Experiences / Shopping
Choosing a Japanese kitchen knife
和包丁を選ぶ わぼうちょうをえらぶ
Craft · Shopping · High-end
A proper knife shop — Tsukiji's Masamoto or Aritsugu, Nihonbashi's Kiya, Kappabashi's Kamata — will ask what you cook, put three knives in your hand, explain carbon against stainless and single bevel against double, sharpen the one you choose and engrave your name on it while you wait. A good gyuto lasts thirty years. Pack it in checked luggage; the shop will wrap it for the flight.
- How to arrange it
- Go on a weekday morning with a rough idea of what you cook and how much you will spend; bring cash.
- Price band
- ¥¥¥
- Allow
- 60 min
- Where
- Tsukiji & Toyosu, Nihonbashi, Asakusa
Where to book it
Asakusa
Kama-asa Shoten
釜浅商店
¥¥¥ · 30 min · English: yes
A Kappabashi tool-street specialist rather than a general kitchenware chain, Kama-asa pairs its knife wall with staff who can explain steel type, single- versus double-bevel grinds and maintenance in fluent English. It is one of the few Kappabashi shops with its own storefronts abroad, which keeps its English service genuinely practiced rather than incidental.
Tsukiji & Toyosu
Tsukiji Masamoto
築地正本
¥¥¥ · 30 min · English: no
Operating in the Tsukiji Outer Market since 1931 with roots stretching back to the late Edo period, Masamoto is one of the two or three names professional chefs actually shop at rather than a souvenir-oriented storefront. Staff will talk a buyer through blade steel, grind and the right knife for their own kitchen before a sale is made.
Named operators, each verified against its official site. We list the booking route and whether English is spoken; hours and prices live on the official site. All operators
Places
Tsukiji Outer Market築地場外市場
Four hundred shops that fed the fish market and stayed when it left — the best breakfast in Tokyo, eaten standing at seven.
120 min · Tsukiji (Hibiya line), exit 1, 1 minute; Tsukijishijo (Oedo line), A1
The old shops of Nihonbashi日本橋の老舗
One thing, made for centuries — knives, chopsticks, seaweed, dried bonito, paper, brushes, all within four blocks.
90 min · Mitsukoshimae (Ginza / Hanzomon lines)
Kappabashi kitchen streetかっぱ橋道具街
Eight hundred metres of restaurant supply — knives, lacquer, ceramics, and the plastic food in every window in Japan.
90 min · Tawaramachi (Ginza line), 5 minutes; or walk 10 minutes west from Sensoji