Nakagawa Honyaki Yanagiba 270mm

A collector’s item!!!

Satoshi Nakagawa is a relatively young blacksmith from Sakai. Even though only at 35 years old, he started at the age of 18 and for 16 years he was the apprentice of legendary Kenichi Shiraki that passed his business to him when he retired in 2015. In 2021 started under his own name and he is becoming fast one of the hottest names among Japanese artisans.

He is one of the few left mastering the craft of creating Honyaki knives which represent less than 1% of the Japanese knives production. The reason is that is a painstaking process that takes a long time and about half of the knives break during the process. It is though the closest process to traditional Katana swords making. Is therefore considered a collectible item but at the same time an amazing tool to use.

The knife is made from one piece of steel and heat treated in a way that the edge becomes extremely hard, sharp and lasting, while the spine of the knife, though the same piece of steel, is softer and protects the blade from breaking. This specific knife is made of Shirogami-3 steel, the purest of all steels, giving it an amazingly sharp edge. It’s mirror polished above the shinogi line and features a beautiful ebony handle with 2 silver spacers.

The Yanagiba (meaning willow leaf blade) is the traditional Japanese Sashimi and Nigiri knife. Used mainly to cut thin slices of fish without damaging the cells of the delicate fish protein. It can also be used for meat. The 270mm size is one of the most common for medium to big pieces of fillets.