How does a woman from Whiteinch end up in a small Japanese town with less than 80,000 people in it designing cutlery?

Kathleen Reilly had a chuckle to herself when she was telling her story ahead of the launch of her new knife design, which is inspired by Japanese place settings, chopsticks and chopstick rests.

The 30-year-old Glasgow School of Art alumnus has been in Japan since 2019 and moved to the small town of Tsubame-Sanjo. It’s an area of Japan that is one of the industrial hearts of the country, with 95% of all tableware made there.

Even then, the new design was something that left a few factories stumped on how to turn it from the design Kathleen had come up with into a finished product.

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Eventually she found a way to do so and it will go on sale on Tuesday, June 25 at 8am via the Kickstarter website, after which she will be hoping to release it in stores worldwide, and already has a waiting list.

The knife is designed so it doesn’t fall off a plate and thanks to its folded handle, it is more hygienic because the blade balances securely preventing it from touching a table or falling onto the ground.

It’s a design that seems like it should have been so obvious but hasn’t been produced before and that’s exactly what she was going for with it.

Speaking from her home in Japan, she said: “I had this idea in 2015 when I was at Glasgow School of Art but I had to find the right manufacturer to do it. I moved to Japan and worked in a small countryside town and even they found it challenging to make. A knife is always made the same way so it was difficult to make something folded.

“Everyone has had the same ‘why doesn’t this exist, it’s so simple’ and I don’t want to big myself up but it’s sleek and simple but also very functional. It’s inspired by Japanese place settings, chopsticks and chopstick rests so it fits well into Japanese home environments but in regards to making it, that’s where the difficulty came in. I had to talk to so many factories until we found the right place to make it.

“I went to a few cutlery factories and even for them the bent shape was challenging. I went to a professional press mould company which is always using high pressure presses to bend metal so they’re professional in making things that are straight bend, just like my knife. I managed to get it made there but it took a bit of searching.

“I went to an exhibition and discovered this small town, and thought ‘wow, they look like they have the skills to do it’. That was kind of it. I moved to Japan in 2019 and moved to Tsubame-Sanjo in 2020 and I worked there for two years designing it.

“It won Dezeen Awards which is a huge design prize in 2022. It's one of the biggest design awards in the world and that was amazing, I spent 2023 turning it from a sample into a product and now I'm so excited it is finally releasing. so Instead of just doing it through shops first. I wanted to do it on Kickstarter to share the journey.

“I have friends who work there and I wanted to raise awareness of the story. I’m from Glasgow so why am I in this little town halfway across the world, in Japan, it’s an interesting thing and I thought it would be the best platform to get people up to speed on what has been going on.”

Kathleen Reilly is the woman behind the design (Image: Kathleen Reilly)

Right now there are no plans to add forks or spoons to her collection, although it is something she hopes to do in the future.

They won’t be the same as the Oku knife, though, with there being no real need to add a rest to cutlery that is already curved in parts to allow it to rest easily on plates.

She continued: “A fork has a curve to it so it rests easily but a knife is really flat so it’s always slipping. That’s why I came up with a solution so hygienically it’s always going to be on a plate or a board. A fork or a spoon doesn’t fit in my mind but in the future I’d like to make something that visually goes together but design wise it will be different.”

Ending up in Japan was no surprise when you look at her history either, having attended the Glasgow School of Art. Charles Rennie Mackintosh was influenced by Japanese culture too and that was another reason to head far away from where she grew up near the River Clyde.

She finished off: “I studied at Glasgow School of Art and did an exchange programme to Tokyo for three months as part of GSA so I thought Japanese craftsmanship was amazing and I wanted to learn more about it so it was always in the back of my head to go to Japan to improve my skills.

“Then I studied in London at the Royal College of Art and then had the opportunity to move to Japan on a scholarship called the Daiwa Scholarship.

“From a young age I was always really exposed to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, he’s a Glasgow icon. His architecture is all really inspired by Japan and light and shadows and beams and pillars create space and depth so I was always fascinated by this cross between Scottish and Japanese culture and how it can create something innovative and iconic.

“There’s different realms you can get into and I thought it would work well for me as well.”

Kathleen will also be exhibiting her completed design at this year's London Design Festival from September 14th-22nd 2024.

You can order the new design by clicking here and visiting Kickstarter's website.