Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Motomura-Broida.
Sara, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
We started as a small company… just as a husband-and-wife team. We still are a small group of passionate knife dorks doing our best to educate people about Japan’s rich culture and history, and the awesome knives they make. Our goal is to make high-quality Japanese knives from small makers available to you, outside of Japan.
I grew up in Haguro, Yamagata (Northern Japan) – imagine Ohio, but with rice paddies instead of corn fields. My parents are accomplished ceramic (earthenware) artists, and, thanks to them, I was exposed to a myriad of unique and creative individuals from Japan and other countries.
From early on, I was interested in the world outside of Japan. This interest, combined with my artistic upbringing, gave me my intellectual curiosity. When I was 17, I left Japan to study in the U.S. for a month and Canada for a year.
When I returned to Japan, I attended The Japan College of Foreign Languages, later transferring to Saitama University, where I majored in American Studies. My ever-lasting curiosity led me to apply for, and thankfully receive, a great scholarship, which I used to attend a master’s program in Journalism/Mass Communication at California State University, Northridge. I graduated from the program in December of 2009.
As I begun my Job hunt after school, I realized that I also wanted both my career and my life to be creative and fun. That is why I decided to help Jonathan start Japanese Knife Imports. Japanese knives are not just knives – they are Japanese cultural products – simple yet sophisticated, with ever-lasting beauty. Japanese Knife Imports is my passion and a part of my dream.
In November 2013, we had our son, Kenzo. For the first 2 years, we always brought Kenzo to work with us. Now as he is in a pre-school, he would only come to hang out at the store on weekends. We always take him to Japan on our annual business trip – he has met the coolest, most talented craftsmen across Japan. Jon and I are hoping that one day he will be interested in joining JKI.
Has it been a smooth road?
It has not always been a smooth ride. English has been a quite a struggle. Language has always been a tough part, especially having conversations over the phone, and we have a lot of that throughout the day. When I was training myself to be on the phone, I tried so many times to say “Japanese Knife Imports – this is Sara speaking”, but my hands and voice were shaky. I was anxious – I was sure that I did not make sense to people. But I have somewhat overcome my anxiety, through trial and error. I have to thank all of my friends, families, and customers for their patience. People were very understanding and kind – when you are trying your best and being polite, people are almost always willing to be patient and show kindness.
Also, while it is great to not have to ever worry how much time I spend with my husband, working together as business partners can cause some drama… but we both take a great pride in what we do. Most importantly, we always agree when it comes to our core values- especially with respect to our integrity, both personally and as a business. We chose to build a company that we can be proud of. We gave up on stable and secure jobs, working for someone else, and instead, we chose JKI. In many ways, JKI has come to define who we are.
I feel that making conscious decisions to maintain integrity may be harder than compromising (morally, financially, etc). But so far, we can proudly say that our decisions have always been rooted in our integrity. And I very much enjoy sharing this adventure with my husband. Teaching others, especially our son, about the history, culture, traditions, and values that have shaped our company, the craftsmen we deal with, and the industries we cater to has been extremely rewarding. I look forward to what the future holds for all of us.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Japanese Knife Imports is focused on importing high-quality Japanese kitchen cutlery and related accessories, including sharpening stones, knife storage bags, kitchen tools, and other items. We also offer sharpening and repair services, and knife sharpening classes for Japanese kitchen knives. We specialize in helping match people with the knives and stones that are a good fit for them. By working closely with the craftsmen who make knives for us, we are able to draw on years of experience with knife making, knife sharpening, and professional cooking to ensure that the products we carry make sense for our customer base.
Our business philosophy has always helped us keep a very low-pressure sales environment. Instead of focusing on selling knives, we focus on educating our customers as best we can. We teach them about knives in general, the specifics of Japanese knives, sharpening, care, maintenance, and more. We even spend the time to explain the cultural and historical context. Through doing this, we have been able to foster an amazing customer base… they are loyal, well informed, capable of using and caring for the products we sell, and constantly interested in learning new techniques and ways to utilize their knives.
Many of our customers have become great friends over the years. This community has helped us thrive and has been one of the most rewarding aspects of our business.
Additionally, because we spend so much time teaching and educating our customers, we have constantly had to be improving our knowledge and skill level, to make sure we continue to be top experts in our field.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
When we began, we were discussing where we should open our physical store space- either in Japan or in LA. LA is where Jon grew up, and where he worked as a chef. We had a close-knit community of chefs and knife nuts surrounding us. It is VERY expensive to have a storefront in a big urban place like LA, but the kind of community support we receive by being here has helped us feel good every day about our decision to open here. Even better, the Los Angeles food scene seems to just keep getting better, year after year.
I think I would recommend LA as a great place to open a business, with the big caveat that your business needs to be able to make a profit after paying rent… that is how we started. When we opened our original store location in Venice (it has since been relocated to a larger space in Beverly Hills), we had already been an online business for about a year. We decided that as long as the in-store sales could support our rent, we were ok with the cost. Our store has always been more than just a retail outlet.
It functions as a community center in the knife and restaurant community, and we are very happy about that. Also, having a physical store space has helped our business grow quite a bit. In other words, we knew the risk we were taking and would not have continued if it did not make sense for our business. Starting as an online-only shop allowed us to build a stable customer base that covered a lot of our business expenses early on. Without that foundation, opening a store would likely not have been possible.
Pricing:
- We have knives ranging from about $30 up to thousands of dollars, but we always do our best to match our customers with knives that fit their needs and budgets
- Our knife sharpening service focuses only on Japanese kitchen knives and starts at $20 per knife
Contact Info:
- Address: 8642 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90211
- Website: https://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/
- Phone: 310-399-0300
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jknifeimports/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JapaneseKnifeImports/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JKnifeImports
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/japanese-knife-imports-beverly-hills
Image Credit:
Yugengaisha Kanmeido, Jonathan D. Broida
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
