Gyutou
Gyutou is a knife comes from Europe. This knife is double-ground blade, so it’s good for cutting stuffs vertically. Besides meats, you can cut vegetables and small fishes, and you can also slice raw fish, sashimi. A knife which has 18cm-22cm long blade is suitable for using at home.
Kamagata-Japan style
This is one of a type of knives which had been changed with the times from Gyuto, the European representative type of knife, and this Kamagata is a Japanese taste knife rapidly prevailed among ordinary homes after World WarⅡ. This knife has wide uses and you can cut not only meats but also vegetables. A knife which has a 17cm-18cm long blade is common. We have a smaller size which has 14.5cm long blade as well.
Petit knife
‘Petit’ of petit knife means ‘small’ and this knife is what we want you to have for the second one. If you have this petit knife, you can easily handle the troublesome works which are like chamfering the corners of potatoes and carrots with the big kitchen knife. The length of the petit knife blade is 11cm-15cm.
Bread knife
The bread knife with the wave edged blade is the most suitable knife for cutting tender bread or sponge cake beautifully and thinly. Even thought you use this knife for a long time, the quality of the sharpness will not decline much.
Salmon knife
Because this knife has oval dents to both sides of the blade, adhesion resistance can be decreased and it brings about the effect that a slice is hard to stick. This is the knife which is the most suitable for slicing smoked salmons, roast beefs, hams and so forth.
Frozen food knife
This is a kitchen knife for exclusive use of the frozen food which half thawed. Even though the food thawed half, there is a case that the inside is still frozen. Therefore, we recommend you to cut frozen foods with an exclusive kitchen knife without cutting them with Gyuto or Kamagata knife. (The above one) This knife is suitable for cutting foods which are just taken out from the freezer. (The below one)
Boning knife
This is a kitchen knife to cut off only meat from the bone. Because you need to move this knife among bones, the blade of knife is thick in comparison with the other Gyuto knives to keep the cutting edge of the blade. It is hard to chip. We have an angular type and a round type.
Slicing knife
You can cut a block of the big meat into pieces along sinews, and cut away the parts without sinews. Because sinews are not straight, the width of the blade is narrow to move among sinews easily. The thickness is thin, so it used for a slicer, too. Its blade is about 24cm-33cm long.
European DEBA
In comparison with the Japanese raw fish carver, it has thick double-ground blade, so it can cope with most of work about birds, beasts, and fishes. For example it can cut fish, beat the bone, break the husk of large-sized Crustacean, or cut a frozen fish. Its blade is about 21cm-27cm long.
Chinese cleaver
The roots of the Chinese cleaver is China, the Japanese-made Chinese cleaver has begun to spread after the war. Its shape is similar to the original one, but it changed the Japanese style which is made use of the forging technology of the Japanese kitchen knife. It is categorized into thinness, middle thickness, and thickness. The thin ones can be used for cutting a vegetable decoration or cutting soft things such as meat, vegetables. The middle thickness one is all-around. The thick one is mainly used to chop a bone with using the weight of kitchen knife itself. Its blade is about 20cm-22cm long. We have two kinds of handle, one is a round one (Chinese handle) and the other is one which is with rivet stopper which is European kitchen knife style.
NAKIRI
This is a kitchen knife for cutting vegetables as you can tell from the name. Because the blade is level and the width is wide, it is useful for peeling or cutting bulky vegetables such as Chinese cabbage or flattened rice cake. Most of Japanese kitchen knife are a single-ground edge, but this is a double-ground edge. 15cm-17cm long blade is common. A round shape is Eastern style and an angular shape is Western one.
USUBA
This has similar shape to Nakiri (Vegetable knife), but this type is single-ground edge knife. Because a blade is thin, sharpness is good and the cut end is beautiful too. However, the blade is easily damaged, so you need attention in the use of this knife. It is good to avoid cutting hard vegetables such as a pumpkin. We recommend the 18cm long blade for using at home.
DEBA
This is used for cutting fish. Since it has a thick back, you might have a sturdy impression, and think it seems to cut anything. However, the edge is very thin and single-ground blade, so chip on a blade is happen when you chop roughly. In this case, we recommend you to attach your hand to the back, and push it strongly. If the blade has about 15cm length, you can deal with most fish with the knife.
