12 Jobs That Take A Lifetime To Master | So Expensive | Insider Business

Yoshi yukihata spent 20 years making a single calligraphy brush collecting and combining only the best hairs he's been making brushes since he was a teenager and he's meticulous if even a single hair is out of place it must be removed this level of Mastery is only achieved through a lifelong dedication to a craft from an amateur historian in Tunisia who has spent years reconstructing an ancient purple dye made from snails to a Damascus knife bladesmith who refused to give up after he failed the Mastery exam artisans in every corner of the world have trained to notice the little details that no one else can in Japan's Hiroshima prefecture this family-run Workshop has been making Flawless calligraphy brushes for over 90 years calligraphy is a respected art form in Japan and has been practiced for centuries but today there aren't many skilled brush makers left [Music] yoshiyukihata is a third generation brush maker and has been making calligraphy brushes since he was a teenager foreign Workshop in kawajiri focuses on what they call no compromise craftsmanship each brush tip is Handmade by a single artisan but making these brushes isn't easy [Music] for a master calligrapher like Daiso Conoco small differences in a brush's hardness or ink retention can drastically affect the lines it can produce a [Music] foreign the dozens of steps involved in Brush making start with selecting the hair different types of hair have a big impact on the price of a brush yoshiyuki specialty is one of the priciest goat hair this hair was collected 50 years ago from the chest of Yangtze River delta white goats hair from this specific breed of goat is classified as type 3 hair based on its size luster and elasticity it's a highly sought after hair for brush making because it's soft yet durable and retains ink well foreign but today this type of hair is hard to find in large quantities and can cost thousands of dollars per kilogram selecting high quality hair is done entirely by eye and it's one of the hardest skills for a new brush maker to learn [Music] foreign [Music] but this long process is just beginning once the hairs are chosen they're boiled and combed to remove any fluff this process separates straight long hairs which are ideal for brush making one of the most time consuming steps is aligning all of these hairs this delicate work is key to making a uniform brush but it's largely based on experience and instinct at all you know throughout the process brush makers patiently remove any imperfect or damaged hairs [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] at this stage yoshiyuki's vision for a brush starts to take shape after trimming he wets the hair and combines different bundles to create a brush that is dense and durable then he dips the hair in fionori an adhesive liquid made from seaweed to hold the hairs together [Music] the finished brush tip is almost unrecognizable from the Raw Hair but the precise work isn't over yet [Music] once the hair dries yoshiyuki ties up the ends and burns each one with a hot iron binding the hairs together any mistake here could ruin a month of work finally it's assemble the brush like the brush tip each handle is custom made foreign consuming process along with the materials used means these brushes can cost a hundred times more than a mass-produced brush the price varies based on the size and type of brush a larger brush requires more hair which naturally increases the price Indo brushes often cost around thirteen hundred dollars but some brushes can cost a lot more foreign foreign despite the high price these brushes are essential tools for calligraphers like Daiso he followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and has been practicing calligraphy for 20 years [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] committed to using only the highest quality materials Koso yoshiyuki-san will be the workshop's fourth generation brush maker [Music] systems but like many traditional crafts the future of brush making is unclear demand for handmade brushes is in Decline some brush makers have started selling makeup brushes to bring in new customers but the main concern for yoshiyuki and his family is the lack of raw materials foreign [Music] enough Artisans to carry on a trade is a challenge shared by many crafts in Morocco making the liege tile mosaics relies on skilled Artisans to Chisel hundreds of tiles by hand and pass their Decades of knowledge onto the Next Generation one of these Artisans is been making zelige tiles for 54 years Artisans turn a simple mixture of clay and water into a complex work of art while Perfection is often valued it's the imperfect qualities of the liege that make the tiles so unique artisans in Morocco have been hand making the liege tiles for centuries today they continue this tradition in the city of Fez is but before Artisans at Arabesque can create tiles they first need to form the clay Fess has remained a center for zelish partly because of these rocks they're considered some of the best materials in the region for making high quality clay this Clay is believed to be more durable than some Clays found further south and it can withstand very high temperatures once fired first an artisan tosses the Rocks into a pit in the ground called a zuba they fill the zuba with water and leave the rocks to soften for a day then in one of many tedious stages to come an artisan needs the clay using their hands and feet to make it more malleable after the clay has fermented for a Day a different Artisan has the task of molding it into the proper shape [Music] [Music] The Artisan places the clay into a molding it over with one hand so the surface is flat for every 10 kilograms of clay Artisans can make over 10 square feet or about one meter of tiles after molding hundreds of tiles they leave the clay to dry under the sun the next stage is vital to ensuring the tiles will remain intact [Music] foreign the clay repeatedly also removes air bubbles if the air isn't removed the tile may break when an artisan later tries to Chisel it once each piece is perfectly Square the tiles dry again under the sun it's time for the clay to head to the kiln [Music] Precision is critical at this stage which is why just one person is trusted to leave the job [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] glazes the tiles and then they're fired for a second time the second firing ensures the color won't fade it also gives the liege tiles one of their most distinct features heat doesn't circulate evenly in a traditional Moroccan Kiln which is why each tile even those with the same color glaze will have a slightly different shade but these tiles are just getting started after glazing the tiles move on to the cutting stage where Artisans trace the small shapes they'll later carve chiseling the tiles requires total concentration Artisans must carve each piece as cleanly as possible otherwise it may not fit properly into the final design how well and efficiently this is done depends on the expertise of the artisan and a tool known as the mankash It's a combination of a hammer and an ax because they're hand chiseled no chews leash tiles will look exactly the same it's the prime feature that distinguishes the liege from mass-produced tiles that are notably uniform in color shape and texture [Music] Arabesque first creates designs on the computer then Ahmed uses a paper printout as a guide to assemble the final design on the floor [Music] Ahmed inserts each individual tile by hand like a puzzle piece making sure every tile