Japanese kitchen knife brands

S

steve4570

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Sep 18, 2007
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What are the quality Japanese kitchen knife brands? Ive been looking around (internet) and some are very inexpensive while others are reasonable to high priced. Does anybody have a Japanese knife brand name they use and like? Thanks for the help, Steve.
 
I don't remember the brand name, but mine is a folded (carbon core) that I picked up from Japan Woodworker. I think it was around $65 or so -- cuts nice and is holding its edge well.
 
I prefer two different types of Japanese Kitchen Cutlery. For more refined blades in a practical price range I would recommend Kanetsune. On the other hand, I love the very affordable traditional offerings in the Tosagata line at Japan Woodworker.

I have knives from both and both are great to use, the Tosagata require more care but are very good knives for the money. The Kanetsune are wonderful in all aspects, usually cheaper than a Shun line knife but perform just as well.

Good luck.
 
I have kitchen knives from Yaxall, Damask, and Hattori.

The Hattori is (extremely) high dollar, but well worth it.:thumbup: (That's why I only have one! :( )

The Yaxall and Damask are more moderately priced, but still truly excellent knives.

There are many other kitchen knives from Japan that are just as good, but since I have no personal experience with them, I'll leave the comments to those who have them. :)
 
There are several. Shun is a given. They bust their tail, but they're a given. After Shun, my other favorites are Moritaka Hamono, Ichimonji Chuki Corporation, and Sakai Takayuki/Aoki Hamono. Moritaka Hamono make high quality forged kitchen knives two grades of high carbon Hitachi steel; Ichimonji Chuki Co makes a ton of great knives and seem to be the OEM of several other brands and Sakai Takayuki also makes tons of knives (and carries some Ichimonhji OEM stuff :rolleyes: ) including their Grand Cheff line of knives made with AEB-L steel (Bohler Uddeholm's version of the 13C26 steel that makes Kershaw a favorite among sharpening fanatics).
 
Both Shun and Hattori are great knives. As Ben said, they are expensive as all get out (especially the Hattori customs), but worth every penny. For this reason, my EHD (extremely high dollar) kitchen knives are limited to a 8" Chef's and a 3.5" paring knife. For a slicer and a boning knife, I went with Wusthoff. I also have a Dan Koster custom made santoku, and its a great knife, and I use one of his bushcraft knives in the kitchen all the time.

In practical use, I can get by with a Chef's and paring knife 90% of the time.
 
Japan's kitchen knife makers, especially the higher end makers, produce some incredibly beautiful and highly functional knives. They are very popular now here in the U.S.
Japanese kitchen knife aficionados are an expanding sub-culture of the knife community, and with good reason. They simply outperform most other kitchen knives. Sometimes by a wide margin.

Tojiro Pro is considered by many in the Japanese kitchen knife community as an entry level brand. I started out with Tojiro Pro as my first foray into Japanese kitchen knives and, thus far, have found no reason to look for anything else.
They are, IMO, superior to the German brands as far as edge retention, usability and ergos. And, I've had/have Henckels knives. I've passed most of my Henckels on to family members since they don't see much use here anymore.
Tojiro's knives are like working with a laser. They just blow right through food stuff. You have to be careful with them because of that. I was very surprised the first time I put them to work.
I have to add that I'm just an at-home cook so this is just what works for me.

Whichever brand you choose, I'm sure you'll be pretty well pleased with them.
Finding a bad Japanese kitchen knife from a reputable maker is like finding a bad Sebenza. (HA! Like that'll happen!)


Oh, and BTW, I agree that you'll be better off with just a few essential knives at first.
A chef's, a paring type and a boning knife. These are the real worker's in my kitchen.
 
I only know about Japanese kitchen cutlery through Murray Carter, but I've gleaned on the Japanese made stuff and it looks pretty awesome. I wish I knew more. But as of right now, my two cents is Murray Carter. You're buying an authentic American and Japanese knife simultaneously.
 
My parents started out with sub $100 Mac and Tojiro's. Now they have a couple small shuns that they use. I think they will become all Shun eventually.
 
I am using 8" Gyuto from Kanetsune for about two years and extremely happy with this knife.
 
antonio_luiz said:
Shun paring knife is brilliant, but (for me) they have too much belly on their chef knives. The "In the Kitchen" sub-forum of has a lot of info on Jap knives - suggest you wander over there
Click to expand...

Um, I don't think cross forum linking is smiled upon here. You might want to remove the link.
 
I have a couple from Mr. Itou. Pretty pricey, but beautiful knives. I use them primarily as special occasion carvers, you know break them out with the fine china during the holidays.

My daily use kitchen knives are a combination of Hiro and Fallkniven. All perform very well and are VG10 stainless for minimum upkeep.

Kevin
 
Global and Shuns for that matter are more westernized Japanese knives than Japanese/Japanese knives.

And IMHO Shuns aren't the best value/performance ration in Japanese knives.
 
Gator97 said:
Global and Shuns for that matter are more westernized Japanese knives than Japanese/Japanese knives.
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Most of the popular Japanese-made chef knives are Western, too, so I don't see this as mattering too much. Also, with regards to value, you can get a Shun Elite or Shun Kaji 10" chef knife for under $250 - try doing that with a Ryusen Blazen these days - especially one in SG2 instead of SGPS - and try finding one thinner than a Shun Elite. Shun Classic chef knives cost less than Hattori HD of similar size and are thinner at the spine (haven't handled an HD in person, so don't know if their trip to the edge is better than the Shun Classic).
 
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