Shigefusa "Brands"

Am I correct that in additional to the Shigefusa knives I am accustomed to seeing (e.g., as sold by JNS), Shigefusa also sells some of its knives through one or more other distributors (e.g., Kiya), which may rebrand them, or at least sell them with a kanji different than the ones at JNS, etc.) -- but all such knives are nevertheless made by Tokifusa Iizuka (and/or his two sons, Masayuki and Yoshihide)?

Hopefully someone such as schanop or Huw can contribute something, but the only real kanji variation I've ever seen was an additional engraved character. I believe it was on Kitaeji, or the SBs, or perhaps or was Kitaeji SBs :scratchhead:. I would have thought that with Shigs being in such limited supply they would be exclusive to the brand (with the exception of the two sons). The Kasumi Gyuto and Sujihiki I own only have a faint vertical line in part of the kanji, I believe (but am not sure) it's because the engraving is done before removing the outer layers of steel, and the particular engraving is shallower. Other than that the kanji is the same so that probably doesn't count.

Kiya does sell shigefusa knives
Usually the shigefusa kanji will be on the reverse side

I don't know of any other sellers that rebrand them but that's not to say there aren't

The two variations or rebranded or specialised branded knives I have seen are from Kiya and Munemasa, not saying that there isn't any more.

Yes Kiya sells shigs with shig kanji on one side and kiya's on the other. I had a Japanese friend order me a western damascus shig from Kiya as that seemed to be the only practical way to get them. Waited about a year but eventually got it. I don't think it is practical to deal with Kiya though for Shig orders unless you speak Japanese

At the end of the day I'm going to get one, eventually, from somewhere with some money that I don't have yet ~!