Higonokami Knife - An Affordable Japanese Classic Combines Simplicty with Effective Style

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 Higonokami (肥後守) knives are a  type of traditional Japanese pocket knife that goes back to 1896. The blade of these friction folding knives is secured in the 'open' position by applying thumb pressure to the Chikiri ('Tail' lever) that is built in to the blade.  The handle is brass.  The knife is hand-crafted and supposedly the only one allowed to call his knives 'Higonokami' now is 5th generation blacksmith Mr Nagao, based in Miki.

It is a light duty knife and clearly not intended for any hard or heavy task.  Usually used for opening packages, sharpening pencils, or cutting fruit.  Would make a nice EDC.  It's light and thin and fits easily in any pants pocket.  

As I noted in another post, I wanted to add some unique knives to my collection, and this Japanese knife truly fits the bill. I purchased mine from Amazon for around $30. 

Higonokami knives are to the Japanese what the Swiss Army Knife is to the Swiss, in being the iconic knife of that culture.  

Update: I was curious as to what the Japanese characters mean on the knife's brass handle.  Once again, the internet came to the rescue.  Reading from top to bottom, from the knife's hinge pin to the lanyard hole, this is what I gleaned:  The small four Kanji characters on the handle of the Higonokami mean "Registered Trademark". The first three big characters translate to Higonokami ( which is the name of the knife - which I can make out in my knife), and the last two are the name of the maker. - Although when I tried to compare what I saw online with my knife, I'm not sure all the characters were all the same, at least the ones that were the registered trademark, leaving me to wonder if there are different registered trademarks for different knives.  There are any number of places that explain the Japanese characters on these knives.

  

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