seamlessly fits next to its neighbor [Music] um [Music] foreign [Music] the pieces Ahmed can reveal the finished design is foreign the final price of a mosaic like this is the sum of several factors including the number of pieces and their shape this is the average normal 36 pieces the shape of it is very Square so the price of it it's very affordable and like if we go here which is made of stars and cross there are 36 pieces by 36 or 36 pieces here also but the price of this is four times the price of the other one because of the shape [Music] Adil also considers the size of the tiles within a design smaller pieces are not as simple to Chisel by hand the smaller the tiles the more expensive the design will be there are areas where you have a square foot that can have 64 pieces 128 pieces 360 pieces versus 36 pieces so if you have one that costs ten dollars per square foot the other one might cost 10 times 100 per square foot the price increases further for more complex designs this style has an interlace the interlace is automatically double the price so if you have a ten dollar square foot with the interlix is 20 dollars centuries ago zalese tiles were reserved for Royal palaces today they've become synonymous with Moroccan design you'll find them covering walls floors and fountains across Fez when we talk about Morocco and Moroccan architecture the first thing comes to mind is zelish but its influence goes beyond Morocco demand has grown in the U.S especially in recent years as notable designers like Kelly warsler incorporate zelige into their own work but the way some are using the tiles is different rather than mosaics they're creating monochromatic backsplashes part of the appeal of using just one color of the liege is that it appears ombre when multiple tiles come together thanks to their subtle variation in shade but while the liege becomes more popular overseas Adil struggles to find young people locally he can trust with the trade this is more of a Living Art but it's also a dying tradition nowadays people are not patient as much as in before if you look at the people who used to work for in this trade they are very calm they are very peaceful they're they have inner peace nowadays we find extreme hardship to train and adopt people who can carry this kind of tradition as as a liege artisans foreign [Music] [Music] the quality of the liege depends on the hand that makes it preserving it means finding more Artisans like Ahmed willing to spend decades learning the craft behind this signature Moroccan design sometimes Artisans don't just preserve they revive it takes nearly 45 kilograms of these snails to produce a single gram of pure Tyrion purple extract in the ancient world Tyrion purple dye was so rare that only royalty could afford to wear clothes died with it but production of the dye in the traditional way ended hundreds of years ago in modern day Tunisia a Craftsman has dedicated himself to painstakingly weakened Ling this lost art he's been making Tyrion purple dye in his home in Tunisia for 15 years today Russian is one of a handful of producers in the world bringing this ancient dive back to life Russell learned how to make this die through an excruciating process of trial and error because there's no instruction manual he reconstructed the techniques he uses from first century texts oh my God I must say that I I have gone through a lot of failures the historical texts about the process of making turn purple are very rare and quite vague though you have to start everything from scratch and learn everything on your own to make the extract because it must navigate a complex process and it's this extensive labor that accounts for much of the final price the part of the murex snail that contains the pigment is called the hyperbranchial gland the good thing is that the the gland is located right under the shell which helps a little bit in the extraction it's the only part of the snail used to make Tyrion purple and each gland contains only a few drops of pigment but before he can extract the gland Gerson has to wash scrub and sort the snails by size you don't really want all of this mud and sand to interfere with the dye When you crush the shell and expose the gland so this is the first step and it's a very important step you really have to clean your snails very very well resin can now extract the clay hammers each shell lightly it'll take too long but if he hits it too hard he'll crush the gland it took us in two years to learn how to do this efficiently and of course the snail is not wasted then it will be cooked for dinner everything is basically recycled to make the extract Crescent first macerates the fresh glands in cold water and lets them ferment in an airtight container once the glands release their colorant Crescent gently washes and filters the mixture to separate the dye from the flesh this is the first of six separate rounds of purification necessary to make a pure Tyrion purple extract can dry the pigment mixture he applies it to a sheet of glass and lets it dry under the sun he uses glass because it won't absorb any of the valuable pigment so these glands have been drying for three days they are half dry now they're still malleable as you can say this is the pure colorant or more or less pure once the pure colorant mixture is dried he scrapes it off the glass with a razor making sure to get every last bit and the whole process from the liquid colorant up until the dried pure powder the whole mass will have lost at least 98 of its weight the dry pigment is now purified five more times in a grinding and sieving process to remove any detritus the nearly 100 pounds of murex snails are finely transformed into one gram of pure Tyrion purple extract and acquiring enough snails is another challenge an expensive one Russian can spend hundreds of dollars sourcing the snails he needs for his dough that's because finding these snails requires experienced fishes one of the fishes a lesson works with is Celine Ben Milad he harvests murex snails from Suleiman Beach like krasen Saleem and his team have perfected their technique over time foreign four hours to find the right snails or he can die for a whole day to no avail foreign to die 15 meters deep which makes it more expensive and if the weather is consistently bad the price goes up even more sometimes conditions for Saleem and his team to go a whole month without fishing but it's out of their control it is it's dangerous for the snails too which are highly sensitive to climate change since the early 1970s the population of murex snails steeply declined due to temperature changes in the water and over harvesting we have to be very cautious not to be engaged in over harvesting to make sure that the small specimens are put back into the sea to preserve the species so this is why it takes a lot of time and careful management of the snail population is vital as a custom and his divers attempt to revive tunisia's thousands year old die making tradition Russian doesn't use all the fresh nails to make extract he reserves some to dye fabric directly this time he mixes the snail glands with water and a reducing agent and lets them ferment the mixture goes from a colorless liquid to Green before it turns purple finding the right pH balance in this step is crucial if it's too acidic the wool may burn and if it's too basic it may cause the wall to felt so now we're just monitoring the BH it's about eight which is perfect this is also the moment when the soluble dye is the most light sensitive Crescent must cover the dive out immediately to avoid Too much exposure to light too