Sukenari ZDP-189 Hairline Gyuto 270mm, Slim Ebony Mosaic

The gyuto came to Japan with the beef-eating culture of the Meiji era, and that is where its name comes from. Tojiro says it is used for all kinds of cooking, which is why it is also called the chef's knife.

The santoku is a household knife that combines the good points of the nakiri and the gyuto. Tojiro describes it as all-purpose, from vegetables to meat and fish, double-bevel and built on the same construction as a Western knife.

Choose a gyuto if you want more length and reach. Choose a santoku if you want a shorter all-purpose knife. Tojiro's own size figures: gyuto 150 to 210mm for household use and up to 360mm for professional use, santoku 165 to 170mm for household use.

The gyuto (牛刀) is a chef's knife for all kinds of cooking, and it is basically double-bevel. A knife maker's guide says it came to Japan in the Meiji era with the culture of eating beef, which gave it its name, but it does not cut only meat.

A Japanese dictionary describes the gyuto as slimmer than a santoku, with a pointed tip, used widely for meat, fish and vegetables.

A knife maker's guide lists 150 to 210 mm, double-bevel, for home use, and 180 to 360 mm, single- or double-bevel, for professional kitchens.

We suggest starting with a 210 mm gyuto for a home kitchen, and stepping up to 240 mm if you regularly cut large pieces and have the board for it.

Get the 210mm. We only point people to a 240mm when they have about 45cm of usable board, cook in volume, and regularly break down big roasts or whole fish.

On the gyutos we've measured for our product pages, the extra length is real. As of October 2026, the 210mm gyutos we list have a median edge of 213mm from heel to tip, across the 111 we have measured; the 240mm ones have a median of 240mm, across 100. The 240s are also heavier, 212g against 175g at the median, and a touch taller at the heel, 50mm against 48mm, across the same 100 and 111 knives.

Weight overlaps between the two sizes. As of October 2026, 11 of the 100 measured 240s weigh less than the median 210 at 175g. The 240s we measured weigh 146 to 323g, and the 111 measured 210s 121 to 255g. The number in the name does not decide how heavy a knife is, so check the measured weight on the product page.

These are two design families, not a national specification, and many modern knives mix both. Japanese profiles are typically thinner, so they suit push and pull cuts; German profiles carry a fuller belly, which suits rocking. A given knife is its own evidence, so look at the blade you would buy rather than the country label.

Edges follow the same pattern. Many German knives ship at about 15 degrees per side, while many Japanese knives run about 10 to 15; check the model you are buying. A smaller angle is sharper but less forgiving. Hardness is a per model figure too. On two common Japanese steels the steel makers' own figures start at 60 HRC: Takefu Special Steel rates VG10 at 60 HRC or more, and Proterial lists the hardening hardness of Aogami 2 (Blue 2) as over 60 HRC.

A Japanese knife suits precision work where a sharp edge and nimble handling matter; a German knife suits heavier prep and rocking cuts where a substantial feel and a more forgiving edge matter. Whichever you choose, keep the edge off bone, frozen food and very hard squash, and use a wooden or plastic board.

The flat spot is the straight run of edge from the heel towards the middle, the part that meets the board along its length. It is commonly known as the sweet spot; some people also use "sweet spot" for the balance point, so ask which one someone means.

Past the flat, the edge curves up towards the tip (the belly), which suits a swinging or pulling stroke. Sharpeners also say "flat spot" for a worn patch of edge, so when you mean the shape, "the flat part of the edge" is clearer.

A gyuto is a chef's knife, and its shape is largely modelled on the French chef's knife: a fairly flat run of edge near the heel, then a curve up to the tip. A German-style chef's knife has a bigger belly and curves along much more of its edge.

The flat run suits push and pull cuts, and the belly is made for rocking. That flat run is commonly known as the sweet spot.

ZDP-189 is a powder metallurgy steel. Proterial lists the carbon at 3.00% and the chromium at 20.00%, and does not list the other elements. Proterial gives a hardening hardness of over 65 HRC.

Knife Steel Nerds' testing puts roughly 30% of the steel as carbide. In Knife Steel Nerds' CATRA test it scored 162% against 440C, where 440C is 100%, but it stayed below S90V, which Larrin Thomas attributes to chromium carbides adding less to edge retention than vanadium carbides. In Knife Steel Nerds' water-spray test the steel rusted, and Larrin Thomas judged that it does not qualify as stainless. He notes that Hitachi's own corrosion data looked better than his result.

It suits a cook who already sharpens on stones and treats knives gently. We would not make it your first Japanese knife. Our SG2 vs ZDP-189 page has the full comparison.