The gyuto (pronounced “GYEW-toh”) is best described as the Japanese version of a Western-style chef’s knife. It was developed in the 1870s, during the Meiji Restoration. Japan had recently ended its policy of isolationism and had opened its borders to the West for the first time in 250 years. Fearful of being left behind in the global race for power, Japan began a process of industrialization and modernization, adopting Western ideas at a rapid clip. Western influence could suddenly be seen in every aspect of Japanese life, extending even to the foods people began to eat.
Roughly translated, the word “gyuto” means “cow sword” (gyu = cow/beef, to = sword). Prior to the Meiji Restoration, beef was considered taboo in Japanese society. But as Josh (2018), this changed under Western influence. In an effort to emulate their more modern, industrialized Western neighbors, Japanese people began eating beef, hoping it would give them the power they felt they lacked. While Japanese knives are more specialized and task-specific than Western-style knives, the reference to beef is probably more metaphorical than literal—gyuto aren’t solely for cutting beef. As Donald explains, “[It] was named and marketed to evoke brawn and to answer that national yearning for muscularity and strength” that beef (and the Westerners who ate it) connoted.