much light can turn the dye from purple to Blue destroying a week's worth of work when the material has soaked for the appropriate amount of time Crescent lifts the vat lid exposing the mixture to lightened air this allows the mixture to oxidize and this is how the color will gradually start to develop but one round of rat dying won't always do the trick like with this silk scarf it took me like eight months to produce and it required like 800 pounds of fresh snails and this is still not completed and it's not always guaranteed that the color will come out the same shade historically speaking there isn't a single Hue or shade of Tyrion purple it's a range of Shades that ranges from the color of clotted blood through the color of red purple this range is the result of mixing three different subspecies of murex snails hexaplex trunculus which produces a violet blue color bolognus brandaris which secretes the color of clotted blood and the blood mouth or stromanita hemasterma which releases a rich red purple color Tyrion purple dye dates back to the Bronze Age and is named after the Phoenician city of tear some historians believe it was produced as early as the 21st century BC ancient civilizations from phenicia to the carthaginian and Roman Empires prospered by producing and trading this die one of the production sites was Mannings on the island of Gerber which is now an archaeological site a text from the 4th Century states that a single pound of Tyrion purple dye costs three pounds of gold but production of this dye came to a screeching halt in the 15th century after the fall of the Byzantine Empire foreign [Music] is Reviving this culturally valuable die so tunisians can reconnect with their ancestry [Music] Russian learned about the die at the age of 14 and was enthralled by its history in Carthage over a decade later he found a murex snail on the shore oozing purple my old passion for red purple came rushing from its deep Slumber and I really had this Revelation and this is how my adventure for Reviving this legendary dive started now he hopes to ramp up his production of offering more shades of pigment well of course my dream is to enlarge this project and to like to create an old-fashioned die Factory and to produce more but as I said the main concern should always be to preserve the species because if there is no mirax there is no diet Rich deep deep expert hand to achieve in Japan he saw manabe takes one to two months to dye threads a deep indigo blue denim made from these threads will maintain this Rich color and so will man up his nails for three weeks that's because manabe uses real Indigo instead of the synthetic dyes most jeans are made with today making denim this way requires meticulous attention at each stage of production in basic terms Japanese denim refers to denim made in Japan but today it often implies Selvage denim the name comes from the way fabric is woven on these old shuttle Looms they weave fabric with a sealed or self-finished Edge hence the name self Edge it means the end of the fabric won't Fray or Unravel you'll notice a pair of salvaged Jeans by the cuff there's typically a colored line along the out seam [Music] this type of denim is made here in Kojima Japan um [Music] momotaro is one of kojima's most well-known denim brands but before momotaro makes denim it must first dye the threads the company's most expensive jeans are hand-dyed with natural indigo natural Indigo comes from the leaves of the indigo fera plant dyeing fabric with natural Indigo has been a valued art form in Japan for centuries [Music] foreign [Music] 60 rolls of cotton over several days he Rings each role out and hangs it up to dry before dying another [Music] must die each roll a total of about 30 times otherwise the color won't be a dark enough blue dying jeans This Way doesn't only take longer it also costs more a kilogram of some synthetic Indigo can cost between four and five dollars depending on the quality natural Indigo might cost 10 times that um that one bail is only enough to die about 15 pairs of jeans although using natural dye raises the cost of production it has unique effects on genes that can't be produced by synthetic dyes foreign [Music] cheaper synthetic dyes have mostly replaced natural ones so jeans still made with natural dyes are often considered a premium product which is partly why mamotaro's Kinton or gold labeled genes are worth over two thousand dollars The increased price of this pair is a nod to the extra effort skill and money needed to dye the threads by hand and get the color just right not all Japanese denim or mamotaro jeans are made with natural indigo but even so the price remains high around 200 to 300 dollars for a pair like this and that goes back to the way Japanese denim is woven [Music] before Toyota made cars it made looms like this originally introduced in the 1920s these Toyota looms are no longer made today and although they look and sound like they're working fast weaving fabric this way takes five times longer than weaving on Modern projectile Looms um [Music] foreign [Music] technician has to keep a close eye on them as they run he checks to see each Loom is working smoothly and that all the threads are aligned correctly even so it's possible something will go wrong [Music] um on top of weaving slowly the Looms produce fabric less than a yard wide that's about half the width of non-selvedge denim so producers need more fabric to make a pair of selvedge jeans this is yet another factor that increases the cost of production and ultimately the final price of the jeans shuttle looms are also less precise than projectile looms but variations in the fabric make each yard unique and ironically that's what gives these jeans one of their biggest Appeals While most other genes have a smooth surface Japanese denim is a little bit rougher is While most momotaro genes are made on the automated looms the most expensive Gold Label jeans are produced with an even slower more traditional method by hand with an antique Loom it takes one hour for Kazuki Akita to weave just 10 centimeters of fabric while this process raises the price the extra effort gives the genes a distinctly different feel ings um and for denim enthusiasts traveling from Thailand to Tokyo is worth the trip to buy momotaro's most expensive pair usually when you brought a new pair of jeans you feel it's a little bit hard and just you feel like a little bit it's a little bit hard to move at first right but this one even from the start yeah it feels so comfortable like you have worn for sometimes after the fabric is woven by hand or Shuttle Loom it heads to the sewing room [Music] according to heddles on average most other types of denim weigh between 11 and 14 ounces While most denim from Japan weighs 20 ounces a heavier fabric makes Naomi take bayashi's job more challenging um [Music] [Music] another Cornerstone of Japanese denim is the artisanal nature of the way the genes are finally formed at mamotaro all the stitching is done by hand same goes for adding each copper rivet the final look and feel of a finished pair largely depend on take bayashi's dedication to detail [Music] shuttle looms are less precise the fabric will naturally have several imperfections but if momotaro's retail stores find anything wrong with a pair of jeans they mark it with a small sticker and send it here to the quality control room take bayashi sits through the flag jeans using a tweezer to repair each marked spot mamotaro is one of around 40 denim makers in Kojima considered the birthplace of denim in Japan while Japanese denim from this city has found