The world over, kitchen knives are used daily be almost every household. They transcend cultures, cuisines and continents and are one of the most striking universal symbols of cooking and food preparation. Given this, one might expect a little more diversity in the design of kitchen knives in different countries, but in reality the styling is often dominated by the established French, British and German knife forgers. The west has solid metal, single piece steel knives that can be popular, but not always as good as the traditional designs.
However, there is one country that has single handedly produced some of the most uniquely designed categories of kitchen knives, which has evolved to suit their cuisine more accurately. Japan seems to be the only country that has developed its own approach to designing kitchen knives, which is largely themed around the need to slice raw fish finely and chop raw vegetables very quickly.
Chef Knife
The sushi knife, which is still rarely seen outside of Japan has been designed to slice through raw fish (or other sealife!) so finely and without sticking to the blade, is designed with a degree of scalloping on it to prevent the air-tight suction seal that is often found on knife surfaces that are entirely smooth.
The Santoku knife, on the other hand, bears a little more similarity to the Western chef's knife, although it too can have some scalloping on it. Where this knife - the santoku - differs, however, is the styling and finishing of the actual knife edge itself. Instead of being rounded off at the tip to allow for a rounding knife cutting action, it is almost flat all along the edge of the blade. Whilst this makes it very difficult to imitate western-style chopping actions (where the tip of the knife tends to stay on the chopping board), it is very well suited to the slightly different way of chopping in Japan. The whole Santoku knife literally lifts horizontally off the chopping surface and comes back down, which gives an even chopping line all along whatever is being cut.
So, having established that the design makes these knives so special, it is important to also consider the build quality and finesse that goes into forging the blades. Since the feudal ages - and probably beyond - Japan has been infamous for their swords. This tradition - however it started - gave rise to a large number of blacksmiths forging blades and folding steel to make them as strong as possible. Of course, this original tradition has subsided somewhat as we are in the age of enlightenment, but the history has remained.
There are nowhere near as many forgers as there were two hundred years ago, but those that are left are making some of the finest - and sharpest - kitchen knives known to man. Combined with exquisite and carefully simplistic design, the Japanese kitchen knife truly is a thing to behold.