Nojiyama Marunaka Kurouchi Nakiri 240mm Stainless Tang

Here we have if not an industrial-grade, certainly an agricultural-grade nakiri. Ever encountered a cabbage that was too big for your everyday nakiri to handle? A watermelon that you struggled with? This nakiri has the length for them.

In fact the length of this knife has a particular purpose. It serves as a measure for leeks, or negi as we say in Japanese. Measure your leek against the blade, cut to length, and you can be assured your vegetable sits in your JA box perfectly.

One thing we particularly like about this and other selected knives by Nakamura Hamono is the stainless tang. With years of use, hard-working Japanese knives with wa handles can be prone to rust inside the handle. It's difficult to detect. Handles do come away from blades - it's not common, but not unheard of.

A stainless tang makes this an unlikely scenario. Look at our photos above and you'll see a distinct material line above the choil. Skilled smithing.

We've been asked why these products are branded 'Nojiyama Marunaka' and not simply 'Nakamura Hamono'. Here's a quick rundown.

Nakamura Hamono is the name of the company, Nojiyama Marunaka is the name of the shop and the brand of all the edge tools the company produces. Nojiyama is the name of very small regional area (almost the equivalent of the crest of a hill) where the shop was established around 100 years ago and where the family still lives. At the time the business started there were around ten other smiths in the immediate area, some of whom were probably also named Nakamura, and shorthand identifiers were used, much like nicknames in English. So Marunaka (Nakamura's 'Naka' kanji character 中 inside a circle/maru) was used to identify Nakamura san's business and products.

The strategy is still working, we represent two companies called Nakamura Hamono and it's nice to know at a glance who the orders have come in for.