a luxury category to call its own the denim industry hasn't been prominent in Kojima for very long um [Music] in the decades since Japanese denim has reached far outside Japan today it's considered one of the finest types of denim in the world whether it's colors or patterns Artisans Express their skill through the visual details of a craft Damascus knives are prized for their striking swirl patterns in order to achieve one of the most famous designs Master bladesmith Zach Jonas must twist a red hot Fusion of Steels but these unique swells are more than just decorative successfully welding dozens or even thousands of Steel layers creates some of the strongest and sharpest knives many can buy what people tend to notice right away when looking at Damascus is that visual pattern and it ranges from very very bold and big layers to very very fine and shimmery layers and you're going to see that pattern jump out at you and you're going to see the way the light plays off of it and it's going to Shimmer and look almost holographic at times the bladesmithing community refers to this effect as chateauins or the shrine of a cat's eye aside from the Striking pattern quality Damascus knives are known to be hard but flexible and able to maintain a sharp edge to make Damascus steel Zack starts by layering two different kinds of high carbon steel managing the layers means more work for the Smith and while high-end mono Steel knives May perform similarly Damascus knives are coveted for their striking appearance and the craftsmanship required to achieve it after tacking the layers together Zach puts the stack in the Forge and heats it to about 2 300 degrees Fahrenheit he needs an experienced eye to judge when the steel is ready because it's at risk of breaking off the handle while the layers are not yet forged welded together Zach needs to consider the kind of pattern he wants to make before he can begin forging a bold pattern means fewer layers and a more intricate pattern can require several thousand and working with so many layers to achieve his intended design means lots of things can go wrong out of thousands of hammer strikes a single blow in the wrong place can ruin the pattern Perfection Zach has to forged the steel into a knife without distorting the design and if he forges the steel when it's too cold it can quack and he has to start over which for Damascus steel can mean losing a week's worth of work once he Forge welds the steel into a Long Bar Zack can begin folding over the layers the lay account has the most effect on the price the more layers the more folding and work for Zach which means a higher price point the pattern on this particular knife called Texas wind has only 45 layers which is why Zack sells it for just under a thousand dollars but his more expensive knives can have 5 000 layers and that can take a month to complete giving it a higher price tag as you can see I'm twisting the steel with this wrench it's got to be real hot if it gets too cool the layers will want to Shear come apart and then the piece is trash keeping track of the rate that I'm twisting at counting as I go this technique is specific to twist Damascus and it creates star-like patterns on the steel too much twisting and the steel will want to shear but the tighter The Twist the more dramatic the pattern and that'll do it when Zach is making a standard Damascus wave pattern he continues to work on elongating and thinning the bar using a power hammer Zach's larger power hammer cost him twenty thousand dollars but that's just a drop in the bucket he spent at least one hundred thousand dollars on Specialized Machinery but this large investment allows Zach to produce high quality Damascus knives one Sac Ford is the tip of the blade he cross-checks it with his template to ensure the knife looks exactly as it should now it needs to undergo a metallurgical change which is called heat treatment and this part is hardening and without doing this the thing might be shaped like a knife but it won't behave like a knife it won't take an edge it won't hold an edge so the heat treatment is really really a critical process and it determines the Metallurgy and therefore the performance of the finished knife but it's the quenching that makes or breaks the knife sometimes a blade will fail in the quench by cracking or warping irretrievably looks like the blade came through the hardening process really well it's straight it doesn't have much warping little warps can be corrected and I can see that the scale has blown away from the surface of the steel here which tells me that the steel has contracted and become hard and that's what I was looking for so now this is ready for finish grinding and then a handle the grinding operation is one of the areas where the skill is kind of most important and most obvious and this is one of the things that really drives the cost a single slip can can ruin the piece in an instant the handle is also an important factor when pricing the final product some materials like local Maple are more affordable for Zach but this Arizona Ironwood costs him 10 times as much it's also a harder wood than maple and requires more work to shape Zach designs the handles so they serve the purpose of the knife he makes kitchen knife handles slim but large enough for the chef to have a firm grip a hunting knife on the other hand requires different properties it might be used with cold or wet hands which can cause them to slip the final step in creating a Damascus knife is the etching which makes the pattern Bolder to the eye once dipped in the etchant mixture one of the Alloys oxidizes and turns darker while the other alloy resists maintaining its color now the Damascus pattern is revealed but Zach isn't done yet he needs to assess the quality of his creation let's test the edge and I use paper for this this is a simple test should glide through with no problem this knife is razor sharp with no dullness that needs adjusting it's ready to sell to chefs like Diego Moya Diego has been a chef for 27 years and focuses on vegetable cookery I've had some sharp knives but this one kind of out of the gate it just feels like it Glides through without any resistance at all it's pretty amazing you basically it just does exactly what your arm wants it to do you don't have to fight it he's using a 10 inch chef's knife made by Zach which costs 1 200 I think the experience is one of effortlessness I think you just forget that you're using a knife and I think that when when you forget using an iPhone you use your arm to produce The Cutting motion that's pure Bliss for this kind of experience you have to you have to pay the price the work that's gone into the knife they purchase and the skill level required to make a quality Damascus knife Zach is one of the fewer than 200 Master bladesmiths designated by the American bladesmith society to earn the title they must successfully produce a Damascus Blade with a minimum of 300 layers the blade must be strong tough sharp and balanced in Zack's case he had to take the test twice before getting the master smith title The Knife performance test includes cutting through a 2x4 and even shaving hair off his arm but it was a presentation test that set Zach back because of a 10 degree misalignment in the handle since becoming a master smith Zach has continued to evolve his skills in Damascus making one of his current projects might sell for over one hundred thousand dollars if it's officially commissioned so this is a project that I've been working on designing for quite a while this is a very elaborate Middle Eastern sword a type of Scimitar this