Buying Knives in Tokyo

Greetings,

A friend will of mine will be spending about a week in Tokyo in the very near future. He is quite knowledgeable of food and its preparation in general and tools specifically. Familiar with Japanese knives but does not have an in-depth knowledge.

He is looking for some guidance on names and locations of a few high quality knife sellers in Tokyo or its vicinity, and perhaps some input on what to be looking for specifically.

A Japanese temple carpenter that I worked with a couple of years ago had some excellent tool buying advice, "Look for the tools made by those just under the artisan master class, they are too expensive. The next group a crafters make just as good tools and they don't cost as much". He was a working stiff, a master of his craft, and knew the value of his yen. I think that the same advice applies here.

TIA.

Larry

The usual suspects...Kappabashi-dori and Tsukiji Market. Masamoto Sohonten's headquarters is also in Tokyo.
Kanesoh is in Asakusa, and worth the visit. The shop is practically Edo era and the Temple grounds are nice.

ecchef said:

The usual suspects...Kappabashi-dori and Tsukiji Market. Masamoto Sohonten's headquarters is also in Tokyo.
Kanesoh is in Asakusa, and worth the visit. The shop is practically Edo era and the Temple grounds are nice.

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Don't forget Teruyasu Fujiwara. Best way to get a decent Denka is at the store and select it yourself! :bliss:

+1 TF

bennyprofane said:

+1 TF

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Thanks for the input, I'll pass the info along.

Any additional thoughts would be appreciated.

There's a little hardware store in shibuya that has some decent stuff, I managed to pick up a couple smaller kuriochi finish shigs while I was there. The shop owners name is Riko.

It's good to do your homework before you go. A lot of Japanese don't speak much English, so there may be some basic communication problems. Beyond that, I found that a lot of salespeople weren't really prepared to talk about type of steel or hardness. And for many knives, there's some mystery about who actually made them. Good luck, and let us know what you find.
Here's a blog that's a bit dated, but parts of it are still useful: http://yayasyumyums.blogspot.com/2011/08/knife-shops-in-japan-tokyo-kyoto-osaka.html

toddnmd said:

It's good to do your homework before you go. A lot of Japanese don't speak much English, so there may be some basic communication problems. Beyond that, I found that a lot of salespeople weren't really prepared to talk about type of steel or hardness. And for many knives, there's some mystery about who actually made them. Good luck, and let us know what you find.
Here's a blog that's a bit dated, but parts of it are still useful: http://yayasyumyums.blogspot.com/2011/08/knife-shops-in-japan-tokyo-kyoto-osaka.html

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Thanks, great link. I've passed all the above info on to my friend.

Hope he can keep a firm hand on his wallet.

I also went to Tower Knives in Osaka, and felt very welcome there even though I didn't buy anything, just looked at a bunch of stuff and talked knives. I believe they now have a branch in Skytree in Tokyo.