Japanese Knife Skills by Level: Five Stages from Usuba to Yanagiba

What this article answers

What to learn first with Japanese knives

Cut to even sizes, peel with the usuba, fillet with the deba, then add the yanagiba

A number to measure your skill against

Katsuramuki on daikon. A ribbon 1 mm thick that runs 50 cm earns 5 points for length at a school competition

How thick sengiri and its cousins should be

Sengiri 1 mm or less, senroppon 2–3 mm, tanzaku 8 mm

Where the professional yardstick comes from

Japan's national cooking skills test: three dishes with three knives in a standard 1 hour 20 minutes

You can use a knife, but you can’t tell whether you are getting better. You can cut fine strips, but you don’t know what to practice next.

Japanese knife work has two public yardsticks. One is the scoring sheet of Japan’s culinary-school competitions. The other is the country’s national cooking skills test.

This article covers the order in which to learn Japanese knife skills, and how to measure where you are now. It doesn’t walk through how to cut sengiri (fine strips) or fillet a fish.

Five stages, each with its own test

Japanese knife work climbs in this order. First you cut vegetables to even sizes. Then you peel daikon (a large, mild white radish) with the usuba, and fillet fish with the deba. Last, you add the yanagiba and switch between all three knives to finish dishes on time.

The usuba is the vegetable knife, with a wide blade and a straight edge. The deba is for breaking down fish and chopping through bones. The yanagiba is the sashimi knife.

Stage	What you can do	Main knife	Sign you are ready for the next stage
1	Cut vegetables to set sizes	Usuba	Three daikon cuts come out at even sizes
2	Peel daikon into a thin, long ribbon	Usuba	Katsuramuki 1 mm thick and at least 50 cm long
3	Fillet a fish into two fillets and the frame	Deba	No flesh left on a horse mackerel’s backbone
4	Keep the same precision, but go longer and faster	Usuba	Three length and speed tasks reach their targets
5	Switch between three knives and finish three dishes on time	Usuba, deba, yanagiba	The three dishes of the national practical exam in a standard 1 hour 20 minutes

Sources: stages 1 and 4 from Tsuji Culinary Institute’s class conditions (2021, 2022); stages 2 and 3 from the scoring of the 42nd culinary-school competition (2026); stage 5 from the fiscal 2025 practical exam of the Cooking Skills Evaluation Test.

The 50 cm (20 in) in stage 2 is the line where katsuramuki earns 5 points for length at the school competition. Full marks also need even thickness, few breaks, and a well-shaped core and ribbon.

Why the order runs usuba, deba, yanagiba

The order comes from how schools and exams line up their tasks. Japanese culinary schools have students sharpen the usuba, cut vegetables, then move on to katsuramuki. The school competition, and the skills test that Japan’s association of culinary schools gives its students, put filleting a horse mackerel after the vegetable tasks.

Tasks that ask you to slice sashimi appear only at the national round of the competition and in the national skills test.

Stage 1 is three even daikon cuts

Right after enrolling, culinary-school students cut daikon to these three sizes, “beautifully and quickly.” Even with a home knife, you can check the sizes against a ruler.

Daikon cut	Width or thickness	What happens if the sizes are uneven
Sengiri (fine strips)	1 mm (under 1/16 in) or less	The thinner strips wilt first, and the texture varies
Senroppon (thin sticks)	2–3 mm (1/16–⅛ in)	In soup, the pieces cook through unevenly
Tanzaku (thin rectangles)	8 mm (5/16 in)	In a simmered dish, only the thinner pieces fall apart early

Sources: sizes from the Tsuji Culinary Institute blog (August 2021). The right-hand column is inferred from the fact that thinner pieces cook through and wilt sooner.

All three start the same way: slicing the daikon into slabs of even thickness. The position of the fingers holding the daikon sets the slab thickness.

You are ready for the next stage when all three come out at even sizes. To compare sengiri with Western and Chinese fine strips, see Julienne vs. Sengiri vs. Chinese Si.

Stage 2 is daikon peeled 1 mm thin

Katsuramuki peels daikon into one unbroken, thin ribbon. You hold the usuba against the side of the daikon, turn the daikon, and move the blade up and down in short strokes. This is where the culinary-school basics begin.

At the regional round of the school competition, the Japanese cuisine division has three vegetable tasks: katsuramuki, yoko-ken, and jabara. Together with the fish and egg tasks, they must be done in 45 minutes.

Ken are fine strips served with sashimi, and yoko-ken are ken cut across the fibers. Jabara (“bellows”) scores a cucumber with fine, evenly spaced cuts partway through.

Scored item	Earns 5 points	Earns 1 point
Katsuramuki length	50 cm or more	Under 20 cm
Katsuramuki thickness	1 mm and even throughout	Far too uneven
Katsuramuki shape	The leftover core is a true cylinder, and the ribbon runs straight	Core and ribbon both badly warped
Yoko-ken thickness	Within 1 mm and even throughout	Not even at all
Jabara cuts	Even spacing, 2/3 of the way through	Uneven spacing, too deep or too shallow

Sources: regional-round scoring, guidelines for the 42nd Culinary School Cooking Skills Competition, Japan’s association of culinary schools (August 2026). Scored on a daikon 10 cm (4 in) tall and one cucumber.

You are ready for the next stage when your katsuramuki runs 50 cm at 1 mm.

Sharpen before you peel

Japanese cuisine classes begin on the first day with sharpening the usuba. In the school skills test, too, the first item checked is the condition of your knife.

Stage 3 is filleting with the deba

After the vegetables, the school competition and the culinary-school skills test both set the same fish task. You fillet a horse mackerel (aji) into two fillets and the frame. It is scored in three places.

