Nakiri bōchō

Nakiri bōchō (菜切り包丁, translation: knife for cutting greens) and usuba bōchō (薄刃包丁, thin knife) are Japanese-style vegetable knives. They differ from the deba bōchō in their shape, as they have a straight blade edge suitable for cutting all the way to the cutting board without the need for a horizontal pull or push. These knives are also much thinner. While the deba is a thick blade for easy cutting through thin bones, the blade is not suitable for chopping vegetables, as the thicker blade can break the vegetable slice. The nakiri and the usuba have much thinner blades. This does not help with cutting small bones in fish or meat, but is useful for cutting vegetables.

A 165mm nakiri made from hammered Damascus steel, with a wa-shiki (Japanese-style) handle

(a) Kataba edge for right hand use (b) Ryōba edge (c) Kataba edge for left hand use. (The sample knife is a debabōchō)

Nakiri bōchō are knives for home use, and sometimes have a black finished, or Kurouchi, blade. The cutting edge is angled from both sides, called ryōba in Japanese. This makes it easier to cut straight slices.

Usuba bōchō are vegetable knives used by professionals. They differ from the nakiri bōchō in the shape of the cutting edge. While the nakiri is sharpened from both sides, the usuba is sharpened only from one side, a style known as kataba in Japanese. The highest quality kataba blades have a slight depression on the flat side. This kataba style edge gives better cuts and allows for the cutting of thinner slices than the ryōba used for nakiri, but requires more skill to use. The sharpened side is usually the right side for a right-hand use of the knife, but knives sharpened on the left side are available for left-hand use. The usuba is heavier than a nakiri, although still much lighter than a deba.

See also

• Japanese kitchen knives
• List of Japanese cooking utensils
• Chef's knife