Our Best Selling Japanese Kitchen Knives for 2026

by Sakai Ichimonji February 13, 2026

2025 was a big year for Sakai Ichimonji Mitsuhide, as we added many different kinds of knives to our lineup. Going into 2026, we wanted to reflect on what did best over the last year!

While our long-time models like the G-LINE are still supporting locals and travelers alike, releasing new knives brought in a lot of new faces to see what us (and our knives) are made of!

This article is to recap some of our best sellers over 2025, as well as highlight some honorable mentions that came out later in the year so that you can make more confident purchasing decisions with our kitchen knives in 2026.

If you don't know much about our knives, that's okay - this is a great place to start, as well as our beginner guides! Infact, this article is really for the purpose of helping guide you if you're unsure, and showing some of the more popular selections from our range of over 2,000 different varieties of Japanese kitchen knife.

Table of Contents

Our Dataset
Best Selling Double-Edged Kitchen Knife: JIN Wa-Santoku
Best Selling Single-Edged Kitchen Knife: White Steel #2 Tan Kasumi Yanagiba
Best Selling Carbon Steel Kitchen Knife: White Steel #2 Gokujo Wa-Gyuto
Best Selling Stainless Steel Kitchen Knife: SWORD-FV10 Gyuto
Best Selling Japanese-style Handled Kitchen Knife: VG-10 Kiritsuke-Santoku w/ Teak Handle
Best Selling Western-style Handled Kitchen Knife: Tokko Gyuto
Honorable Mentions & New Line-Ups

Our Dataset

For this report, we are specifically using online sales data just from our global website. What we sell in-store and what we sell on our domestic websites are different, and cater for different customers with different needs.

We feel including that other data might skew this report, which is aimed towards people who are learning about us from outside of Japan. What we find people buy both inside and outside of Japan whether for the culinary market or the home use market can be very different. The results would change greatly if we factored in that data.

In some cases, a knife or series won multiple categories, so in these instances we have put the first knife that has not won a previous category.

Best Selling Double-Edged Kitchen Knife: JIN Wa-Santoku

Our best selling double-edged kitchen knife, and infact our best seller for the year our of all knives is a newcomer - our Jin Series Wa-Santoku!

Our Jin series uses SLD steel, a "semi-stainless steel" that prioritises hardness and edge retention. SLD steel is close to, but technically not stainless steel because it has over 1.2% carbon by mass, and has seen popular growth as of late. Especially in the world of double-edged kitchen knives like santoku, nakiri, and petty knives, we are seeing more requests for knives using SLD steel.

Our Jin kitchen knives use olive wood handles due to its naturally strong durability and resistance to bacteria and odors. This knife and the Jin series in general is designed more for those seeking their first kitchen knife beyond something consumer grade.

Almost all of our knives are designed for the culinary sector and perform as such, but we understand that sometimes people want something a little less daunting. While still usable professionally, we feel our Jin knives bridge the gap of beginner and pro use, as these still require some maintenance to prevent rust.

Specifically our Wa-Santoku sold more than anything else, but we do also make a Nakiri, Small-type Santoku, and Petty to complete the set. You can see those here!

Best Selling Single-Edged Kitchen Knife: White Steel #2 Tan Kasumi Yanagiba

Our best selling single-edged kitchen knife is a knife series we have stocked for many years and are very proud of - our Tan Kasumi Series Yanagiba!

This knife is a long-time favorite both overseas and domestically with some of our highest-end chef customers using it, such as chef-owner Hayashi Keisuke from Tenjinbashi O-Sakana Shokudō, who we wrote about as part of our Connecting with Taste series. What makes the Tan Kasumi series so special is the lower forging temperature used to make it. While this is more difficult for artisans to create, the end result is a kitchen knife with better edge retention and a more uniform structure than other White Steel #2 models.

White Steel #2 itself specialises in amazing cutting performance at a very reasonable price, especially when you consider this knife is fully handmade in Sakai, Osaka. You can read more about White Steel #2 in our steel article here.

While many chefs care for their kitchen knives daily, anything that makes that work a little bit easier without reducing the knife's kireaji or cutting ability is never frowned upon. Many professionals consider our Tan Kasumi series as a brilliant entry point if you are looking for a sashimi knife that is all about cost performance with slightly less maintenance requirements.

This series also comes in many other single-edged variants too, such as Kiritsuke-Yanagiba, Deba, and even Usuba knives. You can see the rest of the range here.

Best Selling Carbon Steel Kitchen Knife: White Steel #2 Gokujo Wa-Gyuto

Our best selling carbon steel knife is a fan favorite, especially amongst enthusiast communities - our Gokujo Series Wa-Gyuto!

Gokujo means "superior" in Japanese and this White Steel #2 Wa-Gyuto is our favorite expression of what superior can be. Popular online overseas and domestically as well as in-store, this fully-hand made kitchen knife from Sakai is the epitome of our cost performance focus.

