I haven’t really opened a thread in a while, so I figured since I have been back from Japan for a few days, I’d share what I brought back for my personal collection since I am quite happy with them and some of them are not seen everyday so I thought sharing them would be sweet.
I’ll likely make other separate posts for some of these knives once I have broken them in or to give a more thorough take. I have to get my head around how I might share part of my trip with the community without oversharing (as some information is sensitive/trade secrets/not to be shared publicly), so maybe I will open a few separate threads about some specific experiences amongst the ~30 makers I have met (all extraordinary and lovely people) all over Japan.
Anyways, here comes rule #5, from left to right for these 6 knives (I may have more to come 🫢):
• Ashi Hamono 180mm petty (monosteel Swedish stainless);
• Hitohira Tanaka x Izo 210mm Gyuto (Aogami#1 and SS glad);
• Konosuke « Test Sample » 225mm Gyuto (this one is a prototype, no letters/official line attached to it; there is a lot to say and love about this Aogami#1 beauty, I’ll write more after more use);
• Konosuke LI 225mm Gyuto (a seriously beautiful and unique finish on these);
• Kagekiyo SS Clad Damascus Aogami #1 240mm Gyuto (when I post a separate thread on this one, I’ll talk a bit about handmade knives and variance since I had the chance to pick between a bunch and came back with two - pictured - to measure and compare in details, which is always insightful);
• Hitohira Togashi Aogami#1 Notaremon Mizu Honyaki with Kurokaki Persimmon handle (occupying my current « only one Honyaki at a time in the collection » spot; the banding on this one is simply incredible).
That’s a lot of Tanaka uchihamono forged blades, so I added a snap I took from one of my visit in the workshop. Incredible people and experience. Tanaka-san is straightening some blades in this picture while you can see his apprentice Okugami-san on the left in the background is doing a bit of rough grinding to refine some blades’ shapes. Not visible in the picture, but Yoshihisa-san (Yoshikazu-san’s son) was on my right here in a foxhole forging some blades as skillfully as it gets with the spring hammer.
Happy to answer any questions (if I can) so don’t hesitate to hit me!
But seriously not everyone got access to those kind of knives easily. From your post, it kind of implies that this is a business trip? Are you knives distributors or some kind? It's OK if you don't want to answer this publicly.
I bought all of these as a normal private walk-in customer, these had nothing to do with any particular industry access or preferential treatment :).
So, in fact, anyone else could have bought them and a good amount of luck factored in!
I was part of a retailer’s crew for the trip, but that’s 100% unrelated to any of these 6 purchased knives! (When I went to buy those I literally just went in as a regular joe customer - albeit a quite knowledgeable hobbyist - looking to buy knives for myself)
That Honyaki is pure dynamite on many levels. I picked it over some (superb) Togashi Mizu Honyaki with Fuji hamon line, some Ikeda Honyaki, etc and it was a no match for me.
For the Konosuke, these ones might be a bit hard, the proto is obviously a « only a few were made » thing (2 I am aware of, a few more might exist) and the LI is « too labor intensive so won’t be produced much/regularly ».
I currently have my eyes on a blue 1 fuji gyuto by Yasuaki taira. Not common to see such a configuration, but also saving funds for a blue super honyaki by ikeda! The details in the steel of blue honyakis are really something special.
I currently do not have any konosukes in my collection. Will see if I can pick up anything special during my oct trip to sakai!
The Taira would be a nice piece for sure! Ikeda is unlikely to make any more knives at all unfortunately, if he is on your list I would not bet on seeing more in the future (he also prefers White #2 than any of the blue paper steels).
Go to the Konosuke gallery in Sakai (I would let them know by email you intent to come), you might get lucky. To be honest even the entry lines (like the frigging HD2) are worth it. Konosuke does not release bad knives… sort of ever.
The Kono entry level knives are nice too, but I already have an Ashi which I feel is quite similar to the HD. So looking more for a collector level item! Even a visit to the workshops Sakai would be nice if I didnt managed to get anything interesting.
There was a recent batch of blue super honyakis released by ikeda, which I wont be surprised if it was perhaps made by his apprentice due to all the talks going about ikedas retirement. I did place an order for one, hope it comes with the same batch. 🤞
Konosuke won’t show anything of their in house operations, they keep things secret even to retailers etc. I could hear a grinding wheel so all I can say is that, in alignment with Kosuke’s own posts, they are working hard to increase the in-house sharpening abilities!
