I’ve been fascinated by the KAI Shun experiment, both as a business venture, and as an attempt to bring Japanese and American food cultures together through kitchen knives. Have they developed one or more Japanese American fusion Chef knives for the American kitchen?
More broadly, a Japanese Western fusion may have already happened. After all, the Japanese decades ago developed a double beveled gyuto based on the historical French Chef’s knife–a further fusion called "American’ would just be for marketing purposes. Zwilling went with such thinking with the Miyabi line, marketed side by side with their own established German lines in Europe and America. They added an American component by arranging to manufacture and market Bob Kramer’s designer line of knives along with their Miyabi.
KAI took a much more daring approach, focusing specifically on the United States market–rethinking through a new “Shun” brand the home kitchen knife as a fusion of American design and Japanese “know how”
This older video, with the narration provided by the KAI CEO himself, presents SHUN as “almost hand made and exotic” side by side with “radical Ken Onion designs”–only revealing limited use of advanced manufacturing technology that was being applied to this new brand. This somewhat contradictory stance can also be seen in the designs.
Of all the profiles that Kai adapted to Shun knives, the santoku, successful in Japan as a Seki Magoroku, is, IMO the most consistently outstanding. The Kaji hallow ground santoku offers a slightly more substantial Americanized version that leaves a little belly near the tip while otherwise being flat. According to Japanese design, it was overweight, back heavy and unbalanced. For many Americans, gripped properly, it was just right.
It was my first “expensive” knife purchase, made affordable when I was able to purchase it on auction for less than half the retail price. It has been a workhorse for me—alongside my Seki Magoroku lightweight truly Japanese nakiri.
The Shun Fuji can be compared to many knives designed by Bob Kramer for Americans but not any artisan knives designed for Japanese, yet Japanese elements are there—beginning with the 161 layer textured damascus over an Americanized profile very similar to all the other Shun series, but with a wider base. The somewhat oversized tapered handle is neither oval nor octagonal, with novel gripping ridges for both right and left handed users and the usual Shun half bolster, but the material is dark tagayasan wood associated with Samurai sword handles.
I’ve speculated about the 8.5” Chef knife version of Fuji for five years—hundreds of dollars over my price limits—until I started following it on EBAY—dropped within range—successful negotiation. Success. Already arrived. After a few weeks of exploring—I’ve found my Japanese American fusion Chef’s knife to team with my Kaji fusion hollow ground Santoku.
After 12 years on the market, why does this Fuji seem so new?
