Japanese kitchen knives have developed from simple, heavy blades (similar to Deba), which come in many well-thought-out forms used for precisely determined tasks. The great classic trio are Deba, Usuba and Yanagiba, which are especially useful for traditional Japanese cuisine.
But, we will start with the knives that are most commonly used, and continue with more task-specific knives.
Multi-purpose knives
GYUTO (Chef's knife)
Gyuto is a Japanese version of a Western-style main kitchen knife (chef's knife). The major difference between a Japanese multi-purpose knife and its European version, a French or a German knife, is in a thinner blade. Japanese version is usually made of harder steel and is double-bevel. There are Gyuto knives with European and with Japanese handle, the latter are known as wa-gyuto. Gyuto knives were originally designed for cutting larger pieces of beef, which is where their name came from – it literally means “a cow sword”. The dimensions of Gyuto knives range between 150-390mm, but the most frequent ones are between 210-270mm long. The thickness of gyuto spines usually ranges from 1.5 to 3.5mm, at the handle even as much as 5mm. They typically have a distal taper, where the spine narrows from the handle towards the tip.
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SANTOKU (Multi-Purpose)
Santoku is a multi-purpose Japanese knife, it literally means a 'knife of three virtues' – it is used for vegetables, fish and meat. Santoku is also known as santuko in some parts of Europe. Its full name is santoku-bocho or bukabocho. The knife can have a Japanese or a European handle. The usual length ranges between 165-180mm, and it is almost always double-bevel.
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BUNKA (Multi-Purpose)
With its typical functionality, the Bunka Bano-Bocho design is intended for versatile use in Western cuisine. It has a flexible profile that is wide enough at the handle, a gently designed belly of the blade suitable for making either long or short cuts, a flat back side of the blade, and a thin tip for precise work with food.
Due to its multi-purpose functionalities, especially in our Western cuisine, Bunka blade type was selected when we were designing our very first Japanese knife. We named the knife ZDP-189 Bunka and we're proud to say it is our bestselling knife, receiving great feedback from both professional chefs and home cooks.
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Vegetable knives
NAKIRI
Nakiri knives are specifically crafted for vegetables. Their square, thin blade and flat belly encourage a straight-down chopping motion, minimizing the need for horizontal push and pull, resulting in clean, effortless cuts. Nakiri has a rectangular thin blade designed for cutting vegetables, similar to Usuba, only much thinner and mostly intended for home use. Nakiri translates as knife for cutting greens. The knife can have a Japanese or a European handle. The usual length ranges between 165-180mm and it is almost always double-bevel.
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Small knives
PETTY (Paring/Utility knife)
Petty knife, sometimes also referred to as paring or utility, is a smaller version of the Gyuto (Chef's knife), and is used for all sorts of delicate tasks where a larger knife would be unwieldy. Petty knives are used for peeling, paring, decorating, cutting out cores of apple quarters, removing eyes from potatoes, etc. It is a knife that should be in everyone's kitchen. Its usual length is between 120-150mm.
Bird’s Beak Paring Knife
A peeling knife is mostly used in a professional kitchen for peeling or carving fruits and vegetables and is especially essential to tourné vegetables (a French staple technique). Also known as a Tourné Knife, It will come in handy in a home kitchen too, especially with peeling spherical fruits and veggies, although the standard-shaped paring/petty knife should also do the trick. Its usual length is 70mm.
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Single bevel knives
USUBA
A rectangular thin blade designed for cutting and peeling vegetables. Compared to Nakiri, Usuba is chisel ground and has a classic Japanese handle.
Usuba in Japanese means thin, which is an appropriate description of this knife designed for preparing vegetables, where a thin blade is very important. When cutting firm vegetables such as carrots, it is important that the blade cuts, not split, as can often happen with thicker knives.
The single bevel blade enables precise chopping of vegetables on the kitchen board, and due to its height and straight edge, it can also be used for peeling larger tuberous vegetables, such as daikon, into long and thin slices. This process is called “katsuramuki” and is one of the most difficult and complex Japanese cutting techniques.
Usuba knives are different in the form of the tip of the blade, which can be rectangular or semicircular:
- Azumagata usuba or Kakugata usuba (“kaku” means “square”) are longer Japanese names for a classic Japanese knife for cutting vegetables.
- Kamagata usuba has a semicircular tip of the blade, suitable for more precise work and precise cutouts. This style of Usuba is most popular in Japan around Kyoto, where the diet is more heavily based on vegetables than elsewhere in the country.
YANAGIBA
Traditional Japanese knife with a long and thin blade, which was originally used for cutting thin slices of raw fish - yes, sushi! 😃 Nowadays it can also be used for cutting large pieces of meat (especially for steaks) due to its long, thin blade. Typical Yanagiba knives are between 240-360mm long and, according to some chefs, can be used for different kitchen tasks which require precision. Some distinguishing features of Yanagiba knives are a Japanese handle and a chisel ground blade with an extremely small angle. The expression “yanagiba” in Japan means “a willow”, as the blade of the knife resembles a willow leaf.
Some similar blades include:
- Takobiki, which is used to prepare sashimi in areas surrounding Tokyo,
- Fugubiki is a thinner, flatter version of Yanagiba used for preparing Fugu fish - the deadly blowfish, a specialty in Japan that can only be prepared in a certain way to be eatable.
DEBA
A heavy, classic Japanese knife for rougher tasks. It was originally designed for cutting and filleting fish and chicken. Deba knives are usually 165-210mm long and up to 9mm thick. They are chisel ground and usually have a Japanese handle. Although Deba knives certainly look like they could cut through the fish/meat bones, we shouldn't use them for that as the blade is still sensitive to chipping. For cutting bones a Cleaver is your best tool.
There are several kinds of Deba knives:
- Hon-deba is the real deba, the thickest and the heaviest version of deba,
- Ko-deba is a smaller deba, suitable for small fish,
- Kanisaki-deba is a special deba, used for cutting crabs and in particular lobsters,
- Yo-deba is a deba with a European handle,
- Miroshi-deba is used for filleting fish (“miroshi” in Japanese means “filleting”, these kinds of deba knives are thinner and longer).
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CLEAVERS
CHINESE CLEAVER
Cleaver represents a Chinese version of the main kitchen knife. Its thin, sharp blade was originally designed for cutting vegetables, but it can be used for any cooking tasks. Cleaver is called chukabocho in Japanese.
MEAT CLEAVER
A meat cleaver is a large knife that varies in its shape, but usually resembles a rectangular-bladed hatchet. It's not a common tool in a traditional Japanese kitchen, but in the Western world it is largely used as a kitchen or butcher knife and mostly intended for splitting up large pieces of soft bones and chopping through thick pieces of meat. The resilience of withstanding repeated blows directly into thick meat, dense cartilage, bone, and the cutting board below is accomplished by using a softer, tougher steel and a thicker blade because a harder steel or thinner blade might fracture or buckle under hard use.
Still not sure what type of Japanese knife is for you? We prepared a quick quiz that will help you choose a perfect knife based on your cooking skills and type of food you prepare most often. Take the quiz now.
Questions? Care to share your experience with Japanese knives with us? Shoot us an email at support@sharpedgeshop.com.
