@DoubleJJ
Alrighty, so I have one of these in my possession currently. I joked it was like a Takeda and Nashiji Tanaka had a baby. Now, I would say its more like an extra tall Yoshimi Kato- Kanehiro nashiji gyuto. The clad line is very similar. The core steel is lightly polished. The blade road has that dumb bead blast, and although the spine and choil are nicely eased, they don't have the high polish of the Yoshimi Kato. Nashiji is nearly identical, but a bit darker.
Now, my example is a full 60mm tall X 243mm long. About 4mm thick at the handle/ 3mm over the choil/ sub 2mm halfway/ sub 1mm at the tip grind; so there is some nice taper here. As with the Yoshimi Kato it is ground thin, infact the extra 10mm means a very high grind line and an extremely thin edge and almost delicate tip. Thin behind the edge gets thrown around a lot these days. This thing truly is thin.
How it's similar to Takeda, at least the older-non santoku shaped variants, is that the upper blade face actually has some light concavity. It is a pretty stunning grind.
I used it pretty heavily for a full shift today. ootb edge was very good. Zero chipping. Broke down 2 cases of airline breasts, about 20 sides of salmon, 3 tenderloin, a ribeye, and tons of veg prep. Stayed sharp throughout the day.
In comparison to the Matsubara, it is taller, more pronounced distal taper, and a much higher and better grind.
I don't want to exaggerate my pleasure but damn... If you're on the fence, do it!
Also, my experience with Craig at CKC was top notch. Hand picked me a thin and neutral grind and sent a hand written thank you note with a sticker! I'm a sucker for a sticker.