kiritsuke vs Bunka

[N7481E]

Hi, can someone with more expertise then me enlighten me. I'm trying to understand the main differences/similarities between a kiritsuke vice a bunka style blade. What are the main advantages of one over the other? Thanks!

[STPepper9]

I've always assumed Kiritsuke is generally a longer blade, maybe over 200 or 210mm.
Bunka trend to be shorter than that.
Then there's the Kengata that I have which I believe is 200mm... I generally think of it as a bunka.

[pd7077]

Traditionally, a kiritsuke is a single bevel knife with a lower tip than a yanagiba, which gives it a flatter edge profile. I think what you’re talking about is a kiritsuke tip (K-tip) gyuto, which has the same kiritsuke shaped (and lower) tip. I always viewed a bunka as a K-tip nakiri.

[Qapla']

They're quite different, though the point designs might look similar.

A kiritsuke is a single-bevel knife. (Example here.)

The term bunka-bocho is interchangeable with the term santoku in Japan, but in the US it's popular to use the former to refer to pointier variants and the latter to refer to less-pointy variants.

[STPepper9]

Good point about single bevel kiritsuke, I guess I don't pay that much attention to single bevel knives in general. The most common kiritsuke that I have seen or used have been Moritaka, which is a 50/50 grind and has been pretty popular at the restaurants I work in.

As an aside,.. I can't recall having seen any, but are there no single bevel bunkas?

[Qapla']

Good point about single bevel kiritsuke, I guess I don't pay that much attention to single bevel knives in general. The most common kiritsuke that I have seen or used have been Moritaka, which is a 50/50 grind and has been pretty popular at the restaurants I work in.

As an aside,.. I can't recall having seen any, but are there no single bevel bunkas?

I think they exist but just aren't common at all. Toyonaga makes a "general-use knife" that's effectively a single-bevel bunka, while for single-bevel santoku's CKTG has the Ishikawa line (which once included a bunka as well) and JCK has its Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan Wa-Santoku.

Hi, can someone with more expertise then me enlighten me. I'm trying to understand the main differences/similarities between a kiritsuke vice a bunka style blade. What are the main advantages of one over the other? Thanks!

If you mean bunka-bocho vis-a-vis kiritsuke-gyuto, then they refer to pretty much the same blade geometry; vendors merely prefer different terms based on the blade length. Sort of like how you don't often hear of 135mm slicers or 240mm utility-knives, even though they're the exact same blade geometry.

[lsboogy]

I have an old (early 80’s) Kikuichi white steel bunka that is 50-50 grind and a Suisin 50-50 Kiritsuke - they exist. Typically, only the head or executive chef was allowed to use kiritsuke blades, they were a cross of Usuba and yaganaki blades - good for both veg and fish, and require very good technique to use

[RamenMonster69]

200/210 mm seems to be the dividing line. I just was choosing between two knives same maker/ profile at Cutlery Tsubaya last week, the 190 mm was labelled bunkas, 210 was labelled kiritsuke, so was 240/270. Its purely subjective to the line. If they're being really technically accurate they call it a kiritsuke gyuto. But often times, even in Japan it seems single bevel kiritsukes are obscure enough they go with kiritsuke.

[N7481E]

Thanks everyone!