If there’s a one-word response to the question, it’s this: shokunin. A shokunin is an artisan who dedicates his or her life to the pursuit of a single craft — forging Katana blades, sculpting ceramic sake glasses, butchering bluefin tuna. The specificity of the focus stems from a humble belief, deeply ingrained in the Japanese psyche, that there’s always room for improvement, that one lifetime is never enough to truly master a craft. While the rest of the world may be happy with 90 percent, a shokunin looks at life as an endless march toward 100. Over the past decade writing about Japan, I’ve met hundreds of examples of shokunin who have changed…
Seirinkan is open 365 days a year for lunch and dinner, and Kakinuma makes every single pizza himself. When I ask him if he ever gets bored of making pizza, he barely understands the question. “Of course not. Pizza changes every day,” he says. “I’ve never made the same pizza twice.”