About the Shape - A Nakiri is a vegetable knife. Underutilized in the Western kitchen, the Nakiri’s flat blade is meant for the push/pull chopping of vegetables. Since the entire flat edge of the knife kisses the cutting board at once, you won't be turning the vegetable into an accordion. Accordion vegetables are still connected like a paper doll after you're “done” cutting them. To truly understand the awesomeness of a Nakiri we recommend making onion soup your first night with the knife. The ease of chopping will blow you away.

About the Tsukasa Hinoura River Jump - Tsukasa Hinoura represents the third generation of his family‘s forging tradition. As a young craftsman, his role models were Nagashima and Shigeyoshi Iwasaki of Sanjo. They enjoy an excellent reputation in Echigo and have done a great deal to advance the knife maker’s art in Sanjo. Tsukasa Hinoura, born in 1956, works in Sanjo in Niigata Prefecture, has been practicing his trade for 33 years. His blades are known for a refined and long lived edge.

Hinoura san consciously rejects the prefabricated Damascus steel blanks, referred to as “sekisouk-ko”, commonly used in Japan. Many of the country’s knife makers and industrial manufactures that produce Damascus blades use this “instant recipe”, but neglect to make this clear to customers.

Each knife in the series “River Jump” is a one of a kind example of the Japanese knife making art. Hinoura san is among the world’s few knife makers who are skilled in the time honoured Damascus techniques involving torsion. With river jump, he has taken the method even further. By means of torsion, he combines a multi layered Damascus bar with solid mono steel bar. The result is a blade of extraordinary beauty, in which the river like flow of the Damascus surface alternates with the peace of a perfectly even surface -animated and static elements in perfect harmony.

About Tsukasa Hinoura - Tsukasa Hinoura, born in 1956, began practising his trade in 1975. His blades are known for a refined and long-lived edge. His knives are highly sought after in Japan and Europe, and will soon have the same reputation in Canada. Hinoura-san represents the third generation of his family‘s forging tradition. As a young craftsman, his role models were Nagashima and Shigeyoshi Iwasaki of Sanjo. They enjoy an excellent reputation in Echigo and have done a great deal to advance the knife maker’s art in Sanjo.

A province in the northern part of central Japan, historically named Echigo, is by no means just another knife making region. There, the art of forging looks back on 700 years of tradition. The city of Sanjo is situated in this province, in today’s Niigata prefecture. This is where the Hinoura family have been plying the blade making a trade for decades.