About Hamono Direct

Hamono Direct is a small operation in Tokyo. It started the way most of these things do: friends in the US asking us to pick up a knife in Kappabashi, then their friends asking, then strangers from a forum thread.

When the US ended duty-free small parcels in 2025, the emails changed from "can you buy this for me" to "I bought this from a Japanese shop and DHL wants $40 before they will hand it over." That is when we decided the useful thing to build was a store where the price you see is the price you pay.

What we do

• Buy knives from the makers or their Japanese wholesalers, never from marketplaces or resellers.
• Check every knife before it ships: edge, tip, handle fit, no shipping rust.
• Quote one delivered price in US dollars that includes shipping and US import duty.
• Source anything we do not list, including left-handed single bevels and custom handles.

What we do not do

• We do not run affiliate links or "tested 40 knives" articles. Every guide on this site is written to answer a question we actually get.
• We do not sell knives we would not buy ourselves. The catalog is short on purpose.

Contact

The quickest route is the request form. Replies come from Tokyo within one business day.