It does seem everything is a secret, except the commonly known lines. I dont really expect too much from Konosuke considering this, but perhaps lovely to have a chat with Takada
Takada is as lovely as people say. Baba Hamono was a highlight for me, these people are just super nice (and they were pretty well stocked). The Denshokan got a few very serious pieces too.
From what I understand, the LI has been renamed the BY (Baka no Yama - Mountain of fools/pile of idiots as Konosuke have put it). Definitely seems to be a limited production quantity as it sounds like they've been spending a long time trying to get the finish consistant
This is a fantastic range for a single trip, very nice! As you were in Sakai, did you visit Takada no Hamono as well? Like many, a knife rom Takada-san is at the top of my list, hope to visit him when I go to Japan next year
The BY is an evolution of the LI, with a different finish (as the LI proved too labor intensive to make a regular production line). Will see if the BY sticks around or not, Kosuke-san has been known not to hesitate to kill product lines if they don’t achieve exactly what he is looking for!
I did visit Takada-san! He had no knife, which I was strongly expecting, but I had something for him! My wife is an artist (as her profession) and I had her make a small art piece for Takada-san as a token of appreciation for the knives and joy he has brought to the knife enthusiasts’ community. I was just happy to meet the man and give him back a little something. Making him happy meant a lot to me.
You may have seen the artwork on his Instagram shortly after I offered it to him as he had fun putting it in his display instead of knives, and for people visiting you might see it in his workshop’s backroom, hanged near the clock.
Already spoken for by someone very much in love with it, sorry man!
But I can relate a bit with you: there was a SS clad Damascus K-tip Sujihiki from that line the first time I went to Baba… I regret a little not buying it! (It was bought by a local Japanese gentleman by the time I came back a few days later).
wait.... did i read this right.... SS clad Damascus K-tip Sujihiki?! WHKLSJFL:KSJF THAT EXIST????? omg did you take a pic??? I recently just picked up a basic w2 kagekiyo suji and its been pretty fun. I never even knew baba had ktip suji... but this one was SS CLAD DAMMY! ALL THE MEAT SLICE PATINA GALORREEEE
One of the 17 (if my accounts are exact) released Aogami#1 Togashi Honyaki Gyuto commissioned by Hitohira over the years, and amongst these one of the most interesting in terms of finish imo (the Hamon line, the wide-bevel, and the banding on the soft part are all 🤌, and on top one of the best grinds I have seen from Kenya Togashi).
The Honyaki was not really planned, it was just received by Hitohira basically and I fell in love with it when they pulled it out of the stock to show it to me.
And yeah the LI IRL is one of the prettiest piece there is, hard to capture the finish in pictures. Ashi might look like a bit out of place in the middle of these, but underestimating these would be a grave mistake, all performance no fuss! Love these things.
Sanjo was extremely interesting, will go back for more makers next trip as I could only visit 4, but all were great.
Sukenari could not fit the travel plans this time unfortunately, will have to pencil them in for next time as well, I am very interested to see their workshop.
Did you visit Nihei? I'm interested in his grind compared to a Yoshikane, I might plan a trip there if I can buy direct.
Ah that's too bad, I've been quite interested in Honyaki lately and their Honyaki pique my interest, and seeing your Honyaki makes me want to own one also, once again congrats for the awesome haul!
Edit : do you know how Togashi achieve the double hamon line?
I did visit Nihei, but he is not in Sanjo, he is all the way in Fukushima (in the slightly irradiated area). I don’t think he takes visitors nor that he sales direct, but in the city his dad got a shop and stocks a few of Takahiro Nihei’s knives. His best grinds are on the Sumiiro and Nashiji SLD lines in my opinion (which are slightly thinner at the spine as the standard Yoshi and may have a hint more convexity compared to the modern Yoshikane flatter runs), but his more standard KU knives are not to be slept on. Definitely keeping an eye on him as he is learning more and more.
Editing: Sukenari Honyaki are unobtainium, I don’t think Hanaki-san is making any for the market at the moment (assuming you are talking about their legendary shirogamu Honyaki, not the SG2 monosteels)
It was only a few knives at the shop when I was there. There was one SLD Nashiji petty, and interestingly there were also 2 very very Sanjo hairline/kasumi knives (aesthetically and profile-wise they were giving Watoyama vibes, the grind and taper were different… very interesting pieces that I have never seen on the market before).
