Japanese Kitchen Knives by Maker

We carry a wide range of Japanese knife makers. Names you will find here include Yoshimi Kato, Nigara Hamono, Shibata, Sakai Takayuki, Shiro Kamo and Masakage.

We source directly from blacksmiths across Sakai, Echizen, Takefu, Tosa and Sanjo, and the full current list sits on our brands page.

We pick makers whose work we are happy to sell as kitchen tools, and we source directly from workshops in Japan where we can. Each maker in our range has a profile on our site, researched from primary Japanese sources, checked against maker rosters and confirmed with the workshops where possible.

Read them on the craftsmen page.

Japan's knife makers cluster in a handful of historic towns. Sakai (Osaka) has a documented blade-making history running back centuries.

The makers we stock also work from Echizen and Takefu (Fukui), Sanjo (Niigata) and Tosa (Kochi). Each town keeps its own habits in forging and finishing, and Sakai's long story, checked against Japanese primary sources, is on our Sakai knife history page.