Kenji Togashi White 2 Honyaki, Fujin (God of Wind) Urushi Set

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.

Our advice: choose a Japanese knife if you want the keenest edge and do not mind caring for a harder blade, and a German knife if you want a tougher, more forgiving knife you can hone casually and use for heavy prep. On two Japanese knife 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.

Our care advice for a Japanese knife: keep it 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. At our counter we call it the sweet spot; elsewhere "sweet spot" often means 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.

Shirogami 1 (White 1) has a higher carbon content than Shirogami 2 (White 2), roughly 1.3% vs 1.1%.

White 2 (Shirogami #2) has about 1.1% carbon and, per Proterial, a hardening hardness of over 60 HRC; White 1 sits around 1.3% carbon. That 0.2% difference is the core spec gap. More carbon generally means you can push hardness higher and hold a keener edge, but it also makes the steel more brittle and less forgiving. White 2 trades a bit of that potential peak sharpness for slightly better toughness and ease of sharpening.

Shirogami 1 carries a certain prestige. Sukenari's Nobuo Hanaki once told me directly that they only use White 1 for their mizu-honyaki because it is the pure form of carbon steel, it carries that halo. Among traditional smiths, White 1 is still spoken of as the benchmark.