Exotic: Shoichi Hashimoto (橋本庄市) Chihaya (ちはやふる・千早) Blue / White Coreless Gyuto 210mm

One of the most exotic creations from Hashimoto, the Chiyaha design stands among his most intricate and technically complex works. Only a handful were ever released — a small batch in 2023, with an earlier example featured on his Instagram in 2021. Today, we are proud to offer the Gyuto 210mm from this rare lineage to our loyal customers. Comes with exotic Argentine lignum vitae handle and saya set. 

In classical Japanese literature, particularly in waka poetry, the term 「千早ぶる」 (chihayaburu) is a well-known pillow word (makurakotoba) traditionally used to describe gods or divine power.
For example:

• 千早ぶる神 (chihayaburu kami) — “the mighty gods.”

The name evokes a sense of majesty, intensity, and mythic presence, fitting perfectly for a knife forged with such exceptional artistry.

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About Shoichi Hashimoto (橋本庄市)

Shoichi Hashimoto is a damascus artist who is speicalized in producing some of the most stunning damascus work I have came across in my career. You can read more about his background in this blogpost.  He is a frequent exhibitor of numerous knife shows, including the Seki Knife Show and the New York knife show, so make sure you visit his stand next time around.

While his design is certainly breathtaking, his forging skill is also high up there as well. His signature 72 layer blue / white core is made by forging blue 2 and white 2 steel together. As you might know, blue and white steel have different ranges of heat treatment temperature, and the overlap region is very narrow. Shoichi is able to heat treat the 72 layer core perfectly within that narrow region resulting in the blue / white damascus hard steel that according to one of my sushi chef customer, " the Kireaji (切れ味, feel of the cutting edge) is unrivalled".

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