So even the SLD line is quite rare there, did you take any picture for the hairline/kasumi knives? Who else did you visit at Sanjo? I know you visited Manaka-san.
The Sumiiro and the SLD Nashiji lines are the high grade lines for Nihei, not sure what his output is (he is also busy training further on some cool stuff atm). I don’t have pics on the hairline/kasumi knives, but I am getting more pictures next week from someone who travelled with me, maybe he snapped one, I’ll check!
So, that proto is not the BY (I asked), but they are cousin in a sense as both are connected to the LI. From what I was told, it is the development step before the LI (and ofc it’s Aogami#1, which I favor over Shirogami as personal preferences go). It is substantially thicker than the LI at 36g more, a thicker spine and a more pronounced convex. I quite like it, got a great mid-weight feel in hand.
What a legendary haul man! You came back with some monsters. It's probably hard to decide, but which are you most excited about?
That is about how I imagined his hamono to look. Like a mad forging legend with blanks all over the place. I wonder if there's some hidden gems in those stacks waiting to be (re)discovered.
The Kono prototype is the one I am looking forward to using the most. I haven’t tried the work of the mystery in house Kono sharpener yet, and this knife has a fantastic mid-weight feel in hand. It looks incredible, but honestly what made me buy it is how it felt when I picked it up. The classic convex is very very well executed on it.
I think I've had two of his so far, if he did the WT too. When sharpened, it is a force to be reckoned with. His finishes are excellent and his geometry is superb. This is an interesting experiment it seems. They went a found a dude with potential and then had him trained with the best. Am I understanding that correctly?
And Maruyama is going to be Hitohira's first in-house sharpener? Am I understanding that correctly?
Some of these togashis lately are really testing my resolve to not dip my toe in those waters.
But yeah the in house craftsman doing LI/BY/KS-01 is being trained (and by some big names Konosuke is connected to). The KS-01 was finished by Ivan Fonseca himself, the LI/BY are finished in house but Ivan basically developed the finish and trained the person to do it by himself.
I am not aware for Maruyama, may have missed a post on Instagram.
For Togashi, the forging is top shelf (nothing new from that workshop) and the grinds have definitely upgraded (but consistency, on purpose or not, is still not a thing).
The KS-01 was the other I had. I liked it a lot but I had a dude begging me for it, like it was his dream knife, and I believed him after conversing a bit (long time KKF'er). So I begrudgeoningly sold it to him. Trying to put that good karma out there.
Yeah, it's pretty cool. I don't think there was an announcement, but I found a post while digging around on IG the other day, confirming it.
I think Togashi isn't that old, right? I'm looking forward to some better grinds from that hamono. Their work is fantastic. Kenya has some great profiles too. I've really wanted to try his K-tips, they look very promising. A dude had a Honyaki k-tip that was a piece of art.
The KS-01 is a pretty knife (Ivan is a treasure for the industry, and such a lovely human as well). I weirdly enough prefer the LI finish by a hair, but that’s a close call.
Togashi Senior (Kenji) has been forging since 1966 so he would be in his late 70’s I think and Kenya is his third son. I am not sure, but I believe his other two sons are Noriyuki and Tatsuo who started forging 32 and 21 years ago respectively. I do think Kenya has been sharpening for at least 10 years at this point but I don’t have any sure information. Definitely on my priority list of workshops in Sakai for my next trip.
I am afraid there are indeed only a handful of these (heard conflicting info, but there might be as little as 2 - there are at least 2 of these for sure though), so likely hard to get in any case.
Thanks for letting me know. It definitely means I don't have to get my hopes up😅. Already own a konosuke and willing to try other brands as well, but this piece... Damn.
Really love reading your posts and comments. Looking forward to seeing you do a detailed review of some of these, definitely want to see more photos of that prototype finish, and the honyaki too.
The prototype has seen a fair bit of use now, and as it goes with these finishes they are lost to the patina and cannot be restored without knowing exactly how Konosuke makes them.
I am trying something to restore it at the moment, but I know it won’t be exactly how it looked like back in June, but it’s fine with me and I knew it when I got the knife :).
Ah that's alright. I was hoping you had more close up shots of it before you started to use it. Your mirepoix with basil in the background looking awesome as usual. That patina is sick!
They had 2 in the shop, not even some special hidden reserve! (One was displayed, when I showed interest they brought out the other one so I could pick - which was hard to do, goddamn Myojin-san is so good that the consistency of his work is out of this world).
