Santoku Bōchō (三徳包丁, さんとく)
Western Style
Fish, Vegetables
130mm to 200mm
What is a Santoku Knife?
The Santoku Knife – written in Japanese as 三徳包丁 (さんとく) and pronounced as Santoku Bōchō. It’s a western-style Japanese kitchen knife, typically measuring 130mm to 200mm in length. In this case, we recommend around 165mm as the most suitable size. This knife is best used for fish and vegetables. The Santoku is a versatile Japanese knife, famous for the translation of its name, “three virtues.” These three virtues refer to the Santoku’s versatility in use for chopping, slicing, and dicing, or the primary ingredients it can cut: fish, meat, and vegetables.
The Santoku is characterized by its straight cutting edge and wide sheepsfoot blade, with the spine curving downwards to reach its rounded point. The flat profile of the Santoku is well suited for tap-chopping or push-cutting techniques, but the absence of a curve on its straight-edged front blade does not allow for a rocking motion. The Santoku is typically a single bevel knife, although double bevel knives are becoming common due to the Santoku’s rising popularity in the Western world.
The Santoku is the most popular knife in Japan and can be found in almost every household. It is often recommended as a more compact Japanese alternative to the classic Western chef’s knife, or Gyuto. Compared to the classic Western chef’s knife, the Santoku is shorter, lighter, thinner, and uses harder steel.
Santoku knives first appeared in Japan after WWII in the mid-20th century. They were designed as a home cook’s alternative to the Nakiri, a traditional Japanese vegetable cleaver. By retaining the Nakiri’s tall height and straight cutting edge but adding a slight downward curve from the spine to the rounded tip, the Santoku steadily became the most popular knife in Japanese homes as a nimble and compact all-rounder knife.
What does Santoku mean?
Literally translated, “Santoku” in Japanese means “three virtues,” referring to its versatility. The three virtues represent its multiple uses of slicing, dicing, and chopping, or alternatively, the various types of produce it is designed to handle: meat, fish, and vegetables.
The Santoku’s multi-purpose nature often leads it to be compared with a Western chef’s knife or the Gyuto. However, Santoku’s history dates back to the mid-20th century when it first appeared as a home cook’s alternative to the Nakiri, a traditional Japanese vegetable cleaver. Taking inspiration from the Nakiri’s tall blade height and straight cutting edge, the Santoku design added a downward curve of the spine toward the straight edge to form a “sheepsfoot” tip, and thus the popular multi-use Santoku was born.
What is a Santoku knife best for?
True to its name, the Santoku knife is best for chopping, dicing, and mincing food such as meat, fish, and vegetables. The sharp, thin blade combined with the Santoku’s straight cutting edge makes it the ideal tool for executing swift clean cuts in an up-and-down motion or using a tap-chop or a push-cut.
The tall and flat profile of the Santoku is complemented by the thin and sharp sheepsfoot blade, and excels at easily creating thin slices of meat, seafood, cheese, fruits, and vegetables. The wide blade is handy for scooping food off the cutting board.
Like other traditional Japanese knives, the Santoku is originally a single bevel knife, which makes it an ideal tool for achieving clean cuts that preserve the natural freshness, flavor, and texture of the food as only the cutting edge of the blade touches the food. Nowadays, the Santoku is also widely available in double bevel versions, but maintains the signature sharp edge of Japanese knives as the blade is ground at a much more acute angle (usually 10-15 degrees) than a Western chef’s knife.
Because the Santoku knife is usually shorter in length compared to a Western chef’s knife, it is considerably lighter and easier to handle—especially for those with small hands.
Santoku knife characteristics
The Santoku is relatively shorter than a standard Western chef’s knife, with most blade lengths falling between 130-200mm in length—about the length of an average adult’s hand. Its compact length, combined with the thinness of the blade makes the Santoku smaller and lighter than a chef’s knife, making it an ideal choice for those with smaller hands or for minimizing fatigue and strain when using the knife for extensive periods.
165mm is recommended as the most suitable blade length for home cooks and professionals alike as it is a sufficient and comfortable size for handling most types of produce while keeping the knife compact and easy to wield.
Based on its original inspiration from the Japanese vegetable cleaver Nakiri, the Santoku is characterized by a flatter cutting edge that is nearly straight from heel to tip. A gentle downward curved spine leads to its rounded point, and gives the Santoku its signature sheepsfoot blade shape. The thin blade may feature grantons (also called hollows, dimples, or scallops) along the length of the blade to reduce friction and help easily release the food from the knife when dicing and slicing.
The flat profile of the Santoku makes it great for a swift downward chop and well-suited for tap-chopping or push-cutting techniques, but the absence of a curve on its straight-edged front blade does not allow for a rock-cutting motion. While many Western chefs are trained to use the rock-cutting method, the Santoku way of cutting is faster and more efficient.
Because the traditional Japanese diet consisted mainly of fish and softer vegetables in the past, Santoku knives were designed with thinner blades and a lighter weight to achieve more delicate cuts, prioritizing finesse rather than the overall power of a knife. The modern-day Santoku incorporates a thin blade and is lighter in weight, but don’t be fooled—the Santoku is a capable multi-use knife and is, in fact, the favored all-rounder knife used in lieu of a Western chef’s knife in many Japanese homes. It’s said that almost every Japanese home has a Santoku.
Traditionally, Santoku knives feature a single bevel blade, making the edge extremely sharp and perfect for creating extremely thin slices of food which is essential for many Japanese dishes. While single bevel blades naturally tend to be sharper than a double bevel blade, they require more skills in order to master the natural steer of the asymmetrical blade. Right-handed Santokus tend to pull to the left, while left-handed Santokus tend to veer to the right, so significant skill is required to cut straight down with a single bevel knife.
The Santoku is now also widely available with a double bevel blade but maintains the signature sharp edge of Japanese knives as the blade is ground at a much more acute angle (10-15 degrees) than those of a Western chef’s knife. The double bevel Santoku is also ambidextrous, allowing use for both left-handed and right-handed users.
What are common variants of Santoku knives?
With many Japanese and Western knife manufacturers offering their own take on the classic Santoku knife, there are slight variations in the design of the edge among different brands. It is common to see knives that do not follow the traditionally flat profile of the Santoku, instead giving it a more rounded belly to allow for the rock-chopping motion that is a popular cutting technique in the Western culinary world.
Alternatively, a Japanese variant of the traditional Santoku knife is the Bunka, also called the Bunka Bōchō.
Bunka Bōchō (文化包丁)
The Bunka is very similar to the Santoku as a multi-purpose knife that can be used for slicing, dicing, or mincing meats, fish, and vegetables. However, unlike the curve of the spine on the sheepsfoot blade and the rounded point of a Santoku, the Bunka is much more angular and features a straight, sloping spine and an angled ‘reverse tanto’ tip. The sharp point of the Bunka makes doing precision work such as brunoise on vegetables much easier.
What size Santoku knife should I buy?
We recommend the most popular 165mm blade length as the best size for a Santoku knife. To help make your decision, you should consider factors such as the size of your workspace, the size of your hand, and the size of your most commonly used ingredients or produce.