What's a K-Tip? Kiritsuke v.s. Bunka v.s. Hakata
If you’ve spent any time researching Japanese knives online lately, chances are you’ve heard the term “K-tip” or “reverse-tanto” thrown around in reference to knives with badass cut-off tips like kiritsukes and bunkas. So hot right now. Today, I’m gonna slice through the jargon, explain what those words really mean, and break down the differences between these knife styles.
Bunka v.s. Santoku
First, a quick history lesson. Post WWII, Japanese knife makers were focusing more on kitchen knives, less on swords. Western influence had made its way into the world of Japanese knives before, most notably with the gyuto inspired by a French chef’s knife, and it was creeping in again. Demand was growing for knives with the precise tip of a gyuto, but the manageable size of a nakiri, and thus some makers began forging tips on the short, flat vegetable chopping nakiri. This led to more versatile blades that could score, pierce, and slice meat with ease while still excelling at vegetable chopping.
These new hybrids were called ‘santoku’, meaning ‘to solve three problems’ (multipurpose, basically), or ‘bunka’, meaning ‘culture’. The name Bunka was used heavily in Japan in the 1950’s and referred to anything inspired by Western culture. American-style apartment blocks were called bunka-apartments. These names were used interchangeably for decades, but as Japanese knives gained popularity in the West, retailers and makers started to differentiate them. Over time, santokus became known as blades that curved down from spine to tip, while bunka referred to blades with aggressively slanted tips, the cooler cousin of the santoku.
Double Bevel v.s. Single Bevel Kiritsukes
If the bunka and santoku are cousins, then the kiritsuke and bunka are 3rd cousins on your step-mom’s side, twice removed. While they share some DNA, they have very different origins. The kiritsuke is a single-bevel knife, meaning it has a thick blade that’s only sharpened on one side. This is a very old way of making culinary knives, and single-bevel knives mostly show up in the world of sushi-making. I’ve heard a rumour that they’re reserved for only the head chef of high-end restaurants because they require great skill to wield. This is completely untrue. While all single-bevel knives do require more practice to use, and the kiriitsuke does feature an especially delicate tip, anyone is welcome to use them. The single-bevel kiritsuke is originally for slicing delicate terrines and the like. They’ve become popular with professional chefs in Japan, as they can perform both the delicate slicing jobs of a yanagiba, AND the vegetable work of an Usuba.
When I started at Knifewear, back in 2012, we would get the odd double-bevel kirtisuke in stock; gyuto knives with their tips cut off at dramatic angles. Pretty cool. These used to be super unusual, but around 2020-2021, we started to see more trickling into our shops. Once the online knife community got their mitts on them, they blew up in popularity, and in turn, more knifemakers started crafting them. Everybody had to have one, and for some folks, it was the only way to go. These became known as ‘kiritsuke-tip gyutos’, to differentiate them from their single-bevel predecessors, but many folks use the term kiritsuke interchangeably. Some opt for the fasterc to type ‘k-tip’, and sword-loving folks seem to prefer ‘reverse-tanto’. In the same way that we don’t abbreviate knife-maker names out of respect for them, we stick to kiritsuke or kiritsuke-tip. Some makers will call blades with kiritsuke tips kiritsuke sujihikis, kiritsuke nakiris, kiritsuke petties, etc., so it’s easy to get confused. Heck, you could call a bunka a kiritsuke santoku. Some makers do, and it turns out all of these names are pretty arbitrary. Preference generally depends on region, and what name the guy who taught you to make knives preferred.
Single-bevel kiritsukes are quite uncommon these days, so when most folks say ‘kiritsuke’, it’s pretty safe to assume they mean a gyuto with a cooler shape. Some kiritsuke gyutos feature a flatter edge than the curve of a gyuto, like that from Moritaka, but there’s no hard and fast rule. They call it what they feel like.
Finally, we have a newcomer: the hakata. While the shape itself isn’t new, it’s a hyper-local shape from the Hakata region, known for Hakata ramen. We first encountered the Hakata in 2022 by way of Haruki Miyazaki-san, who learned this shape from his mentor, Toshio Ooba-san. While the original Hakata is essentially a bunka with more attitude in the form of a slightly curved-up spine, Miyazaki-san has since branched out with our encouragement to forge longer 210mm hakatas. I wouldn’t blame anyone for calling these kiritsukes, as they look pretty similar, save for the curved spine. We’ve also seen some makers from Tsubame-Sanjo adopt the badass hakata shape and exaggerate the spine curvature, notably Mutsumi Hinoura-san and Tadafusa. I hope to see more in future, because they’re pretty rad!
So, does it matter what you call a knife? Yes and no. We always stick to the name used by the knifemaker, out of respect and ease of ordering more than anything. But if someone comes to me asking for a bunka, I’ll also show them a hakata and a kiritsuke santoku, because they’re nearly identical when it comes to function and aesthetics. If any of these shapes sound fun to you (and they are), check them out below!