is a rough ground blade that I forged out of 1500 layer Damascus the demand for Damascus knives has created a market for fake Damascus where manufacturers imprint the swirl patterns on the knife and sell it at a more affordable price you can get a Damascus knife for 30 bucks but it will not cut anything for you there's definitely a growing demand for Damascus steel when I started out knife making it was not super well known and I've really seen it myself in the last 15 years or so as as the cultural awareness has come up and people really understand what they're looking at [Music] part of the beauty of handmade objects is that each one is unique comes from a long line of kettle makers he values quality and Aesthetics over efficiency in his Workshop Artisans make kettles by pouring molten iron through a small opening in molds like this once the iron hardens they continue the tedious work of hammering the kettle free but it's the details placed on the inside that make each Kettle unique this is iwate prefecture in Japan iron kettles have been made here for hundreds of years each one starts with a sketch book Mia Runs kamasata a workshop founded by his grandfather today designing a new Kettle takes him two to three years [Music] foreign at this Workshop every single Kettle is made by hand but before you start melting iron you need a mold the mold is made from three parts that form a gap where the iron is poured in it foreign [Music] but the outer molds are reused two to three times depending on the design of the kettle [Music] um [Music] according to Nobu around 70 percent of the work is making the mold this process also creates the most recognizable aspect of the design this bumpy pattern called arari this mold has around 2 000 dots all placed by hand [Music] foreign Artisans coat the core with charcoal dust to make it easier to separate from the iron benchitaro delicately places it inside the outer mold but he won't know if something went wrong until the iron has cooled there's a lot of anticipation waiting for the iron to melt shataro has to mentally prepare for the poor a dangerous and physically demanding task [Music] a mistake here could ruin the kettle so experience and confidence are essential [Music] foreign [Music] once the iron cools shataro finally sees the result of his hard work [Music] [Music] thank you okay [Music] so okay [Music] foreign kettles like this one don't have any enamel coating inside instead Artisans heat the kettle to 900 Degrees Celsius on a bed of charcoal this creates an oxidized layer which helps prevent rust without an enamel coating the iron subtly changes the taste of boiled water but this Kettle isn't done yet the final stage is one of the most skill intensive steps [Music] Nobu heats up the kettle and brushes on lacquer coating and coloring the outside [Music] um foreign [Music] [Laughter] [Music] most kettles from camasada cost three to four hundred dollars but prices can be as high as two thousand dollars despite the high price customers appreciate the slow paced nature of these kettles the design is considered wabi-sabi which is difficult to translate literally but refers to the concept of appreciating imperfection and practicing mindfulness [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] iron kettles were common in Japan in the 17th and 18th centuries when they were used in tea ceremonies but they struggle to compete with convenient mass-produced options after World War II in recent years interest in their aesthetic qualities has reignited demand but that demand has brought on many knockoffs that can be bought for a fraction of the price these kettles imitate the array pattern but usually aren't made in Japan they also have an enameled interior instead of the bare iron used in the traditional version but the original uncoated interior is actually one of the main selling points customers say they like the taste of water boiled in these kettles and some also value the small amount of iron content it adds to their water is foreign [Music] despite an increase in popularity nabuhu says that demand for this type of cattle isn't enough to sustain the business on its own [Music] I don't know a person who said life is technique [Music] [Music] has trained in making iron kettles and plans on taking over the business to continue this centuries-old craft s is foreign crafts like metal working have been passed down from generation to generation in Korea 96 year old master smith Lee bong Joo is sharing his knowledge of Banja Yugi and that experience is essential because Artisans work with fires over 1300 degrees Celsius too hot and the bronze will melt too cold and it will shatter refers to Korean Hand Forged bronzeware it can take many forms from pots to gongs while bang jayuki production has largely been modernized Lee bong Joo is one of few Yugi Masters who continue to produce certain pieces using traditional methods bongju who is 96 has been making traditional Korean bronze wear for over 70 years in 1983 the South Korean government declared him a living National Treasure a single spoon fully handcrafted by bongju's team costs 70 dollars a set of seven bowls costs over eighteen hundred dollars Wong 2 starts off by measuring the ingredients the perfect bronze alloy for bang Jay Yugi is in the details an exact ratio of 78 copper and 22 tin the metals are heated to over 1300 degrees Celsius in order to melt and boil although the alloy will melt at a lower temperature bongju says that heating it to 1300 degrees ensures it can stretch without cracking once cooled they then pour the molten alloy into a heated stone with a round cutout once the alloy cools it becomes a bronze plate with a rounded bottom referred to as a Baddock bonju's team heats the cold redox again so they can Hammer them without risking breakage one person cannot Hammer the bronze alone as they won't be able to move fast enough before the metal cools working quickly in a circle Artisans strike the red hot bedok stretching it until it's the desired size each careful blow of the hammer plays an essential role in shaping valuable Yugi this also means one misplaced hit could cause irreparable damage and it's not just the hammering that can ruin the buttock every step of the traditional process is manual down to Fanning the fire fanas push and pull the Bellows creating wind to keep the fire going they depend on experience to determine how hot the fire is and if they allow it to get too hot the bronze melts this particular Banner is still in training is [Music] any defects and the bronze can't be sold it has to be taken out of circulation re-melted and processed all over again after another round of hammering bongju cuts the bedok into a circle to the desired diameter the paduk is then heated back up to working temperature and The Artisans begin another cycle of carefully hammering and shaping [Music] Artisans stack the products on top of each other to shape multiple pieces simultaneously this is efficient but it's also safer than working them one at a time stacked bronze plates don't cool this quickly so they're less likely to break and broken metal doesn't just ruin the product it can also be dangerous um still only a month later bongji went back to work [Music] once the pot takes form bonjour can separate the layers revealing multiple roughly shaped pots his team then refines their shapes individually [Music] the pot is repeatedly shaped trimmed and shaped again all free hand under the skilled and watchful eye of Master bongju bronzeworking arrived in Korea around 1300 BC the art form peaked starting in the 9th Century A.D when it began