Sukenari ZDP-247 Hairline Santoku 180mm, Ebony Handle

Both are all-purpose Japanese knives, and for most home cooks either will handle the bulk of daily prep. The choice comes down to length, blade shape, and how you like to cut.

A gyuto is the Japanese chef's knife, with a gently curved edge that lets you rock and slide through cuts as well as chop. Tojiro's guide to Western knife shapes gives 150 to 210mm as the household size for a gyuto and up to 360mm for professional use. The extra length and pointed tip give you reach and versatility, from proteins to large produce.

Tojiro's guide to Japanese knife shapes gives 165 to 170mm as the household size for a santoku, which has a flatter profile and a rounded sheep's-foot tip. It rewards a straight up-and-down push cut, feels nimble in smaller hands or tight kitchens, and is the classic Japanese household knife.

Rule of thumb: choose a gyuto if you want one do-everything knife with more reach, or a santoku if you prefer a compact, easy-to-control blade. Plenty of our customers end up owning both.

Match the shape to your stroke. Rock chopping keeps the tip on the board and rolls the curved belly through the food, so a gyuto or a Western chef's knife suits it, and Japanese knives rock fine as long as you rock gently.

Up-and-down chopping, the Chinese style, wants a straight run of edge, so a nakiri, usuba, santoku or bunka suits it better; a curved edge chopped straight down easily leaves pieces joined. Neither shape is better; it depends on how you cut.

A Japanese dictionary explains the name of the santoku (三徳包丁) as coming from the three things it handles: meat, fish and vegetables. The same dictionary entry points from the santoku to the bunka (文化包丁), treating the two as one knife.

One Japanese knife maker guide distinguishes the two by the tip. It says that in the Showa era the bunka was made with its tip cut at an angle, and the santoku came after it by rounding that tip.

Sukenari's own site carries both names together, titled the official site of 株式会社スケナリ with 佑成 named as a registered trademark. 佑成 is the house mark that appears on the blades.

So one house answers to both names: Sukenari is the company, 株式会社スケナリ, working from Fuchu machi in Toyama City, and 佑成 is its mark on the steel.

Yes. Sukenari says its knives are made by craftsmen by hand, one at a time, at its workshop in Fuchu machi, Toyama City.

The Sukenari lines we stock carry the workshop name in their titles.

The workshop says the 佑 of its registered mark 佑成 (read Sukenari) is written with the person radical and 右, right, and that the character carries the wish for its tools to become the cook's indispensable right arm.

The company's own site title reads 登録商標 佑成 (registered trademark), and 佑成 is the house mark on its blades.