Stainless steel Small DEBA
This is a small angler’s carver made of the stainless steel which is hard to be rusted. It is useful to handle small fish which can be the ingredients of the tempura. Because it comes with a leather case for easy carrying, we recommend you to use this knife as a tool of the fishing. A corrugated part of the back is for scraping scales off.
SHOBU
This is a sashimi slicer of Kansai style. It is called SHOBU, because the shape of the blade resembles the leaf of the iris (iris is called Shobu in Japanese). As the blade is sharp-pointed, it is easy to use, and this knife is used as a general fish-slicing knife. This knife is also called Yanagi since its look like willows (Ｉt is called Yanagi in Japanese). The blade needs at least 21cm-24cm length, because sashimi slicer cuts fish to go down straight using the length of blade.
TAKOHIKI
This is sashimi slicer of Kanto, and called TAKOHIKI. Even though it is called Takohiki, it’s not a sashimi slicer for exclusive use of the octopus (octopus is called Tako in Japanese). As well as SHOBU, this sashimi slicer also cuts fish to go down straight using the length of the blade. If you cut fish with moving knife back and forth, the cut surface won’t shine beautifully because the texture would be damaged, so you would lost the taste of the Sashimi. The length of blade is same to SHOBU.
FUGU knife
This is an exclusive kitchen knife which is used for cutting a half of the globefish into pieces and making it sashimi. Compare to SHOBU, the back is thick, and the blade width is narrow, and the point of a knife is angular.
Slicing DEBA
This is slenderer than DEBA and the thickness of the back is thin. It is light, and easy to use. It is not good for cutting hard bone. It is used for filleting fish, cutting it into fine pieces. The blade is about 18cm-27cm long.
Gut knife
This is a knife to cut the small intestine of the cow mainly. You stick the tip into the small intestine and pulling the small intestine by left hand without moving the knife. You can cut the small intestine in succession.
Peeling knife
This knife’s thickness of the back is far thinner than a vegetable knife single-ground edge. The tip is the shape of a triangle of rhombus. You use this in the same way to vegetable knife single-ground edge, but peeling knife is useful for cutting a vegetable decoration. The blade is about 18cm long.
SUSHI knife
This is a knife to use when you cut rolled sushi or pressed sushi. The blade is a double-ground edge, and the width is wide. The shape of blade is round, and this is a device not to break rice or ingredients when you cut them. The blade is about 24cm long.
Soba noodle knife Tomoe
This is a knife to cut soba or noodle. You stand it vertically, and cut like pushing forward with using its weight. The shape of the long blade is unique. The blade is about 24cm-30cm long.
Soba noodle knife Kurouti
This is a knife to cut soba or noodle. It is thinner and lighter than tomoe・single edge one, and more, it is a double-ground edge blade. Therefore you can use it at home, and women also use it easily. The blade is about 21cm long.
Eel knife Nagoya style
The blade is slim and a rectangle. The corner was taken not to hurt an eel by the tip of this blade when you fillet it. The handle is relatively long.
Eel knife Kyoto style
The shape of the blade is like a hatchet, and this knife is an exclusive knife to cut eel from belly side. You can tap a prick punch by using the salient back.
Eel knife Osaka style.
The shape of blade is same to a Kiridashi knife, but the back is thick. From the tip to the end of the handle is made by one piece, and the tip is a same angle to Edo style.
Eel knife Edo style
The shape of the tip is like a Kiridashi knife. The end of handle was cut slantingly. The handle is short, so it is satisfied in your hand completely. This knife is to cut eel from back side. The big size one is to fillet an eel, and the small size one is to fillet a conger or a loach.
Loach knife
This is a small kitchen knife to fillet a Loach, and this is Edo style. You use it to fillet a loach or a conger.
HAMO (sea eel) knife
The handle is Tomoe, same to an eel knife Osaka style. A hamo is slightly bigger than an eel, so the blade of hamo knife is thick, and the handle is made so that you can use your power easily. The hamo knife became such a shape based on the intention of chefs of a hamo.
HAMO (sea eel) knife
This is a single-ground edge knife to use cutting fishbone, such as a hamo or a greenling which has many small bones. You cut them rhythmically from this side to the other side at least 5-6 times per 1cm.The back is thick and heavy, but the edge is thin to cut hamo finely except its skin. The blade is about 30cm long.
