NAGOMI Regular Santoku 180mm

The santoku knife is Japan’s most versatile kitchen knife, and the NAGOMI Regular 180mm is one of the best entry points into Japanese kitchen knives available in South Africa today.

NAGOMI is a knife brand by Mitsuboshi Cutlery, a manufacturer with over 140 years of history based in Seki, Japan, one of the world’s most renowned cutlery producing cities. The brand was born from a collaboration between Mitsuboshi’s fifth generation president Takahisa Watanabe, a descendant of sword smiths, and his wife, whose firsthand feedback from home cooks drove the development brief. The result is a knife built to deliver professional grade sharpness in a format that is genuinely practical and easy to maintain for everyday use. Every knife is finished by hand by skilled craftsmen and inspected using precision instruments before leaving the workshop.

NAGOMI translates to “harmony” in Japanese, and that philosophy shapes the entire range. Rather than chasing extreme hardness like many contemporary Japanese knives, NAGOMI is designed to balance sharp cutting performance with resilience and ease of care. The Regular line is the core of the range, offering clean, functional design with a pakka wood western handle, flush finished rivets, and a refined profile suited to a wide range of kitchen tasks.

The santoku knife gets its name from “three virtues,” referring to its ability to handle meat, fish and vegetables equally well. At 180mm it sits in the most versatile part of the range, long enough for most prep tasks but compact and well balanced for extended use. The blade has a flat profile with a gentle curve toward the tip, making it well suited to the push cutting and chopping style most home cooks use naturally. It is an excellent choice as a first Japanese knife or as a reliable daily driver alongside more specialist blades.

Steel and Construction

The blade is ground from a single piece of 440A molybdenum stainless steel with no cladding, giving it a clean, uniform appearance from spine to edge. Rather than pursuing maximum hardness, Mitsuboshi chose 440A for its combination of corrosion resistance and toughness, then developed a proprietary heat treatment and edge finishing process to extract sharper, more lasting performance from the steel than is typical for this alloy. The edge is finished by hand by craftsmen with over 20 years of experience, with the geometry verified under precision instruments and microscopy before sign off. The pakka wood western handle is produced in house with flush polished rivets, so there is no step or ridge where the blade meets the handle.

Maintenance and Care

The NAGOMI santoku knife is one of the most approachable Japanese knives to maintain. The stainless steel construction means rust is not a concern under normal kitchen conditions. Hand wash and dry after use. The steel is purposely kept at a moderate hardness so it responds well to light maintenance including stropping on a leather strop or a few passes on a fine whetstone. For routine upkeep, occasional stropping or light sharpening on a whetstone is all that is needed to keep the edge performing well. Avoid cutting bones, frozen food or hard shelled ingredients to protect the edge.

Best for: Meat, fish, vegetables, everyday home prep

Kitchen Samurai Ease of Use Rating: Everyday All Rounder, the ideal first Japanese knife for home cooks who want genuine performance without a steep learning curve

HRC: 58

Made in Japan

Free shipping on orders over R1,500.