The sujihiki and the gyuto are both long, double-edged Western-style knives made in Japan, and at 240mm they look similar enough in a product photo that people ask whether they need both. I read how a Japanese maker and a Sakai knife shop describe the two, then compared the listed measurements in two series that make both knives. In each series the two knives cost the same at 240mm, and the sujihiki weighs 80g less.
If you only want my pick: buy the gyuto first. The Sakai Takayuki Grand Chef gyuto 210mm was $151.99 and in stock when I checked on 9 October 2026. The sujihiki is a good second knife for people who slice a lot of meat or fish.
What each knife is for in Japan
Tojiro, a knife maker in Niigata, lists both in its Japanese guide to Western knife shapes. It describes the sujihiki as a knife for dividing a fairly large piece of meat into its cuts, and says that abroad the same job is done by knives called slicers or carving knives. It adds that a slicer has a rounded edge a little like a gyuto, while a sujihiki usually has a straighter one, and that because the blade is long it can also be used for sashimi.
The same guide describes the gyuto as the common knife abroad, the chef knife, which came to Japan in the Meiji era along with the habit of eating beef. That is why the name means beef knife. Tojiro says it is used for all kinds of cooking and is not limited to meat.
Sakai Ichimonji Mitsuhide, a knife shop in Sakai, makes the same point. Its gyuto page says the gyuto is closer to a Western all-purpose knife than to a meat knife, and that for someone who handles only meat, the narrower sujihiki is easier to use for cutting sinew and breaking down a block. Its sujihiki page calls the sujihiki the main knife in a butcher shop. The gyuto can cut meat too, the shop says, but it is a multipurpose knife that also chops vegetables, so the knife for meat is the sujihiki.
Same length, same price, 80g apart
I took these numbers at Hocho-Knife on 9 October 2026. I picked two Sakai Takayuki series because each one lists a gyuto and a sujihiki at the same length.
In the Grand Chef series, the gyuto at 240mm is 370mm long overall, weighs 220g and costs $176.99. The sujihiki at 240mm is 360mm long overall, weighs 140g and costs $176.99.
In the INOX series, the gyuto at 240mm weighs 260g and costs $137.99. The sujihiki at 240mm weighs 180g and costs $137.99. Both are 370mm long overall.
So in both series the price is identical and the sujihiki is 80g lighter. In the Grand Chef series that is more than a third of the weight of the gyuto. The steel is the same and the edge is the same length, so the missing weight is mostly blade height. The listings do not give a blade height for either knife, so I cannot give the difference in millimetres. Tojiro puts a gyuto at about 4 to 5cm wide in its gyuto guide.
The longer sujihiki stays light as well. The Grand Chef sujihiki at 270mm weighs 150g, which is 30g less than the 210mm gyuto in the same series.
What the narrow blade is good at
Ichimonji says the sujihiki is long and narrow because breaking down meat means following curves and working deep into a block, and a narrow blade turns more easily inside the cut. It also says the sujihiki is built closer to a single-edged knife than a gyuto or a petty knife is, so slices come away from the blade more cleanly.
That is why the same shop says many people use it as a slicer and more cooks have started using it for sashimi. I went through that in sujihiki vs yanagiba.
A narrow blade also means less steel touching the food. Tojiro makes this argument for the gyuto against the wider santoku, saying a narrow blade sticks less when slicing meat, cutting sashimi off a block and slicing roast beef. The sujihiki is narrower again, so the same reasoning should apply more strongly. That last step is my inference. Tojiro does not compare the two directly.
What the gyuto does that the sujihiki does not
Neither source says the sujihiki is bad at vegetables. Ichimonji even says the 240mm sujihiki is popular with restaurant cooks who want to use it on vegetables as well as meat. But both describe the gyuto as the all-purpose knife and the sujihiki as the meat knife, and the measurements suggest why.
A gyuto has enough height at the heel to keep your knuckles off the board while you chop, and a wide face to guide against the other hand. Tojiro describes two ways of cutting with it: a swinging push and pull along the curve, and straight chopping with the flatter part near the handle. A sujihiki that weighs 80g less at the same length has given up most of that height. It is made for long pulling cuts. This paragraph is my reading of the numbers, since the listings give weight and length only.
Sizes
The two knives are also sold in different size ranges. Tojiro gives 150 to 210mm for a gyuto at home and 210 to 240mm for a sujihiki at home. For professionals it gives 240 to 270mm for the sujihiki.
Ichimonji sizes the sujihiki by job. It suggests 240mm for restaurant cooks who use it on more than meat, 270mm for teppanyaki and yakiniku restaurants, and 300mm and up for meat processing. It also sells a short version, 180 to 210mm, which it calls a slicer and describes as a knife for people who find a gyuto too big and a petty knife too small.
So a home cook who buys both would normally end up with a gyuto around 210mm and a sujihiki around 240mm. If you are choosing a gyuto length, I compared the two common ones in gyuto 210 vs 240.
Which one to buy
If this is your first good knife, buy the gyuto. Both Japanese sources call it the all-purpose knife, and it handles meat well enough for most home cooking. The sequence I would buy in is in how to choose a Japanese knife.
If you already own a gyuto or a santoku, the sujihiki is worth adding when you often slice roasts, brisket, large fillets of fish, or sashimi at home. It will not do anything a gyuto cannot do at all. It does the long slicing cuts with less weight in the hand and less blade dragging through the food.
If you cook mostly meat and want one long knife, a 240mm sujihiki is the size Ichimonji suggests for mixed use. I would still keep a shorter, taller knife next to it for vegetables.
Three knives, checked on 9 October 2026
The gyuto: the Sakai Takayuki Grand Chef gyuto 210mm at $151.99. 180g, stainless, double-edged, in stock. The 240mm was $176.99.
The matching sujihiki: the Sakai Takayuki Grand Chef sujihiki 240mm at $176.99. 140g, the same steel as the gyuto, double-edged, in stock.
A lower-priced sujihiki: the Sakai Takayuki INOX sujihiki 240mm at $137.99. 180g, AUS-8A stainless, double-edged, in stock on 20 October 2026. The 270mm was $154.99.
Disclosure
I have four approved affiliate partnerships: two with knife retailers, Hocho-Knife and SharpEdge, and two with Japanese language-learning companies unrelated to knives. This page carries four tracked links, all to Hocho-Knife: three knives, and a second link to the gyuto near the top. At about 10 percent, that is roughly 15 dollars for the gyuto, 18 dollars for the Grand Chef sujihiki and 13 dollars for the INOX sujihiki. Tojiro is quoted here as a source, and this page does not link to any Tojiro product. My full affiliate disclosure is here.
Sources: the Japanese guides to Western knife shapes and to the gyuto published by Tojiro, the gyuto and sujihiki pages of Sakai Ichimonji Mitsuhide, and the Hocho-Knife product pages for the knives named above, all checked on 9 October 2026.