Before shape, before size, before steel: this is the choice. It splits the Japanese knife family in half and decides what the blade is for.
Sharpened on both sides at a symmetric angle (typically 15-18 degrees per side). The Western standard, also dominant in modern Japanese kitchens. Cuts straight down.
Three single-bevel knives. Each one does a single job, and does it better than any double-bevel ever could.
The sashimi knife. Long, slim, single-bevelled, designed to draw through fish in a single uninterrupted pull from heel to tip. The geometry suppresses surface tearing so the cut surface stays glossy.
The fish butchery knife. Thick spine, heavy, single-bevelled. Built to cleave through bone and cartilage without chipping the edge. Weight does the work, let the blade fall.
The vegetable knife. Tall, flat, single-bevelled, the blade that makes katsuramuki possible: a daikon peeled into a single continuous sheet of vegetable. Push-cut only, no rocking.
Four double-bevel knives that handle most of what a kitchen throws at them. If you're starting your Japanese knife collection, start here.
The Japanese chef knife. Curved belly for rocking, pointed tip for fine work, mid-height blade. The most versatile blade in any kit: proteins, vegetables, herbs, anything that fits on the board.
Three virtues, fish, meat, vegetable. A shorter, flatter blade than the gyuto, with a sheep-foot tip that protects the cutting hand. Push-cut friendly. Easier to handle in a home-sized kitchen.
Versatile all-purpose blade with a reverse-tanto K-tip. Santoku-sized body with a sharp angled tip that controls fine work like no flat-belly knife can. The home cook's do-it-all knife with character.
The hybrid. Gyuto length, yanagiba spirit, K-tip, the angled chisel point that gives the kiritsuke its silhouette. Traditionally a head-chef's blade in a Japanese kitchen, earned, not bought.
Five double-bevel specialists. None of them is your first knife. All of them solve a specific problem better than anything else in the rack.
The double-bevel slicer. A yanagiba's geometry rebuilt for Western kitchens. Long enough to draw through a roast in one pass. Narrow enough to glide between bone and meat.
The double-bevel vegetable knife. Flat edge, square tip, no curve, built for push-cuts on a board. A daily-driver answer to the usuba: less ceremonial, easier to maintain, just as effective.
The utility knife. Short, pointed, agile, for jobs that ask too much of a paring knife and too little of a gyuto. The blade that lives on the second cutting board.
The Japanese boning knife. Sharply pointed tip, triangular profile, rigid spine, built to part poultry at the joint without sawing.
A marking knife. Single piece of hardened tool steel, ground to a chisel edge, no separate handle. Precision work that asks too much of a paring knife.
A short version, for cooks who don't want to read all twelve cards.
Every knife in our catalogue has been used by Ethan in a working sushi kitchen before it hit the site. We source from traditional makers in Sakai and Seki, plus a small group of newer-generation smiths working with powder steels.
We don't carry every brand, only the ones that earn the rack. If a maker's quality slips, we drop them.
Pick one more to compare side by side.