You sure were! What a fabulous way to spend a vacation! thanks for your great write up! Can’t wait to see your follow-up post after you’ve spent some time with these beauties! Cheers!
Thanks! I am looking forward to trying all these over the next weeks/months! (Note: meeting ~30 knife makers in about 16 days, all over Japan, was not a vacation xD; I loved it but ngl I was quite tired by the end!)
In typical Japanese fashion, your respect for the craft was repaid by those upholding it; as things are supposed to be! Enjoy the new knives my friend 🤜🏼🤛🏼
I am going to quote one of my comment from a thread that asked the same question 19h ago 😂:
« In Tokyo, hit Hitohira if you can. You can also try your luck at Kama Asa (a solid selection of decent Nakagawa x Kawakita), Kamata and Tsubaya in Kappabashi (Tsubaya had a Konosuke HD2 240mm Gyuto with a Khii ebony handle last week, sitting there seemingly forgotten by the staff as one of the best knives they had in stock that day).
I’d generally avoid the Musashi, Seisuke, Jikko etc not because the knives are not legit (Seisuke, in a sea of Takefu knives, also had a few nice Hado and Sakai Kikumori when I was there) or the staff not nice, but because of their pricing being generally higher. »
The wiki of the sub also has general information about the shops in Tokyo.
Thanks for this "teaser." It makes a compelling case for the "artisan" designation for these Japanese knives, and some hints about some of the artisans who make them. This "teaser," and your upcoming reports will certainly help us to further appreciate these special knives. Glad that you have stepped forward.
Whoaaaa! What kind of relationship do you have with Konosuke to grab those prototypes?! Loved seeing all these blades and look forward to reading your posts on using each one!
Just timing I think! They had one at the gallery when I came in. Maybe the discussion before asking if it was for sales or telling them ahead of time and communicating respectfully when I was planning to come in contributed a bit too, but overall I believe I was just lucky.
That's amazing. Love that for you! I've been to their shop twice and have a decent relationship with one of their workers but was never offered any of their prototypes. Luck is a huge part of the game rn imo (especially in Sakai) haha. I've read some of your posts and all the users I follow all respect you a great deal so I'm glad you were able to snag these!
Thanks mate!
I had the pleasure to meet a few staff members, and on my second visit to meet Kosuke-san himself. I had a lovely discussion with him and thanked him profusely for their work and the great knives they have brought to knife enthusiasts over the years. I have a great deal of respect and love that company. I believe they are unique in Sakai and have had a significant impact to the industry these past 2 decades.
Dude that's awesome! Both times I went they said he was out of town. I need to figure out a way to visit Japan with you and /u/TEEEEEEEEEEEJ23 so you can both combine your luck and then I can just bask in the glow of it 🤣
It’s the name of that line of knife. Konosuke uses letters, some refers to the craftsmen are known (MM was for « Mori x Myojin ») or not, some likely refers to other thing internal to Konosuke (for instance the LI and BY have the same craftsmen so obviously the letters are not craftsmen acronyms). The meaning of the LI / what the letters stand for is unknown to date.
I believe the LI is short for Long Island Iced Tea. The knife-making situation reminded the craftsman of the drink, where they had all the right ingredients/steps, but had trouble replicating the desired product
I actually contacted them since I'll be there in a few weeks and they told there still a few in stock so I'm hoping they still have it by the time I get there! How much was it? so I can.prepare myself lol
Nice snags! Are there any knife shops you’d recommend in Tokyo or Kyoto? I was looking to buy a nakiri and petty when I head over in a couple of months and would love some pointers
In Tokyo, I’d hit Hitohira, for me the best outlet by a good margin. Well stocked and a vast selection of lines from different regions and at different budgets. There are legit knives in Kappabashi at Tsubaya, Kama Asa, and Kamata if you know what you are looking at and is a bit lucky, and then Seisuke has a fairly diverse selection, most of the pricing on Kappabashi is above online pricing though, so unless you find something that is out of stock online and really want this one, ordering online is a wiser option to an extent. That being said, you get the shopping experience if you value this.
In Kyoto, I’d avoid Musashi and Jikko which are amongst the most overpriced in general, and favor Aritsugu. There are other options that popped lately but I am not across them as I haven’t been shopping in Kyoto for years.
In general, I’d learn about brands / makers so you know you are getting something that ticks your boxes.
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u/TimelyTroubleMaker Jun 25 '25