Explainer
What Is a Kiritsuke Knife: Japanese Blade Explained
A kiritsuke is a Japanese hybrid knife built from a yanagiba and usuba, with a straight edge and angled tip. Here is how it differs from a gyuto.
Plenty of home cooks buy a kiritsuke expecting a slightly longer chef's knife, then find the blade behaves nothing like one. The reason goes back to two traditional Japanese knives that were never meant to share a job.
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A hybrid built from two traditional blades
The kiritsuke takes its shape from two older Japanese knives. The yanagiba is long and thin and built for slicing sashimi, while the usuba is a squared vegetable knife. The kiritsuke borrows the reach of the first and the flat front of the second, so one blade can move between fish and vegetables without a change of knife, as the kiritsuke knife picks in this comparison show.
The word itself means 'slit open' in Japanese, a name that points to the straight, cutting action the blade was made for.
The single-bevel original and the double-bevel models sold now
Traditionally, the kiritsuke has a single bevel, a straight edge and a flat, sword-like front end. That one-sided grind is what made it a specialist's tool, and it is the reason the knife was long reserved for experienced cooks.
Modern versions often come double-beveled, which adds versatility without changing the overall profile. For most home cooks, a double-bevel model is the practical choice, since it handles the way a Western knife does and asks for less one-sided technique.
What the blade is built to cut
The blade is the all-round option when fish and vegetables share a cutting board. Its best-known jobs fall into three groups:
- Thin, clean slices of raw fish, the work a yanagiba is known for
- Vegetable chopping in the tradition of the usuba
- Decorative cuts for dishes where presentation matters
Not simply a Japanese chef's knife
A gyuto, the usual Japanese chef's knife, has a curved belly that suits rocking through herbs and meat. The kiritsuke departs from that design: its front runs nearly straight and it finishes in an angled tip, which lends itself to push cuts and fine work with the tip. The blade also runs longer and slimmer than a chef's knife, and its edge is straighter, so the two feel different on the board even when the job looks the same.
For the technique that goes with that shape, the piece on what to cut with kiritsuke covers the foods one at a time.
Length and steel vary more than the name suggests
Kiritsuke come in a wide range of lengths, from a 210mm blade up to 330mm, so the size you want depends on how much board space you have and what you cut most often.
Steel is just as varied. Many are high-carbon blades such as blue steel or Aogami Super, while others use Damascus steel, stainless Damascus, or Damascus cladding. The best kiritsuke knife comparison lists models by blade length and steel, which is where these ranges show up in actual products.