SUKENARI” was founded in the year 1933 by Master Hanaki Toukichi after working for the famous Japanese sushi chef knife maker Masamoto, where he mastered the traditional methods of forging and knife making.
Sukenari are located in Toyama prefecture (Central Japan) and their knives are popular and well known by the professional Japanese chefs in this area.
Sukenari’s business style is very practical and very proactive, which is impressive and refreshing. Apart from producing their own knives, they also market and sell them directly to Japanese chefs (They regularly visit to restaurants in order to show off their products and allow their potential customers to test them).
One important advantage of using this sales strategy, is that it allows Sukenari to receive valuable feedback directly from their customers and respond to it quickly. They always carefully consider customer feedback and use it to improve the quality of their products. This process of iterative product refinement has been ongoing since they started their business, over 80 years ago.
Sukenari is currently run by the second generation, third generation and fourth generation of smiths descended from Master Hanaki Toukichi. They are experienced craftsmen who work with the same proactive attitude as their ancestors, so that they can preserve the traditional Japanese methods of knife forging and knife making. However, Sukenari never forgets innovate; For example, they are eager to use new and exciting steels such as ZDP-189, HAP-40, Cobalt Special, Aogami Super, R-2 and Super X because this enable them make a wide variety of traditionally forged Japanese knives that have sensational performance and practicality.
We are glad to be able to introduce another fine Japanese forge-smith and their innovative traditional Japanese knives to our customers.
