I love to cook. I cook often. I used to use a gyutou knife. No problem for round slices of daikon,
but strip-cutting them left too many scraps.

One day I used a nakiri knife. No scraps. I was surprised how cleanly it cut. But the nakiri’s tip wasn’t sharp enough for meat. I set out to make a knife which had the advantages of of both.
That is the Kotetsu.

I use the Kotetsu name because the shape of the knife evokes the old kotetsukan ironclad ships. We pursue the essential idea that “a knife is a tool.” We make the Kotetsu with utmost devotion to sharpness and balance.

The phrase “Art over beauty” is always on our minds as we create. This means pursuing the beauty of greatest functionality. We strip the merely aesthetic, and reveal a deeper aesthetic.

“Art over beauty” guides our craft.