Hancho Hocho/Maguro Kiri (Tuna)

Hancho Hocho/Maguro Bocho is an extremely long knife that resembles a Samurai sword. It is a highly specialised knife used to fillet Tuna, and other very large fish.

The knife is extremely long: up to 150cm, with a handle long enough for a double-handed grip. Indeed the knife is often handled by two people at once, such are the size of some of the Tuna which are so prized in Japan. The flexible blade of the knife is curved to the shape of the Tuna spine, to minimise the amount of meat left on the carcass when filleting.

Our views and advice for buyers

This knife is most unlikely to be of any use to anyone in the home, as whole tuna (costing tens of thousands of dollars) seldom make it past serious wholesale fish markets.

However, we feel it would be wrong of us to exclude this king of knives from this site, dedicated as it is to the excellence of Japanese blade craftsmanship.