Tojiro 藤次郎

Who is Tojiro?

Tojiro's own company history starts in May 1953 with the founding of Fujitora Farm Equipment, making machine parts and blades for agricultural tools. Demand for fruit knives grew quickly enough that the workshop began making cooking knives too, from April 1955. The company incorporated as Fujitora Industry Co., Ltd. in March 1964, and did not take the name Tojiro Co., Ltd. until July 2015, when the maker's own history page records the corporate name changing from Fujitora Industry Co., Ltd. Tojiro's own materials describe Tsubame as a metal processing cluster going back to nail making in the early 1600s, the same district still called Tsubame Sanjo. The company still runs its factories and head office there today.

What does more than just sharpness mean at Tojiro?

Tojiro's own account of its history ties its corporate message straight back to that first stainless fruit knife in 1955, made at a time when stainless blades had a reputation for being duller than carbon steel. The maker's own site says it pursued cuttable knives in earnest from that point, through continuous improvement. It now sums the approach up as more than just sharpness: sharpness plus a knife that sits comfortably in the hand over years of use. The line we carry that traces most directly back to that pursuit is DP3, a three layer, VG10 core knife with a bolster. Tojiro's own history records a three layer bolstered series winning a Good Design Award from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in September 1980, then a Good Design and Long Life Design Award for the same series in October 1996. That is the same DP line the DP3 knives on our shelves belong to.

How does Tojiro combine an old forging method with a modern factory?

Tojiro's own about page describes clad steel, its most used material, as forged the same way a traditional Japanese sword is forged from tamahagane. What changes is the region around it: Tsubame's metal processing technology lets Tojiro press sheets of clad steel with a stamping machine rather than shape every blank by hand, and the maker's own account is candid that this is a deliberate trade, taking the quality of clad steel and pairing it with the production efficiency of modern machines. The company's own materials page sets out the steels behind what we carry: VG10, a stainless steel carrying purified cobalt that the maker rates excellent for hardness, sharpness and re-sharpening; molybdenum vanadium steel, rated excellent for durability with a long lasting sharpness the maker calls easy to maintain, but only average to re-sharpen and good rather than excellent for corrosion resistance; and powdered high speed steel, rated excellent across hardness, sharpness and durability but only fair to sharpen, which is the trade a harder, longer lasting edge asks for.

What do we carry from Tojiro?

What we have on hand runs to eleven knives across three of those steels. In VG10 there is the DP3 line: a 180mm gyuto, a 210mm or 240mm gyuto, a 165mm nakiri, a 120mm petty and a 150mm petty, a 170mm santoku and a 270mm sujihiki, all sanmai construction with a stainless clad VG10 core and a bolster. There is also a VG10 kurouchi tsuchime gyuto at 240mm, the same sanmai VG10 core under a kurouchi forged finish and a hammered tsuchime face, on a ho wood handle. In molybdenum vanadium steel there are two single bevel MV stainless yanagiba at 240mm and 270mm, sold as an entry point into single bevel sashimi knives. The step up steel is a SG2 powdered steel santoku at 170mm, a high carbon powdered core inside thirteen chrome stainless cladding. Rounding the range out is a stainless fish scaler, not a blade at all but a hand tool for taking scales off before a fish reaches the board. Browse the knife collection to see the current range alongside other makers we carry, since what is on the shelf shifts as pieces sell through. If a shape is still an open question our guide to choosing a Japanese kitchen knife can help narrow it down, and how to sharpen a Japanese knife together with our guide to whetstones cover the monthly routine Tojiro recommends.

How do you choose a first Tojiro knife, and keep it sharp?

Tojiro's own guide to its knife shapes puts the santoku at a suitable blade length of 165 to 180mm for home use, describing it as combining the good points of a chef knife and a nakiri for daily use on meat, fish and vegetables alike, which makes DP3's 170mm santoku the shape to reach for first. A petty, at 90 to 180mm, is the maker's own pick for peeling and fine work, and a gyuto for a longer, all purpose blade; Tojiro's own history of the shape notes it came into Japan in the mid eighteenth century alongside the eating of beef, so it carries a Western profile even though it is now made and used the same way as any other Japanese kitchen knife. Once you have a shape, Tojiro's own maintenance guide sets the routine: wash by hand with a soft sponge and neutral detergent, then dry it fully rather than leaving it wet. Never dry it in the microwave, and never leave it sitting in water. As a guide the maker recommends sharpening once or twice a month on a whetstone, held at roughly a 15 degree angle to the stone on a double bevel blade like the DP3 or VG10 kurouchi tsuchime range. The MV yanagiba is single bevel, so it sharpens differently, kept flat on the stone by its kiriha, the angled face of the blade, worked back and forth rather than tilted.

What marks Tojiro's work?

On the knives we carry, the tell is the construction named on the listing itself: DP3 and the VG10 kurouchi tsuchime gyuto are both sanmai, a VG10 core visible as a lighter steel sandwiched between softer stainless cladding, usually finished migaki, a polished face, on the DP3 line and left kurouchi, the black forged skin, under a hammered tsuchime face on the other. The MV yanagiba is a single bevel blade with a sandblasted kasumi finish rather than a mirror polish, the tell of an entry level single bevel knife rather than a Western double bevel shape. Tojiro's own philosophy page also names its trademark: a company seal derived from four images of Mount Fuji, which the maker's own account says has been its mark since the company's founding.