Tokyo / Edo · Curation

Compare three knife houses through a Kantō sashimi slicer, a vegetable knife and a Chinese-style chef’s knife.

Producers to know

Masamoto Sohonten · Azumabashi

Minosuke Matsuzawa learned forging in Osaka and began making kitchen knives in Osawa in 1866. His family's knife house opened in present-day Azumabashi in 1890.

Teruyasu Fujiwara · Meguro

The Watanabe family began forging farm tools in Kawasaki in 1870. The second generation studied swordmaking in Tokyo, and the family moved to its Meguro address in 1932.

Sugimoto · Tsukiji

This Tsukiji knife house adapted Japanese steel and forging techniques to the Chinese chef's knife. Sugimoto has made these broad blades for over seventy years.

Knives and lines to seek

Masamoto Sohonten KS Takohiki · 270 mm

The square tip and long, thin blade mark this as a Kantō sashimi slicer. It puts the same White #2 steel as the collection's KS kiritsuke gyuto to a different task.

Teruyasu Fujiwara Denka Nakiri · 165 mm

Fujiwara wraps an Aogami Super core in stainless steel for this square-ended vegetable knife. Alongside the Maboroshi bunka and petty, it gives you a second Fujiwara steel to sharpen and compare.

Sugimoto No. 6 Chinese chef's knife · 220 mm

A 110 mm-tall carbon-steel blade gives the guiding hand a broad face when slicing cabbage or boneless meat. Set it beside the Enso vegetable cleaver to compare two makers' takes on the same form.

Masamoto KS White #2 kiritsuke gyuto · 210 mm

Your double-bevel KS is the familiar reference here. Set its all-purpose profile beside the house’s square-ended takohiki to see how blade shape changes when the job becomes dedicated sashimi slicing.