to be exported to neighboring countries like China and Japan the demand for banjayugi fluctuated over time but in the 1980s producers saw interest in the bronzeware pickup s [Music] that's bongju's son he's been making Banja Yugi for 40 years he says Banja is still popular in Korea part of its appeal is its antibacterial and antiseptic properties particularly against bacteria like E coli but this demand created the necessity to modernize to Supply more bangjay Yugi while cutting down production costs foreign [Music] [Music] oh once the pot is in its near final shape they quench it by dunking it in water this removes some of the oxidized layers and prepares the pots for the last stage shaving off the surface to reveal the soft toned bronze underneath foreign even then it requires highly skilled labor as many stages are still performed by hand but for bongju it's not about how much bonja Yugi can make or how much he can sell it for eign sometimes the craft finds the Artisan like with Peter bellaby and his one-of-a-kind Globes what started as a desire to build a unique birthday present for his father grew into an obsession turned business with a years-long wait list making a custom Globe is no walk in the park if these Artisans make a single mistake laying a flat map over this giant custom sphere they'll have to start the entire process over Artisans customize every aspect of these Globes including hand painting each country and crafting the base it sits on [Music] if someone asks why it's so expensive I invite them along to the studio and show them around and show them the processes we go through at every single level when they leave they fully understand why it takes so long Peter bellabee founded London's bellabe and Co Globe makers in 2008 and today it's one of the only studios in the world making Globes by hand the smallest Globe it sells the 12 centimeter diameter pocket Globe can set you back almost two thousand dollars its largest The Churchill has a 127 centimeter diameter and can cost over eighty thousand dollars since 2008 bellabee has sold around 5 000 Globes ranging from maps of the Earth to the constellations and even the Moon [Music] three of those were featured in Morton's scorsese's Hugo including a 40 centimeter Celestial Globe production is limited because making a globe from scratch entirely by hand is no easy feat at bellaby it requires cartographers glow makers painters and Woodworkers [Music] and the price of these Globes is largely a reflection of how many the team can make without compromising quality [Music] the attention to detail starts with the Spheres most sizes are made from fiberglass for its strength and durability but what's most important is that it's a perfect sphere any defamation can result in uneven weight distribution which affects how the globe spins if that happens bellaby has to fix it by attaching a counterweight then there are the maps themselves the cartography Department focuses on accuracy and fulfilling the customer's imagination like adding the Silk Road or the spice roots they highlight the places where they came from and where they might have immigrated to and where they got married and where their ancestors are from but balaby doesn't just customize its maps for Creative or sentimental reasons the details also affect where the company can sell its globes for instance in India I can actually go to prison for six months if I ship a globe to India that doesn't have the correct border between India and Pakistan and if any territories shift or new borders are drawn bellabee's newer iterations will reflect that when the cartographers are done with all the necessary specifications they print the map onto oblong strips called gauze now it can be handed off to globemakers like Eddie so with globe making it's all about applying 12 or 24 gauze onto the sphere so it all starts with cutting those goals very very precisely with a scalpel of a millimeter so there are no gaps or overlaps when they're applied you could very easily cover an entire country based on the amount that you've extra overlapped because you've cut a little bit too much excess d-trace is the latter and longitude lines sphere as guides then he wets the gauze and gloves them onto the surface gently flattening them by hand even the slices tension or miscalculated movement can cause a rip or wrinkle when glow makers do make mistakes they have to scrape off and replace the offending Gore if they're lucky they'll only need to remove one but sometimes the team has to redo the entire Globe including the cartography a lot of the times it does result in the globe being restarted and that can even be at the final stage just before it's been packaged while that doesn't happen often when it does you know everybody's upset but um it's just the only way that we can maintain a really high quality standard correctly setting a single Gore onto the massive Churchill Globe can take an hour aside from size factors like the temperature in the room or the consistency of the glue affect application time the globe maker has to account for all of this including their own breathing I found that cold showers actually help a lot with controlling breath and that's really improved my making actually it takes up to 18 months for trainees to learn the most basic aspects of globe making and much longer to master it Eddie has been on the job for six years when the goals are finally set the globe is ready for the painters like Isis she can bring the Earth the moon all the constellations to life she Shades in the coastlines mountain ranges political borders and any illustrations or customizations the difficulty on this stage is actually making all these scores the same color and consistent it's almost like if you making a painting but you have 12 different canvases and there has to be a continuation some Globes highlight different ocean deaths so Isis has to paint in ocean trenches in their exact location she works deliberately being careful not to paint neighboring countries the same Shades or let any watercolor run from one go to the next that's another mistake that risks having to start the whole globe all over again at the wood shop Artisans are working on a base for the nearly complete Churchill globe it's all done in-house by a dedicated team of four they engrave chisel and stain the wood based on customer specifications as every stage of the globe making process Peter encourages his team to take as long as they need it's very important that we spend the time that is required to make every single Globe as best as it can be it's finished when it's finished and when it's ready the cost of Labor accounts for most of the price since it usually takes four to six months to complete a globe and ship it out but bellaby also pays attention to the materials it uses the inks it uses for printing can last between 80 and 200 years in gallery conditions the origin story of bellerby globes is just as peculiar as the Globes themselves in 2008 Peter decided to make a globe for his father's 80th birthday he went through hundreds of globes and thousands of pounds before he was happy with the result in about 2011-12 I sold my house to fund because this is a bottomless pit of money I used to go down to the municipal dump every two weeks with a with an estate car full of trial Globes and once he got it right he wanted to keep making them but Peter didn't expect the warm reception these Boutique Globes received the company was recently commissioned to work on a globe for the Louvre and its largest Globe has a wait list of two years Peter attributes this demand to the rise of