Scored item	What earns points
Cleaning	Scutes (the hard scales near the tail), gills, and bloodline removed
Backbone and belly	Backbone unbroken, belly bones and membrane removed
Flesh left behind	No flesh left on the backbone

Sources: fish-filleting scoring, guidelines for the 42nd culinary-school competition, Japan’s association of culinary schools (August 2026).

Flesh stays on the backbone when the blade doesn’t follow the bone and rides up off it. Once you can fillet with no flesh left on the backbone, move to the next stage.

Stage 4 adds length and speed

At culinary school, first-year students aim to cut accurately even if it takes time. Speed comes in the second year. Rokuho-muki peels a small taro into six even faces so every piece has the same shape.

Culinary-school task	Target	When
Katsuramuki	1 mm or thinner, 200 cm (6½ ft) or longer, and straight	One year after enrolling
Kizami negi (sliced green onion)	30 g of green onion sliced thin in 3 minutes	Second-year test
Rokuho-muki of small taro	5 pieces in 5 minutes, all the same size	Second-year test

Sources: Tsuji Culinary Institute blog (August 2021, May 2022).

Once all three reach their targets, you are at the next stage.

Stage 5 is three dishes against the clock

The professional yardstick is the national Cooking Skills Evaluation Test. Passing it earns the titles of specialist cook and cooking technician, granted by Japan’s Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Japanese-cuisine practical exam	Contents
Dish 1	Small sea bream served as sashimi in its whole shape (sugata-zukuri), with a daikon net
Dish 2	Crab rolled in a daikon sheet (kinuta-maki)
Dish 3	Conger eel wrapped around burdock (yawata-maki)
Fish cuts	One fillet sliced at an angle into sogi-mi; the other fillet cut into four
Daikon cut	Score a 5 cm (2 in) rectangle, peel it by katsuramuki, and open it into a net
Knives you bring	Small deba, yanagiba, usuba (no Western knives)
Time	Standard 1 hour 20 minutes for the three dishes; cut-off at 1 hour 30 minutes
Eligibility	At least 8 years of work (at least 6 for culinary-school graduates), including at least 3 years with a cook’s license

Sources: Chori Gijutsu Gino Center, “Fiscal 2025 practical exam (Japanese cuisine)” and “Overview of the test.”

The katsuramuki of stage 2 goes into the daikon net. The filleting of stage 3 goes into the sea bream served whole.

We found no public scoring standard for the yanagiba alone. Sashimi skill is judged inside the whole-shape sashimi dish.

Above this test sits the national Skills Grand Prix, where grade 1 and special-grade technicians compete. At the 32nd, the task was to fillet a 1 kg flounder into four fillets and the frame (five-piece filleting), then slice it paper-thin (usu-zukuri).

Find your stage with 8 tests

The tests run from easiest to hardest. Try them in order. The stage of the first test you can’t pass is your stage now. If you pass them all, you are at stage 5.

Test	Pass mark	If you miss it, you are at
Daikon sengiri	Even, at 1 mm or less	Stage 1
Daikon senroppon	Even, at 2–3 mm	Stage 1
Daikon tanzaku	Even, at 8 mm	Stage 1
Katsuramuki on a daikon 10 cm tall	1 mm thick, 50 cm or longer	Stage 2
Filleting a horse mackerel	No flesh left on the backbone	Stage 3
Long katsuramuki	1 mm or thinner, 200 cm or longer	Stage 4
Kizami negi	30 g of green onion in 3 minutes	Stage 4
Rokuho-muki of small taro	5 pieces in 5 minutes, all the same size	Stage 4

Measure length with a tape measure. For thickness, cut the ribbon into 10 pieces and stack them. If the stack is 1 cm (⅜ in) or less, each layer is 1 mm or less.

How Western and Chinese tasks compare

The school competition sets vegetable tasks for Japanese, Western, and Chinese cuisine in the same slot.

Division	Task 1	Task 2	Task 3
Japanese	Daikon katsuramuki (1 mm thick)	Yoko-ken (within 1 mm)	Cucumber jabara (cuts 1 mm apart)
Western	6 potatoes in château shape (5–5.5 cm, about 2 in, long)	Julienne (5 cm long, 1 mm thick)	Onion ciselé (2 mm cubes)
Chinese	At least 20 daikon ding (1.5 cm, ⅝ in, cubes)	Green pepper si (6 cm, 2⅜ in, long and 2 mm wide)	Long green onion (negi) as cong hua (2 mm cubes)

Sources: standard tasks for the three divisions at the regional round, Appendix 1 of the guidelines for the 42nd culinary-school competition, Japan’s association of culinary schools (August 2026).

The Western and Chinese tasks ask for a number of pieces at set sizes. Only the first Japanese task turns a daikon into one thin ribbon. For how the Western and Chinese ladders climb, see French Knife Skills by Level and Chinese Knife Skills by Level.

Conditions the measurements assume

The numbers in these yardsticks were measured under the conditions below. Break them, and the numbers drop whatever your skill.

Condition	What happens if you break it
Sharpen the knife before you measure	School scoring takes points off for knife condition
Use a thick, straight daikon 10 cm tall	The “true cylinder” core and the “straight” ribbon fail because of the daikon’s shape
With the single-bevel usuba, angle the edge slightly outward on thick ingredients	The cut won’t run straight
Measure speed only after precision is there	Speed goes up while the 1 mm slips

Sources: guidelines for the 42nd culinary-school competition, Japan’s association of culinary schools (August 2026); Tsuji Culinary Institute blog (August 2021, April 2025).

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