Niwaki brings the very best in Japanese design and craftsmanship, inspiring gardeners and craftsmen to do the stuff they love, even better. They source and manufacture an extraordinary range of fine garden and woodworking tools, kitchen knives and outdoor gear.

Niwaki means garden tree. Not very exciting, but it implies far more than that. Japanese gardens are landscapes, microcosms of nature, and the trees are all shaped to fit into those landscapes — there’s an awful lot of artistry and cultural baggage in there too. Jake’s written a book on it all, if you’re interested. So, the name. Hard to pronounce (ni-whacky) and tricky to remember, but we like it because of its implications.

Almost everything in Niwaki's range is stuff they use themselves. Jake’s — founder of Niwaki — first day of pine pruning in Osaka, he was given a pair of garden scissors, still sharp as anything, more than a decade later. Brother-in-law Haruyasu bought Jake his first pair of Japanese shears, and he’s rarely used anything else since. His wife Keiko uses her garden scissors in the house, for cutting flowers (she never cleans them, they go rusty, and Jake has to revive them, but they’re still working.) Grandpa reaches for his trusty pruning saw when he wanders off to reap havoc in the woodland… It’s all good stuff, and their proud of it.