These are wonderful knives. The blades are razor sharp and stay sharp for years. The handles are perfectly balanced for a smooth fluid cutting motion. Produced by NHS in Seki City, the home of Japan's top knife and sword foundries
I'll agree with Meg, she raves about her 8" and 4" Henckels knives, exactly what I use for most cooking work. The Henckels four-star knives are practically indestructible, although I did actually manage to snap one in half. I was dicing up a little stack of some bacon cooked to hardness, I bore down a little too heavily and my 8" knife split apart, leaving me holding the handle with 2" of knife stub and sending 6" of the point flying up into the air, embedding its point in the kitchen floor right next to my foot. Yow! This should not ever happen, I was just applying vertical force from the handle, the only way you should be able to break this knife is if you put it in a vise and hit it with a hammer from the side. and even then it should only bend. I took it back to the store where I bought it, and pointed out the unlimited guarantee. It had gone up in price 40% since I bought it, but they handed me a new one. I'd probably buy Japanese knives if I was currently living in Japan, but if I broke one I'd never be able to get it replaced under warranty (do they have lifetime unlimited warranties on ANYTHING in Japan?) And besides, the Henckels warranty is honored in Japan.
Anyway, knife tip: there are two types of kitchen knives, pull and push. Every knife has a direction it cuts better, sometimes it's hard to tell until you start using them. AFAIK most Japanese knives are pull knives, but most Western knives are push knives.