Using a minimalistic yet clean design, this knife is all about the best quality we can make for the best price without compromising on what chefs need. While this knife needs care, it performs well above its price point as has always been one of our best-sellers since it released. The magnolia wood Japanese-style handle makes this easier for Japanese professionals to pick up and use, as well as anyone with culinary training who can pinch grip well. While we normally use a D-shape/chestnut handle on many of our White Steel #2 kitchen knives, but the Gokujo uses an octagonal grip for this knife so that it can be used more ambidextrously.

We tend to find many chefs and professionals seek a knife like this, as its thinness reminds them of previous knives they might be used to, only with drastically increased kireaji and edge retention.

The Gokujo comes in multiple sizes and has a matching wa-petty that you can see here. For those seeking the best set of two knives for the yen, we feel that the Gokujo Wa-Gyuto and Wa-Petty is best in class, and the statistics back that up.

Best Selling Stainless Steel Kitchen Knife: SWORD-FV10 Gyuto Chef's Knife

Our best selling stainless steel knife is the same as usual, and we fully understand why - our SWORD-FV10 Gyuto Chef's Knife!

Our entire SWORD-FV10 series is popular both domestically and abroad, designed to be an amazing series of Japanese kitchen knives for use in the home that also supports chefs professionally. This knife also fits very nicely into the hybrid of chefs who use the same knives at work and at home!

We do carry a larger range of Western-style knives than many other brands, and this is because they are popular and there is high demand for them, especially in our domestic sector as more modern chefs, international chefs, and even non-professional chefs take up an interest in cooking with high-end tools that still feel familiar.

Using our FV10 variant of VG-10 stainless steel with an indigo-blue compressed plywood handle, this kitchen knife is designed with comfort in mind while retaining high performance, good edge retention and relatively easy resharpening ability.

We make many different knives in our SWORD-FV10 series (others in this line placed as best sellers too!) and you can see how we make them from scratch here. It is possible to complete the ultimate multi-purpose set using the SWORD-FV10, with a petty, santoku, gyuto, paring, sujihiki and honesuki all available. Infact, our paring and honesuki knives were released specifically due to customer demand to expand the SWORD-FV10 lineup!

To that end, if there are knives you want to see us make, feel free to message us. We do take such requests seriously and try our best to meet them where possible.

Best Selling Japanese-Style Handled Kitchen Knife: VG-10 Kiritsuke-Santoku

Our best selling Japanese-style handled kitchen knife is another newcomer, but is one we will stock for a long time - our VG-10 Kiritsuke Santoku!

We've seen more and more requests for kiritsuke-modified products, and while we don't make many bunka, we wanted to expand into kiritsuke-santoku instead. The difference between the two is that a bunka will have a flatter blade up to the tip, where a kiritsuke-santoku will curve from earlier on, or even at the start like in this case.

This knife is special as we offer it with a teak wood handle. While these handles cost a little more, they are extremely resilient to water damage and corrosion, plus it looks stunning!

When we are asked what our best all-rounder knife is for use in the home, this kitchen knife is often the suggestion we recommend. They are incredibly light and thin which does take a bit of getting used to, but for a knife that fits the Japanese-style image many want in a high-performance yet easy-to-maintain way, we feel this is by far our best model for that.

We do also sell a couple of other knives with teak wood handles for those seeking sets, such as wa-gyuto and wa- petty knives - you can see them all here.

Best Selling Western-Style Handled Kitchen Knife: Tokko Gyuto

Our best selling Western-style handled kitchen knife is another long time favorite, and one that people come to us especially for - our Tokko Series Gyuto Chef's Knife!

Tokko Steel is not often seen these days, but we are known for it and it provides an excellent semi-stainless steel solution, making it good for kitchens where care is still needed, yet performance is also required.

With a classical plywood comfort-grip handle, these kitchen knives are again focused on cost performance and is our answer to the question "What's the best rust resistance we can get for an effective price without compromising on kireaji?"

For us, Tokko Steel is the most chromium we can confidently use before starting to see a potential diminish in cutting ability.

The Tokko series is also very popolar with domestic chefs as an easy-to-use knife with some maintenance requirements, but that performs above its price point. You can see our full range of Tokko knives here, including some models without a bolster!

Honorable Mentions And New Line-Ups

We saw the release of a few new line-ups this year designed to both support knifemaking apprentices as well as give people who are interested in entering the world of Japanese kitchen knives more options to choose from. We talked about the Jin series above, but here's some other new series we released this year below.

One of our most popular lineups in-store has been our Aya series, which uses VG-10 stainless steel. With a rosewood handle and Damascus-style finish, this knife series is great for those seeking beauty and functionality, without a price that is too steep.

Our Yoi series has also done very well as it is an extremely cost effective carbon steel knife that is still fully handmade. Using Blue Steel #2 as the steel with a hinoki (Japanese cypress) handle, this apprentice-made series performs above its price point and has a rustic feel thanks to its kurouchi finish.

Our Coreless series also launched last year and has already won awards! Using naturalized wood, this is a true evolution of what the best quality santoku can be. While not available on our webstore, it is available for sale by contacting us directly.

We are always interested in hearing what you want from us in new line-ups, or popular line-ups you want us to restock. Send us a message and feel free to talk to one of our professionals about helping you find the best Japanese kitchen knife for you!