Another day, another NKD, this time from Nara! 🦌

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Rule #5

Enjiki Migiwa Gyuto 240mm  
Steel: Ginsan  
Weight 190g  
Edge length: 233mm   
Heel height: 48,9mm  
Width at handle: 2,8mm  
Width at heel: 2,8mm  
Width at middle: 2,3mm  
Width 1cm from tip: 0,8mm  
  
Blacksmith: Shogo Yamatsuka  
Sharpener: Tadataka Maruyama

[Website](https://enjiki.base.shop/)[Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/enjiki.knives/)—————————

When I started doing my exploration of Sakai knifemakers, there’s a few handful that initially caught my attention more than others. By measurement of how they are marketed in the west, these are some of the more well-known brands you find on social media and in shops. Knifemakers like Konosuke, Takada No Hamono and Hado.   
  
What caught me immediately with Hado is their more structured website portfolio. There’s simply more straightforward information available with pictures, examples of shapes, sizes and a description of the craftsmen involved. To this day, I still haven’t used a Hado knife but they look stellar when I see them at the Sakai Denshokan (pretty fair prices but sold out) and Seisuke (a bit more expensive). 

When Enjiki started popping up in my social media feed, it was easy to feel hooked since Maruyama-san had already made an impression on me, making it easy to latch onto the brand and see where they’d go. I reached out in late January asking for more information about the Migiwa and Zanpa products, some of the pieces of the Migiwa had a gorgeous pattern and the Zanpa looked very interesting with its “scalloped” texture, created when ground away individually. The Zanpa specifically became a fun idea to play around with. 

Since then, I have shared a lot of messages back and forth with Maruyama-san and he even let me know in advance that the Zanpa was going to be put on sale about 2 months ago in their online shop, but that the shipping and taxes were a bit pricey and sadly outside of his control. Given I already had plans to swing by Nara, I simply told him I would visit in-person and take a look at the Zanpa, to which he immediately said he looked forward to my visit and that he’d make sure to keep at least one Zanpa in stock for me. 

Prior to my visit, I started having some doubts about the Zanpa. Due to supply issues from Nakagawa and Yamatsuka, Enjiki had moved away from using Ginsan for the Zanpa and replaced it with SG2, which is an excellent steel but not what I was looking for. 

Last Friday I rolled up to Nara station, it was an absolutely boiling day and briefly visited their shop right next to the station. It’s a cute, smaller shop staffed by one woman who was very kind and gave me a Enjiki branded fan when I said I was going to take the 15 minute walk down the road to see Maruyama-san. After sweating a whole lot more than I’d care to do on my vacation from regular walking, I was face to face with Maruyama-san and his assistant in their workshop/store location. 

Maruyama-san is not an experienced English speaker, but he makes up for that with being extremely proactive in speaking through Google Translate and making sure to engage in the entire conversation. Thankfully, being a good communicator doesn’t go hand-in-hand with mastery of the English language

After inspecting the Zanpa, I mentioned to him that SG2 is not something that I felt very drawn to and instead I asked if he had any Gyutos forged by Yamatsuka. Immediately he went and picked up a handful of Migiwa Gyutos that were sitting in a drawer and allowed me to inspect them. The initial knife he presented turned out to have the most interesting pattern and the fit&finish across all of them was very comparable, so the most interesting pattern ruled the day. 

After they packaged up the knife, they told me that one Enjiki tshirt is included in each sale, unfortunately in my rotund shape, I won’t squeeze into it but the gift isn’t lost on me. 

This Migiwa, compared to the others I saw on that day, has a tight pattern of the surface etching which flows all over the blade from the top of the hira down to the cutting edge. This is done by using a liquid solution, so the patterns aren’t fully controlled by Maruyama-san, but random for every knife. This knife slides into a slot of my kitchen where it’s going to be compared against my Isasmedjan stainless knife to see which one sticks around. So far on inspection prior to cooking, I really enjoy the slightly larger size compared to its Swedish competition. I don’t feel like I am swallowing up too much of the blade with a pinch grip and the additional weight feels very sturdy. The balance of the blade sits nicely at the top of the 本 symbol.

I’m very much looking forward to using this knife and testing it out to see if it sticks around for the long term. I’d encourage anyone visiting Nara to swing by Enjiki, either right by the train station, or take the 15min adventure down the road to visit Maruyama-san himself.  
  
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Thanks for reading, more NKD content tomorrow!



NKD - Enjiki Migiwa Ginsan 240mm