Sakai Uchihamono

The professional's knife

It is said that most knives used by professional Japanese chefs are Sakai knives. There is a knife for every task, and all share a keenly sharpened edge. They are made in Sakai and Osaka city in Osaka.

Soft iron, hard steel

• Very soft jigane iron is forge-welded to hagane, a steel rich in carbon.
• The blade is quenched so the steel becomes a hard edge, while the soft iron backs it up.
• Joined this way, the blade neither breaks nor bends, and it cuts well.
• Sharpening is its own skill: specialists grind blades on large wheels over 90 cm across.

From tobacco to deba

In the mid-16th century the Portuguese brought guns and tobacco to Japan. By the late 16th century Sakai was making tobacco knives to cut the leaves, and the Tokugawa shogunate granted Sakai a gokuin quality seal and a sales monopoly, which spread its fame nationwide. The deba knife appeared in the mid-Edo period, followed by many other kinds.