Tadafusa Kitchen Knives

Tadafusa Knives are made in Sanjo, a town well-known as “the town of blacksmiths” and for their hardware production.

Ikarashi River (called Abare-Gawa the Brutal River) is located in the center of Sanjo and during ancient times was flooded again and again. In 1625 Otani Seibei, who served as a governor’s officer of Edo-Bakufu (the government in the Edo era), visited to give aid to the poor in the area that were suffering from the constant flooding. He also invited blacksmiths to come and teach the locals how to make Japanese hand-forged nails.

In 1661, new forging techniques were introduced from the Aizu area to Sanjo, and thanks to that the blacksmiths in Sanjo began to move from just producing nails to specialising in making sickles, saws, and kitchen knives.

With an increase in the number of blacksmiths in the area, merchants then gradually appeared to deal with the hardware products made in Sanjo. They used rivers such as the Igarashi River and the Shinano River (the longest river in Japan) to expand their business area and as a result, they contributed in making Sanjo well-known as “the town of blacksmiths” throughout the country.

In 1948, Sone Torasaburo started Tadafusa and made various kinds of knives such as sickles, short swords and kitchen knives by using the forging techniques he learned as an apprentice making hand-forged metal scales. He gradually started to specialise in making fishing knives and then also after addressing a need began to create kitchen knives for home and professional use.



Since the company’s foundation, Tadafusa have strived to continue creating “the best products” by hand for their customers through every single process and to make each knife with their total and utmost enthusiasm.

Their products have won various prizes, such as the Good-Design Award and the  Good Design Award of Small and Medium Enterprise, because they have continued making great efforts to create hand-forged knives that customers really desire with the demands of the present day.

From now on, Tadafusa promise to keep creating knives with great high-quality to meet customers requests and the needs of the current age. And like fighting against the disasters of the Ikarashi River, they will continue to promote “Sanjo as the Town of Blacksmiths” to the world through their products.

Tadafusa have two types of kitchen knives - Bocho Kobo (Japanese Style) and Hocho Kobo (European Style).

View both these styles and ranges here...