Kisuke Manaka Shirogami 2 Honwarikomi Kurouchi Tsuchime Bunka 165mm

About Manaka Hamono - Kisuke Manaka is a relatively young, 5th generation, blacksmith from Kasukabe, Saitama prefecture, in 2025 he moved to Sanjo Tsubame, a hotspot for blacksmithing in Japan. He began making knives from scratch about 10 years ago, with nothing but a workshop full of equipment and no mentor. He is completely self-taught, yet he mastered techniques to forge-weld steels in house, even forge welding stainless steel which is no easy task.
Now he forge-welds everything in house, from hard carbon steel clad with soft steel, stainless steel clad with stainless, and carbon steel clad with stainless steel. The Shirogami #2 steel used in these knives is forge-welded in house by Manaka-san. This is a very traditional steel that can achieve incredible sharpness and has great edge retention, a favourite of more traditional blacksmiths.

About the Shape - The Bunka looks like a bonafide badass. It is a multi purpose knife akin to the Santoku. “Bunka” translates to “culture.” A cross between the Nakiri and Gyuto, Bunkas can do it all. It's the best of both worlds with the volume cranked to 11.