The Sakai has plainer design but better steel.
The Sakai is made of AEB-L, kept relatively soft, IIRC. Wasn't that impressed by the given heat treatment. The steel can perform much better. At a price point of $170 you may obtain far better.
Gestain uses 440A, which was a standard stainless some sixty years ago. Since, far better stainless and semi-stainless have become plenty available, without going into the range of very hard, expensive recent super-steels, whose maintenance isn't always that easy.
@ditomura Are you sure you want and need those dimples for food release? If you happen to be a right-hander, the strong asymmetry of most yo-gyutos assures an excellent food release, with their strongly convexed right face and the edge being off-centered to the left. At the same price point, you easily can find far better steel than 440A. Apart from the fact that dimples considerably reduce the life span of a knife, and make the blade far too fat behind the edge while making good thinning impossible.
I give you the example of two stainless who by far outperform both knives for much less money.
https://japanesechefsknife.com/prod...aki-basic-series-gyuto-180mm-to-270mm-4-sizes
Have the ES option and give it a good sharpening starting with a medium coarse stone following the factory edge's geometry prior to first use.
https://japanesechefsknife.com/products/kanetsugu-pro-j-series-gyuto-200mm-230mm-2-sizes
Instead of asking to choose between two suboptimal knives, I think it would be a good idea to use the questionnaire,
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/new-knife-questionnaire.63548/
and publish it as a new thread in the general directory
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/forums/the-kitchen-knife.4/
It gives us more information about what you're looking for.
