Hinoura Tsukasa is one of the most well known knife and nata (Japanese style machete) maker in Japan. He makes standard line natas under the name of Ajigataya, and he make his more high quality knives with his own "Tsukasa-saku (made by Tsukasa)" brand. These knives are blood and sweat of Tsukasa-san, since he makes these knives basically after his work making natas for Ajigataya.

For instance his Kitaeji Nejiri knife (refer to Tsukasa Kitaeji Nejiri page) takes about two years to complete! I have ordered two couple months ago, so there is another one year and 10months more to go.... But as you can see, the quality is just absolutely wonderful. This model was made to enter the knife show that took place in Tokyo couple years back. Very special model which takes much more effort on making. He puts everything he's got into this brand.

The steel is White Steel #2 considering the nature of this knife. Tsukasa-san sharpens these natas to a very keen edge, so I recommend making a second bevel or rounding the edge before use to make the edge last longer. The sheath is a specially made of rosewood, hollowed from single material using a lathe thus has no joining invoved. The polishing is done by using Japanese natural stones. Tsukasa is from Sanjyo and he and his son are both member of Sanjyo kaji-doujyo (Sanjyo blacksmithing doujo = doujo is a place where you train Japanese martial art including various sword fighting skills such as kendo.)

If there's any knife you are interested shown below, ask for a quote and I'll get you the price and the estimate delivery time. You can tell me the size and the style.

These are finally in stock after 2 full years...

Pls refer to "Tsukasa Kitaeji Neiji" dedicated page for more details on knife #1.

#2 Kuro Soe-nata (Black-finish Small Nata, 36000JPY) is The most economical model from Hinoura-san, yet, the quality is absolutely fantastic in my opinion.
I don't want to let go of this one too much....
The handle is J white oak, stained and soaked with special resin to prevent the rot.
The handle and sheath material is Hou. Treated one piece(*) sheath.
Handmade ferrule, soft steel jigane, Shirogami #2gou steel type A (all knives are made with WS#2 type A. Type A has higher carbon content compared to type B).

#3 (Kitaeji Migaki Soe-nata, POA) is the same model to the one that made the front cover of very famous Knife Magazine (magazine shown below).

*The sheath is carved out of one piece wood, treated with the same chemical for waterproofing. It is not laminated! This is to prevent delamination or cracking when it gets wet.

Below is the same knife to #2.

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The actual knife that decorated the Knife Magazine front cover.

The jigane is Rentetsu (19th century British wrought iron which has a beautiful grain in itself.)

Single edged (Kataba) version. Double edged (Ryouba) is also available.