Sakai Takayuki

Who is Sakai Takayuki?

Sakai Takayuki works within one of Japan's oldest cutlery towns. Wikipedia's own entry on the city puts it simply: once known for swords, Sakai is now famous for the quality of its cutlery, and its entry on Japanese kitchen knives credits the city as the country's leading source of steel cutlery since the fourteenth century, when tobacco arrived with Portuguese traders and Sakai's smiths turned their sword making skill to tobacco knives. Sakai's own cutlery cooperative fills in more detail: stone reaping knives were already in use in the district during the mid Yayoi period, some two thousand years ago, and when the Portuguese brought firearms and tobacco to Japan in 1543, Sakai became an important centre for both. From the Tensho era, beginning 1573, Sakai smiths made tobacco cutting knives, and the Tokugawa shogunate affixed its own seal, the Sakai kokuin, to control their sale, a mark that carried the city's reputation for sharpness across the whole country. Sakai Takayuki's own thirty-three layer hammered Damascus VG10 line traces to a named workshop within that tradition: Aoki Hamono, founded in Sakai after the war and now run by the third generation of the family, each knife hand sharpened before it ships.

What marks a genuine Sakai Uchihamono blade?

Sakai's cutlery cooperative sets out the traditional craft called Sakai Uchihamono in specific terms: the blade blank is shaped by heating cutlery steel and hammer forging it, then quenched using tsuchioki, a clay placement technique, on honyaki knives, or doronuri, a clay coating technique, on other knives and scissors. The material has to be carbon steel or iron and carbon steel, the handle has to be wood and the work has to take place across Osaka City and Sakai City to carry the name. The cooperative also names the region's real hallmark as a division of skill rather than a single trade: forging (kaji) and blade edging (hazuke) are kept as separate crafts, said to give a sharpness that no other production region in the country can match. Sakai's own knife shapes lean toward a pointed drop point tip, against Edo's square tipped style further east. Sakai Takayuki's range sits across that heritage: entry steels like AUS8 and TUS aimed at a first Japanese knife, single bevel Inox and White 3 Kinse blades for fish work, and the hand forged, hand sharpened Aoki Hamono Damascus line at the top. We also carry Masutani Hamono, a family kitchen knife workshop in Echizen, Fukui, that has carried the region's centuries-old Echizen Uchihamono blade-forging tradition across four generations.

How do you choose and start using a Sakai Takayuki knife?

Start with how much maintenance you want to do. The stainless lines, Inox, AUS8, TUS and the VG10 Damascus range, hold up to a wetter kitchen and a less careful routine, while the White 3 Kinse single bevel line is carbon steel and needs drying and oiling like any other carbon blade. If you are moving on from a thick Western knife, Sakai Takayuki's own listings point AUS8 and TUS gyuto at exactly that shift: thinner blades that open up a different way of cutting, at a price that suits a student or a young cook. A single bevel deba or yanagiba asks for a different technique again: sharpen mainly the beveled face on a waterstone, use light straight strokes rather than a rocking motion and expect a steeper learning curve than a double bevel gyuto or santoku. Whichever shape you choose, keep the sharpening on a waterstone rather than a honing rod, which none of Sakai Takayuki's own care notes recommend, and wipe every blade dry after use, since even the stainless lines carry a wood handle a dishwasher will damage.

What do we carry from Sakai Takayuki?

What we have on hand runs from Sakai Takayuki's entry steels through to its hand forged Damascus line. There is the thirty-three layer hammered Damascus VG10 gyuto from the Aoki Hamono workshop in gyuto, santoku, petty and sujihiki sizes, plus a kengata k-tip gyuto in the same steel. The Ginga ZA18 Damascus gyuto and the Kurokage VG10 gyuto sit alongside it on a hammered finish. For an easier first Japanese knife there is AUS8 and TUS steel gyuto and santoku, plus plain stainless santoku and nakiri. On the single bevel side there is Inox deba in three sizes, Inox yanagiba up to 300mm and a White 3 Kinse yanagiba and deba in carbon steel. A black ceramic honing rod rounds out the range. Browse the Sakai Takayuki collection to see the current range, since what is on the shelf shifts as pieces sell through. We also carry Hatsukokoro and Nigara knives, if you want to compare a Sakai house against forges from Takefu and Hirosaki. Our guide to choosing a Japanese kitchen knife is a good next stop if you are still deciding on a shape, and how to sharpen a Japanese knife together with our guide to whetstones cover the waterstone routine Sakai Takayuki's own care notes call for.

How do you look after it?

Wash every Sakai Takayuki blade by hand and dry it rather than reaching for the dishwasher, since the wood handles on offer here do not suit a wash cycle even on the stainless lines. The White 3 Kinse carbon blades need the fuller routine: rinse and dry as you finish cutting, oil before long storage and expect the edge to discolour with use. Sharpen on a waterstone across the board; Sakai Takayuki's own care notes rule out a honing rod for these knives, and a single bevel blade only wants the beveled face worked on the stone, not both sides.