Instagram in 2018, followed by the (first) book of the same name, which has so far been published in English, Italian and Japanese. For cooking enthusiasts, this book opens up a whole new world. From wooden Greek bread stamps to Eastern European pastry brushes made of goose feathers or American rubber spatulas, Corinne Mynatt knows them all. For “Tools for Food” she only excludes unnecessary gadgets and electronic devices. Table culture is also not part of the project—“a much too large area of research in its own right.”
Mynatt’s particular interest in Japanese culture of cooking utensils is evident in the book; her first research trip led her there. The design expert, who studied at Central Saint Martins in London and has a Master’s in Contextual Design from Eindhoven, has long been fascinated by Japan’s ancient but still vibrant handcraft tradition. Recently, she dedicated a film project to Japanese cooking utensils that go hand in hand with Japanese cooking culture, supported by the Great British Sasakawa Foundation and the Daiwa Foundation (which can be found here.)
Mynatt visited small, family-owned handcraft businesses, documented the work stages and captured the particularly concentrated atmosphere. “Sometimes it takes many, many years for people to master the craft, which is passed down from one generation to the next.” A Japanese friend, well-versed in both culinary and design topics, helped her gain access. For visitors from the West, it can be quite challenging to gain trust in Japan, says Corinne Mynatt. “But the fact that I had already written a book about Japanese objects, which was also published in Japanese, helped tremendously.”
Japanese Tools for Food
Sunami Toru
Shoten
Grass Weaving Workshop
In Japanese, the material used by Sunami-san and his wife is called igusa: sedge, a member of the sweet grass family, is traditionally used to make tatami mats. The small weaving workshop outside the craft town of Kurashiki in Okayama Prefecture—it has been in existence since 1886—puts grass blades into action that are too short for mats. This natural material, which darkens over time, is woven and braided into round pot coasters, called nabeshki, and watermelon-carrying nets and bottle-carrying nets in two sizes, called binkago in Japanese. The latter was formerly used to have soy sauce filled from big containers into your own bottle, which you then brought along to the market. Today, the style-conscious rather carry beer, wine or sake in them—the bigger size holds a large 1.8-litre sake bottle. “Sustainability through and through,” says Mynatt, “from the grass blades that are too short to the history of the binkago.”
Binkango
TRADITIONAL BOTTLE CARRYING NETS ARE WOVEN IN SEVERAL SIZES.
Takada
1948
Brush Manufacturing
The tawashi brush is an icon of Japanese kitchen culture, says Mynatt. However, the history of this cleaning utensil may not be as old as you might think: the Kamenoko Tawashi Company in Tokyo claims to have invented it in 1907. For her film, Mynatt visited the Takada 1948 manufactory in Wakayama Prefecture. In this brush workshop, brooms and brushes are made from the dark brown fibers of the Chinese windmill palm.
These fibers are harvested from the trunk of palm trees as mats, then separated, bundled and cut to the required length before making the brushes. The short fibers are manually arranged between two thick wires, which are then quickly twisted by a machine—which is how the special, round brush shape is created. The material is robust enough to scrub away food remains, but it isn’t abrasive to protect surfaces. Tawashi aren’t just used to clean pots, but also vegetables, especially root vegetables. In another film series, “Tools for Food in Use,” Mynatt shows the application of tawashi using the example of the burdock root, which is very popular in Japan. “You don’t peel it but just rub it with the brush, since there are so many nutrients directly under the skin.”
TAKADA TAWASHI
THE ABOVE TAWASHI BRUSH FEATURES A NEW AND UNIQUE TAKE ON THE ORIGINAL TOOL, AND IS DESIGNED AND MANUFACTURED BY THE JAPANESE BRAND TAKADA 1948.
Ooya Seisakusho
The Grater Maker
The workshop Ooya Seisakusho in Wako City in northern Tokyo is almost a hundred years old. The family business was founded in 1928, and the craft has hardly changed since then. They produce oroshigane, the iconic graters for radishes, ginger, wasabi and other roots, in various sizes. The raw material is small copper plates in the characteristic trapezoid shape, which are tinned on both sides. The individual teeth of the graters are hammered out by hand, closely together, using a large nail. The copper inside the plates comes to the surface in these places—an exciting optical effect from contrasting types of metal.
In this workshop, a quiet staccato of even, rapid hammer blows dominates the acoustics. The craftsmen’s workbenches here are special, too: they are thick, lying tree stumps that you clamp between your legs and hammer the oroshigane on. Oroshigane are also traditionally made from bamboo and shark skin. “This cooking utensil is unique and can only be found in Japanese culture,” says Mynatt, “it’s passed down and repaired again and again.” For example, here at Ooya Seisakusho.
OROSHIGANE
THE ICONIC GRATERS ARE USED FOR RADISH, GINGER AND OTHER ROOTS.
Ichiyougama
The Pottery
The failures lie outside the city, piled up in mountains: fragments of pottery, some of them ancient, bear witness to the local craftsmanship in the city of Bizen in the Okayama prefecture in the south of the island of Honshu. If you look closely, you can see grooves on many of the broken vessels—the typical grooves of the suribachi mortar, which is used primarily for grinding sesame, pepper and other seeds or grains, but can also be used to puree. This typical Japanese mortar, whose origins lie in southern China, is nothing without a surikogi, the wooden pestle. Traditionally, you use pepper tree wood for this, as it is said that its flavor is transferred into the food, according to Mynatt’s research.
SURIBACHI
THE ICHIYOUGAMA WORKSHOP IS LOCATED IN BIZEN, FAMOUS FOR ITS POTTERY.
The roots of the Ichiyougama pottery go back generations. In addition to mortars, they also make teacups, small bowls and other tableware here. For the suribachi, clay is turned on the potter’s wheel to form thick-walled, flat bowls with a wide, stable base. After a few days of drying, a comb-like pattern, kushi-no-me in Japanese, is engraved into the inside of the bowl, which turns it into a grinding tool because of the rough grooves. Firing takes place in the ceramics center of Bizen, in kilns that are fired with pinewood and must be monitored round the clock—which is why Bizenware pottery is only fired twice a year.