Sorry, long reply...
I totally get the fact that no master will want to put his name on something that is beyond what he thinks is reasonable, lest damaging his reputation. But I won't really mind if he left the knife just blank, I just thought this might be something interesting as a one-off.
I don't care for a Kataba is because I want a general purpose knife and with my Shun Usuba, each time I split a carrot or cucumber, I have to remember to give it a slight twist to keep the cut straight, don't care to do that. Maybe my knife skill sucks... I bought it to try out a Kataba and that blade is gorgeous and it was on sale for $110. I lean towards the Chinese cutting way, one knife to do all... except bones of course so my Kataba experiment failed. Honestly speaking... I love sushi but I don't think I can tell the difference if that piece of tuna was cut by a Kataba or a Ryoba, especially after a few glasses of sake.
The purpose for me is to get a taller blade than the Santoku, nice food release on the right side, nice and smooth on the left side for my knuckles and a nice D or Oval handle. Because I am cooking less as the kids are out of the house, I don't have the nice callus on my left middle finger knuckle anymore so I would prefer something nice and smooth.
Maybe I will just buy the Shun Premier Sumo Santoku but I am not big on the curved handle and the VG material and I don't care for all those swirls and layering look. The blade is $229 on Amazon so if I can't get attached to it, that would suck. I prefer Aogami of sort and the feel and sound of the blade to the cutting board is more appealing to me... strange but it is what it is. I will get my Masakage Koishi Santoku soon and see how I like the KU finish... Maybe the rough KU finish will help build up the callus.