Santoku Vs. Gyuto: What's the Difference?

Santoku knives are the most commonly seen home-use knife in Japan, and are well-known around the world—not bad for a knife invented in the 1940s! Despite being a knife made in Japan, they are classified as a Western-style knife as manufacturing style closely resembles other Western-style knives. They are an all purpose knife designed for newcomers to cooking with a focus on ease of use.

Santoku (三徳) translates as three virtues or three paths, which has been interpreted in three different ways.

The three foods it cuts - meat, fish, and vegetables
The three knives it combines - gyuto, deba, and nakiri
The three ways it cuts - chopping, slicing, and dicing

Originally, the main kitchen knife seen in Japanese households was the nakiri, which is still sold today (see ours here). However, as Western culture entered the country during the Meiji era (1868–1912), Japan's eating habits, culture, and knife needs diversified. The chef's knife came along, but that meant needing two knives—three if you still used a deba, which you can learn more about in our "Many Kinds of Deba" article here!

What if they could just use one all-purpose knife... Blacksmiths got to work!

The nakiri and gyuto were combined near the transitional period of the Meiji to Showa eras (1926-1989), fusing Western and Japanese cultures together to make the bunka (meaning cultured or modern knife - here's one of ours as an example). The bunka was then paired with the traditional deba's curvature near the tip to create the santoku we know and use today.

The santoku did not fully replace either knife; both the nakiri and bunka are available in knife stores throughout Japan. However, the santoku is the most commonly used of the three. An easy way to remember the knife's history is via the analogy below:

The nakiri and gyuto are the grandparents
The bunka and deba are the parents
The santoku is the child

Santoku sometimes come with a kiritsuke-style pointed tip. Combining the tip of the traditional kiritsuke with the curvature of the santoku, these are known as kiritsuke-santoku. While bunka and kiritsuke-santoku are often used interchangably, they are not the same knife as they have different blade geometry.

Santoku can also come with a Japanese-style handle, known as a wa-santoku or Japanese-style santoku.

The word santoku was recognised by the Oxford English Dictionary in 2024 as a loanword into English, meaning the knife is called a santoku outside Japan too!

Because the santoku comes from the nakiri knife's framework, it shares some characteristics with it. Notably, the knife is still quite straight, with a gentle curve closer to the tip of the blade.

This means the santoku makes lots of contact with the cutting board when it cuts. It's a knife that excels at cutting vegetables, but can process other things too. After all, it is the knife of three virtues!

The main benefit of santoku is their ease of use. As a knife designed for making food in the home, its original target market was not high-end chefs, but home users and families. It's designed to be a knife that someone can use even if they're new to cooking!

Santoku are normally 180mm long, but some smiths make 165mm ones. 145mm mini-santoku also exist for those with smaller hands and as child-friendly knives.

The gyuto or Japanese-style chef's knife is a Western-style all-purpose knife designed for those who love cooking, that can be used for meat, fish, and vegetables alike! Coming from the Meiji era (1868–1912), they were the first "Western-style" knife created by Japanese blacksmiths and are commonly seen in Western cuisine restaurants in Japan.

Gyuto (牛刀) translates literally as beef sword in Japanese, but it's one of the best examples of a cultural misnomer you'll find in the Japanese language today. Eating beef was less common in the Japanese society of the past, so why would they need a knife that excels at it? The reason is because of the knife's Western origins!

Between the 6th to 18th centuries, eating certain meats in parts of Japan was sometimes prohibited - including beef. From 1981 however, Emperor Meiji lifted this ban and the Japanese government started to encourage eating meat. While this was likely to better understand Western culture, in 1872, Japanese newspapers announced that Emperor Meiji himself had eaten beef! This was a key turning point as beef consumption was gradually embraced nation-wide and closely associated with the West, same as how the Japanese word for culture (bunka) took on the symbolic meaning of modern.

Western society brought more than its food habits, though. They also brought the chef's knife – a multipurpose knife used throughout Europe.

Japanese bladesmiths saw the French-style chef's knife and modified it to make the Japanese-style chef's knife that we know today. Originally known as the kengata (sword-type), it's now known as the gyuto or Western cuisine knife when culturally translated. It's a knife made for a culture where beef was eaten, which in this case was Western cuisine!

The gyuto also has kiritsuke-tip and Japanese-style handle variants, called the kiritsuke-gyuto and wa-gyuto respectively. Some manufacturers will refer to gyuto and kiritsuke-gyuto as kengata (sword-type), but sometimes bunka and kiritsuke-santoku knives are classified as kengata too, so double check whenever you see that name.

Gyuto translates literally as beef sword, but culturally as Western cuisine knife

The gyuto knife curves all the way from base to tip, giving it superior cutting power when using push or pull slicing techniques. The curve is both long and tight - meaning this knife excels at cutting meat, while still being suitable for processing vegetables and fish provided you use the right technique.

It can cut fish and vegetables, but it's best at meat.
It can chop and dice, but it's best at slicing.

The pointed tip also means the gyuto can slice small items with finesse, such as garlic. This is one of the few knives in Japan that is also suitable for mincing and rock cutting motions.

Gyuto come in large variety of lengths, ranging from 180mm to 360mm in 300mm increments. Home users will commonly work with a 180mm or 210mm knife, whereas enthusiasts or professionals will use 210mm to 240mm ones instead. Gyuto knives are alsotall, providing them unique advantages against other 180mm knives like sujihiki or petty knives. It's easier to break down larger items with a taller blade, after all!