consumer interest in handmade products the global handicraft Market size reached 680 billion dollars in 2021 and is expected to exceed a trillion dollars by 2027. bellabeanco 2 has seen this consistent rise in demand for its handmade Globes the company says it turns multi-million dollar revenues year after year and it expects this to continue even at high price points for its Niche products what I love so much about what we do is that it is so deeply personal you can tell someone's whole life story in a [Music] Perfection is limited to handmade objects Japan has a long tradition of delightfully detailed agriculture in ujji gintaro Yamamoto expertly grows ceremonial grade matcha The Greener matcha is the smoother and more complex its flavor and while this bright green powder takes a few seconds to dissolve in water the plant it comes from can take an entire year to grow matcha at its highest quality is referred to as ceremonial grade because of the central role it plays in Japanese tea ceremonies lower quality matcha also called culinary grade matcha can be made sweet with sugar and cream in desserts but in its tea form it's very bitter um gentaro is a sixth generation matcha producer he runs a 180 year old tea Farm one of the oldest in uji Japan a city with a centuries old tea history foreign [Music] they sprout young tender leaves and that's the sign that matcha season has begun um Disney [Music] Channel to make matcha he only needs the very first leaves of the plant it's there that there's a higher concentration of nutrients and they will make the best quality tea foreign foreign collecting leaves can take hours but the reason why the plants are in the shade is not to protect those plucking them from the Sun but to protect the plants themselves extensive exposure to sunlight develops bitterness in the leaves blocking the sunlight preserves their flavor and gives them a bright green color before harvest in the spring the plants spend 30 to 40 days in the shade gentaro uses rice straw panels to shade his plants a method that's become extremely rare among tea farmers most Farmers now use plastic Nets they're more convenient and can be reused gentaro's plants spend double the time in the shade of what is recommended to make matcha which is 20 days wild plants that make lower grades of matcha are harvested two or three times a year ceremonial grade matcha is made from plants that have been plugged only once thank you after an entire day of picking gintaro's work is just getting started videos [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] the first step of processing of the leaves is steaming steaming locks in the flavor and preserves a bright green color but most of all it prevents oxidation which would turn them into black tea is after steaming the leaves go into this Leaf spreader a series of four mesh tubes where they're rapidly cooled by the wind this eliminates the water on the leaves and prepares them for the next step drying the tea leaves at gintara's Farm are dried using a 97 year old furnace which gives them a unique roasted aroma um after drying the stems are removed and the leaves are sorted leaves up until this point are called tensure and they will only become matcha after they're turned into a green powder but before doing that chintaro usually tastes the unrefined leaves he's very critical of his work um [Music] foreign [Music] ceremonial grade matcha is ground using a Stone Mill it's designed to grind counterclockwise only this traditional method grinds a fine powder that preserves the nutrients of the leaf but it's very slow it takes gentaro an entire hour to grind just 40 grams of matcha with an automated Crusher this would happen in seconds the mattress Stone Mills are some of the most traditional instruments in Japan they're made of granite and are entirely hand carved just one of these Stone Mills can cost over thirteen hundred dollars it grinds the matcha into a fine glossy powder but once matcha is ground the fragrance slowly disappears and becomes more delicate so gentaro usually grinds it one more time before selling it um [Music] ceremonial grade matcha contains a higher level of an antioxidant called catechin and more chlorophyll than other green teas this is as a result of the shading process and the slow grinding while the Japanese public has long been familiar with the distinction between ceremonial grade and culinary grade matcha it's relatively new to the rest of the world but matches popularity has been soaring in 2020 the global matcher Market was worth three billion dollars and it's expected to exceed 5.5 billion dollars by 2027. in the last 10 years exports of matcha from Japan have doubled compared to 30 years ago they've quadrupled but these numbers barely refer to ceremonial grade matcha the lower costs of production faster turnaround and the ability to harvest leaves up to three times a year have made culinary grade matcha a more popular choice for farmers in uji only 60 families are left growing ceremonial grade matcha for gintaro taking over the family business wasn't an obvious choice foreign foreign leaves are picked and ground into matcha powder jintara will spend the fall pruning the trees plowing and fertilizing the soil come winter he will weave the rice straw to shade his plants and new leaves will Sprout again ready to be turned into matcha um [Music] foreign further south on Japan's Kyushu Island Farmers spend an entire year growing the perfect mango these are not just any mangoes they are Tayo no tamago or egg of the sun stunning red perfectly unblemished and incredibly sweet mangoes that are formed in the Miyazaki prefecture um every April the best mangoes from the prefecture are auctioned off at Miyazaki Central wholesale Market mangoes farmed a Miyazaki are from the Irwin mango variety a type often referred to as apple mango as it turns red when ripe Erwin mangoes are actually pretty common and are also grown in other parts of the world and sold at much lower prices this is because the exclusivity of Tayo no tomago is not tied to which type of mango it is but rather to the care it receives in order to generate Buzz at the auction a mango needs bees to increase their odds of success Farmers like takuya usually rent bees during the flowering season these are flowering mango plants these play a crucial role in the pollination of the plants as without them mangoes would not grow as big as desired foreign Disney channel is if a plant keeps flowering as the farmer wants it can survive as long as 35 years takuya's plants are 20 years old however even if bees do pollinate the plants it doesn't necessarily mean that all mangoes will qualify as Tayo no tomago this season only those that are in good shape visibly contain pits and are in good position will be given a chance to successfully grow one everything in the greenhouse needs to run smoothly temperature must be constant the room ventilated the air dehumidified and the mangoes protected from Gravity when everything else is in place takuya's priority becomes the sunshine foreign foreign if a mango slumps into the shade takuya will tie it with a string to bring it back up and to make sure that sunlight touches every part of the fruit equally he developed these light reflectors out of milk cartons is foreign regardless of how much it's worth takuya treats every mango with respect in return every mango repays him with a unique flavor Sammy frutis foreign has been growing mangoes for 16 years a craft he learned from his father this year he grew 9 500 mangoes in his Greenhouse they're now ready to be inspected to see how many of them