Minomo Hamono Kurouchi Bannou 140mm

The bannou-bocho is the all-rounder - the knife of ten thousand abilities, if you take the kanji characters literally. It's a general-purpose kitchen knife intended for use in the home. 

In language terms, bannou (万能) really does mean 'all-rounder'. On Japanese Google 'sports bannou' gets more than four times the hits of 'bannou knife'. So there you go. (Over here 'bannou knife' returns more results than 'santoku knife', in case you're wondering.)

We think of this particular bannou-bocho as being a suitable size for singles and couples, or as a supplementary knife for families that can handle a full family meal. The modest length is easy to handle in a workspace of any size. With giant leafy vegetables in front of you it's possible you'll want for more length in the blade, true, but occasional workarounds for those situations won't make you love this knife any less. 

Minomo Kajiya have been around a long time and currently the 8th, 9th and 10th generations are active in the business. They know their stuff. Their traditional products like this bannou are certified as dentou kougei by Kumamoto Prefecture, so you can be assured you're purchasing an honest-to-goodness handcrafted blade, forged in the traditional fashion - no shortcuts.