Japanese knife lexicon for searching Rakuten, Ebay.jp, etc.

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perneto

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Since the site is pretty inscrutable, I figured I'd start a reference thread with links to sellers that carry interesting stuff - saves us all some time.
Do add stores you've found too!
Lists of brands the stores carry are not exhaustive, they're just what I managed to ascertain.

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/yamakawa/
Carries Masamoto, Sakai Takayuki (including crazy stuff like a 300mm honyaki deba!)

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/houcho/
Carries Suisin Inox Honyaki, other unidentified Sakai makers

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/yminfo/
Carries Yoshikane, Tojiro, Sugimoto

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/nzshinkai/
Carries Shigefusa, Tsukiji Masamoto

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/newworldnet/
Carries Misono, Hiromoto AS, Masahiro, Masamoto

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/sugiyama/
Carries Masamoto, Misono, Aritsugu, natural stones

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/mingei/
No knives, but really fancy tableware :)

Let me know what you find!
 
Aha, my bad. Here are the Hiromotos:
http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/toyokuni/item/10000765/
Unfortunately this store doesn't ship outside of Japan, it seems.

Looking for them, I just found this other one that carries Zakuri:
http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/chokuhan/

If you can figure out how to type the kanji for Hiromoto, search will work (unlike searching in English - I think search works on the original page in Japanese and not on the English automatic translation).
This is how I found the Zakuri, searching for blue super knives:
http://global.rakuten.com/en/search?pf=&pt=&f=0&fs=0&vm=2&sm=0&st=&tl=0&k=青スーパー+両刃
 
Also, Moritaka Hamono now has a store on Rakuten through which you can buy direct with free shipping, should one feel like taking the risk..
 
Not sure how trustworthy the picture is though. The handle looks round or D-shaped, but the description says it's hexagonal.
 
I have acquired some vocabulary in lurking around too many japanese knife shops, and am sharing some it here:

Brands:
正本総本店 - Masamoto Souhonten (Kyoto store)
築地正本 - Tsukiji Masamoto (Tokyo)
堺孝行 - Sakai Takayuki
忠房 - Tadafusa
酔心 - Suisin
重房 - Shigefusa
ミソノ - Misono
有次 - Aritsugu
築地有次 - Tsukiji Aritsugu (Tokyo)


Type of knife:
洋出刃 - western deba
牛刀 - gyuto
筋引 - sujihiki
ぺティー petty
柳刃 - yanagiba
薄刃 - usuba
鎌型薄刃 - kamagata usuba
出刃 - deba
切付 - kiritsuke

白 - white
青 - blue

包丁 - kitchen knife
刃物 - knife warez

Also there are of course varying levels of quality from each brand.
From Sakai Takayuki I've seen:
霞 Kasumitogi
本霞 Hongasumi
Tsukiji Aritsugu:
別打 Betsuuchi? Betsuda?
特製 Tokusei

Hopefully I've helped someone look around Rakuten or google for various doses of knife porn & there isn't already a list of these words... If the list generates interest I will add more but with this you can browse quite a few knives, eg.

copy pasting 堺孝行 柳刃 白 should bring up yanagiba from Sakai Takayuki with some kind of white steel (a "二" or "2" in the description will probably mean white#2)
If you're in english and you want to decrypt some of the description, click on the top right corner (i'm talking about Rakuten btw) and select 日本語 as the language


Ryan
 
I just found out that it was 2 months waiting time for Masamoto Sw. It felt too good to be true that they had them in stock...
 
Thanks Ryan for sharing your work, greatly appreciated.

This week ordered a couple of unbranded 180mm white steel usuba from Houcho and will post pictures when they arrive. Any preferences for here or "show us your latest knife" thread?
 
As I said in another post, I was able to make much better use of Amazon and Japan once II did the following: I first used google to translate "chef's knife" into Japanese (it came out as 牛刀) , then I plugged it into the search box on Rakuten global and also on Amazon japan, magic ensued.

It now strikes me that if we had a post that had the Japanese for things we might all be looking for on Amazon and Japan and Rakuten, it might prove useful. To start offf, here are some I have used in some of my more recent searches (no guarantees they are right but they gave good search :) )

Gyuto = 牛刀
Misono = ミソノ
Naniwa = ナニワ研磨工業
Masahiro 正広

It would be awesome if people could add other words they have used for searches on these sites..

For example, what's the Kanji to search for a suji, a yanigiba, or a paring knife or for specific makers like Shigefusa .
 
中华包丁 = cleaver
中華包丁 = chinese cleaver/chukabocho?
 
重房作 牛刀 = Shigefusa Gyuto

霞 = Kasumi
锻地= Kitaeji


银香= Ginga (Ashi Hamono)
 
Here are a few more. Second the sticky idea. Dave & admins, I would be happy to help consolidating all the helpful contributions from the past.

本霞 = honkasumi
本焼 = honyaki
鍛造 = forged

青紙 = aogami
白紙 = shirogami
粉末ハイス鋼 = powdered high speed steel
スウェーデン鋼 = swedish steel
ステンレス鋼 = stainless steel

片刃 = single bevel
両刃 = double bevel
 
Can anyone post the kanji for left handed? As in"left handed yanagiba" or "left handed single bevel"? Many thanks!
 
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