have earned the coveted Tayo no tamago title [Music] the first inspection is done by human eye inspectors closely analyze each Mango's appearance to ensure they are read all throughout with no hints of green at the bottom then a machine sorts them according to sugar content weight and size is [Music] these inspections sort the mangoes into five grades two of which are Tayo no tomago we must the mangoes will now make their way to Miyazaki Central wholesale market for the auction all the Care and hard work that takuya and other farmers in the prefecture put into their fruit are leading up to this very moment the hope is to match or exceed the previous figure of 500 000 yen yeah [Music] thank you the auction has officially begun at the Miyazaki Central wholesale Market [Music] this year's 500 000 yen is 300 000 Yen higher than last year and matches the 2019 record and the farmer who Brew these mangoes is takuya yeah [Laughter] it's the third year in a row his mangoes fetched the highest price at the auction they have been bought by a department store in Fukuoka is [Music] today's outcome was a successful one for takuya but even in a country with a strong gift-giving culture like Japan it's not always guaranteed that such a luxury fruit will find a buyer at auctions after flowering fruiting harvesting and auctioning takuya's mango plants are ready for a new season and the hard work isn't over yet [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] the drive to find a better way to make a better product can also be found in extremadura Spain Eduardo Sosa is one of the few people in the world making what his supporters call ethical for a girl many consider foie gras to be unethical because it's typically made by force-feeding ducks or geese to fatten their livers Eduardo does things differently increasing the production time and price of his product is when the weather turns cold and the bird migration season begins wild geese join the tamed geese on Eduardo's Farm here the geese Feast upon grass acorns olives figs and different seeds foreign [Music] s Eduardo simply relies on the geese's natural behaviors there are no fences here the geese are free to come and go as they please Eduardo says the geese eat more grass when they're free to roam he says this is essential because the grass apparently makes the acorns taste sweeter to the geese and the more acorns the geese eat the tastier and yellower their livers will be while Eduardo prefers to let the gear seats what they want he does provide them with Organic corn to make their livers more yellow s is during this time of year geese stuff themselves full of food to prepare for their winter migration this quickly builds fat and enlarges their livers the perfect conditions for creating foie gras when it's time for the slaughter Eduardo uses a traditional technique to stun the geese hypnosis he says this makes the process as painless as possible it happens only once a year during the coldest part of winter when the geese have the most fat it also has to be a moonless night s [Music] no [Music] Eduardo suagua is so highly sought after because of how flavorful it is to preserve its unique flavor profile Eduardo prepares his foie gras very simply [Music] um [Music] a boy [Music] ingredients foreign [Music] Especial so despite the high demand Eduardo won't make more than 2 000 batches a year he says he's committed to maintaining the wild geese population and heavily discourages over consumption unlike most foie gras producers celebrity is barbarida [Music] in recent years climate change has pushed back the Farm's traditional Foie Grant making timeline is uh regardless of when it's made Eduardo's foie gras or natural foie gras as he calls it has an extremely long waiting list every year there was limited demand for Eduardo's foreground until 2006 when he and his team won the coveted kudoku award at the seal Food Expo in Paris foreign [Music] address despite challenges and criticism from other foie gras producers Eduardo's product has only continued to become more popular foreign costs 199 euros and sells out every year a foreign [Music] despite the Hefty price tag Eduardo says he doesn't see much of a profit from his foie gras geese require more land than other livestock most people in his area prefer to raise Iberian pigs which are very profitable but it wasn't Eduardo's family who invented the natural foie gras tradition foreign a is finding a new way to produce the world's rarest Foods isn't easy it's a process that can require years of trial and error in Japan masaki is she developed a new variety of the famous Wagyu steak by feeding wagyu cows a special feed made from olives [Music] masaki has dedicated decades to creating a system of recycling oriented farming but his idea wasn't an immediate success the sun is rising over shodoshima in Japan's Inland Sea masaki ishi has been raising Castle here for half a century [Music] foreign literally small Bean Island was once famed for its azuki beans but after olive trees were introduced from Greece just over a century ago it became more famous as the home of Japan's oldest Olive Groves University [Music] [Music] wagyu beef is already known for its intense marbling and high levels of oleic acid both of which make the meat extra tender and flavorful masaki set out to create a wagyu even richer in oleic acids is [Music] but instead of using fresh olives I masaki turned to Olive promise the residue from olive oil production doing so allowed him to recycle a waste product from one of shudoshima's major industries [Music] [Music] [Music] Olive pumice still contains a lot of oil drying it is a difficult and costly process one that took masaki almost six years to perfect um foreign foreign [Music] [Music] foreign are typically sold to be processed at 24 to 26 months Olive wagyu doesn't ship out until 30 months the longer raising time and high cost of the feed make Olive wagyu difficult to come by but despite the limited Supply it has become especially popular with chefs foreign [Music] [Music] when masaki first started experimenting with olives he kept it to secrets from his buyers [Music] but in 2010 an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Miyazaki prefecture devastated Japan's livestock industry despite successful efforts to contain the disease locally the damage was done countries like the United States suspended beef imports from Japan disaster struck again with the thorohoku earthquake and tsunami of 2011. as Japan struggled to recover and rebuild its economy masaki looked towards strengthening his prefectures beef production he led the charge towards working with more local Olive farmers in 2012 other Farmers unsure doshima started following masaki's methods to raise Olive fed cattle just one year later Olive wagyu began shipping to places outside of shodoshima and Kagawa prefecture today there are about 2 500 Olive fed cattle on still this is nothing compared to places like kagoshima or miyasaki where high quality wagyu production has been taking place for decades on masaki's Farm there are just 20 head of cattle is [Music] to reach this goal the cattle farmers of shodoshima need help from the local Olive producers [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] thank you foreign

Channel: Insider Business

Views: 6,684,879

Keywords: Insider Business, So Expensive, Crafts, World Wide Crafts, Jobs, Careers, Calligraphy Brushes, Japanese Denim, Dye, Damascus Knives, Mangoes, Wagyu, Foie Gras, Globes, Iron Kettles, Craftsmanship, Artisan, Handmade

Id: k2EtmCbKb4o

Length: 118min 27sec (7107 seconds)

Published: Sat May 13 2023