Shun

While the Shun brand is relatively young, its pedigree goes back much, much farther. Over 112 years ago—in a city with a blade-making tradition that itself goes back over 800 years—Saijiro Endo first set up shop in Japan’s famous Seki City. Initially, the company produced folding knives, then razors, and in time, kitchen cutlery. Eventually, the company would be known as Kai Cutlery; today it is the Kai Group.

A direct descendant of the company’s founder, Kai Chairman and CEO, Koji Endo, conceived the bold idea of bringing high-quality Japanese cutlery to the US and European markets. He named the brand “Shun,” which refers to the Japanese tradition of fresh, seasonal eating, and even designed the logo still used today

The challenge for Endo and the new brand would be to maintain the extreme quality for which Japanese cutlery is prized, while producing it in quantities that would meet growing demands. For Endo, it was vital to maintain the tradition of handcrafting each knife.