Zirconia cutlery; or savoring subtleties of the full flavor palette.
ZIKICO specializes in products made of a unique material called zirconia, which is a type of ceramic made from minerals.
Zirconia has 3 main characteristics that give it the ideal properties for cutlery:
- It is derived from minerals that are nearly as hard as diamond and ruby.
- It is made up of two types of crystals, each with different properties that adapt to external forces. This gives zirconia an even balance of metal-like hardness and suppleness.
- It is made by sintering at a high temperature of about 1400 degree Celsius (2550 degree Fahrenheit). Much like pottery, zirconia does not release any metal ions or cause allergic reactions.
Hardness of gemstones
Suppleness of metal
Non-allergenic like porcelain
If one were to express all of these wonderful characteristics in one word, it would be "ideal".
ZIKICO is contributing to the universal dining experience by making full use of the wonders of zirconia.
Origins of the ZIKICO Brand
The brand name ZIKICO is a combination of “Z” for zirconia, “JIKI” (the Japanese word for porcelain), and “CO” for corporation.
The logo is comprised of two overlapping rhombuses, illustrative of the crystal structures contained in zirconia.
Story
The soup stock was more flavorful from the plate directly than using spoons. So I noticed, the metallic odor of the spoon covers the flavor. The metallic odor is the decomposed lipids by oxidizing reaction of metal. However any wooden or ceramic spoons were not for eating and too brittle. Then we decided to produce it with the zirconia ceramic, which was more durable than the metals.
The zirconia processing technology was a combination of the technology of plastics, which was a mass production technology and the ceramic art. But there was an issue, that the plastic processing technology built wrinkles on the surface of products. Therefore we challenged this issue by treating everything as the industrial art. We solved it by taking only one part from one mold, instead of taking multiple parts and by investing longer time for each process to control the material flow in the mold. The ejection of the part was done by hand one by one unlike an usual process to eliminate scratches. We also developed special setters for sintering process after trials to improve the bigger deformation than traditional ceramic art.
Our goal is people to savor the full palette of subtleties of the cuisine.
High Quality Craftsmanship
Our unique powder injection molding and shaping process yield products with consistently beautiful lines.
All ZIKICO products are hand-crafted by expert artisans.
Company Profile
Company Name ZIKICO INC
Location 6-21-3 Nagayama, Tama City, Tokyo
Date Established January 11, 2018
CEO YAMASE Mitsunori
Corporate history
2007: YAMASE Mitsunori established Zirconia Research Department in former company
2015: Assigned as CEO
2016: Developed a zirconia Soup Spoon
2017: Good Design Award for Soup Spoon
2018: Established ZIKICO INC
2018: Awarded JIDA Design Museum Selection Award
2018: Retire the position at former company
2019: iF Design Award for the SUMU Cutlery Series
2019: A’ Gold Design Award for the SUMU Cutlery Series
2021: Business competition sponsored by Tokyo 2nd position
2022: Awarded JIDA Design Museum Selection for Measuring Spoon
Access
50 minutes by car from Shinjuku:
20 minutes from the Inagi Exit of Inagi Ohashi
on the Chuo Expressway "Inagi IC"
60 minutes by Train and Bus from Shinjuku:
Take the Keio Line bound for Hashimoto.
Get off at "Keio Nagayama" station.
Take the Keio Bus bound for Keio Tama Garage.
Get off at "Minami Uryu".