When Nissan announced it was partnering with a popular sushi chef and legendary knifemaker to create the ultimate Z-inspired sushi knife, I immediately, and half-jokingly, asked if they had review units. To Nissan’s credit, they did, and a week later, one was sitting in my kitchen waiting to be unsheathed.
This is the second time I’ve done this trick with Nissan this year. The first time was for a Nissan Sentra press loaner (review preview: It’s pretty good for the money!). I got the knife first, so I’m going to lead with my take on the Z NISMO Precision Sushi Knife first. There’s only one problem… which is that I don’t know how to review a knife.
I’m not a brilliant driver or a great chef, even though driving and cooking are two of my favorite hobbies. Since I’ve never let my mediocre driving get in the way of a car review, I guess I shouldn’t let my meager sushi-rolling stop me from voicing my opinion.
To make the transition easier, I’m going to borrow our car review format.
Why This Knife Exists
As far as automaker-non-automaker tie-ups go, this one is quite good. Satoshi Kiryu’s family has been making knives in Japan for almost a century. Respecting his family’s craftsmanship, Nissan reached out to Kiryu to make a perfect sushi knife inspired by the Nissan Z.
“When I was a kid, the Fairlady Z was my favorite car, especially the 240Z. It was such a cool-looking car,” Kiryu said. “Today, we have a new Z that reminds me of the first Z’s design. When Nissan approached me for this project, I was so happy.”
“I was constantly thinking of the side view of the Z when I was making the knife,” Kiryu said. “The knife’s top edge is designed to look sharp, with no excess metal.”
Why this specific knife? The kiritsuke-style knife is designed not as a multipurpose tool like the santoku I use for basically everything. Instead, the double-beveled blade is made for the kind of clean and precise cuts necessary to achieve the delicate look of sushi.
2025 Z NISMO Precision Sushi Knife: The Basics
- Price: $300.23 base ($300.23 as tested since it didn’t need a title)
- Engine: My right arm
- Transmission: Fully manual
- Drivetrain: All-fish drive
- Power: I feel very powerful using it
- Fuel Economy: 200 cuts per cubic inch of salmon
- Body Style: Knife
What It Looks Like
Cool as hell.
Kiryu laser cuts each blade himself, then grinds and polishes it until it has the perfect shape. Along the edge of the blade is an idealized togue, or mountain road. A kuro zome (black-dyed) finish is then added using an oxide film.
Each heel has the serial number for the knife, indicating which of the 240 made (get it?) it is. There’s also a signature from Chef Hiroyuki Terada. Here’s the one sent to me:
This type of handle is apparently called a “buffalo horn” and features a bright red spacer that is supposed to mimic the NISMO Z’s red accents. The black handle is also a callback to the car’s black roof.
The knife is delivered in this incredible black-lacquered case with all of the different Z generations and logos on the inside, and an autograph on the exterior.
It is by far the coolest-looking knife currently in my knife drawer.
What About The Inside?
It’s a knife. I can’t see inside it.
How It… Cuts
This might be the press release seeping into my brain, but much like the Nissan itself, the relatively thin blade of the NISMO knife means it’s more about making a precise cut as opposed to a deep one. Compared to my santoku, it feels 10x as sharp.
When the knife arrived, I just started cutting whatever was in my kitchen to toss into a miso soup broth. I started with some shallots. The NISMO knife made easy work of the skin of the shallot and cut through without much effort. Because the belly of the knife isn’t super thick, it’s not ideal for quickly chopping. Instead, you need to slowly wind the heel of the knife through whatever you’re cutting.
I had some small white potatoes and tried those next. Putting only a small amount of pressure on the spine of the blade, I was able to achieve super-thin slices that were both almost transparent and roughly equal in size. It was maybe possible to cut the tubers even thinner, but then you wouldn’t be able to cook them without them dissolving.
Up next was a big piece of salmon. I meant to buy tuna and salmon, but instead got a big piece of salmon and an equally large rectangle of smoked salmon from H Mart. The smoked piece still had a skin on it, so I used the knife to see if I could separate the shiny layer of Salmon coverings from the outside of the fish without losing too much of the meat. As you can see, that was no issue.
Next, I cut up the salmon I had into evenly-sized pieces for use in the rolls I was planning to make (kids love sushi rolls).
I don’t have a single blade in my collection that would be able to make such even and beautiful cuts, although I’m also crap at sharpening my own gear so that may have something to do with it.
Here’s where I realized I nabbed the wrong kind of seaweed for my sushi rolls and had to have my wife pick up the normal kind. These were roasted and salted, which makes a great snack, but is not ideal for sushi rolls.
My rolls were quite traditional in the American sense of traditional Japanese food, with cucumber, roe, avocado, and various forms of salmon. When it came to cutting the individual rolls, the resistance of the thick seaweed wrapper meant that I had to put a lot of force into the knife to cut my blade through, and here I think the heft my other knives bring might have been more useful. Or maybe my technique is just bad!
The rolls were uneven, the ratio of fish to rice was maybe off, and they weren’t the most flavorful avocados ever used in a sushi roll. They were also delicious. I had so much fun doing this that I grabbed some fake crab sticks and made some more the next week.
Does the NISMO Precision Knife Fulfill Its Purpose?
If the goal here was to make the Nissan Z seem cool and celebrate Japanese craftsmanship, then I think this was a huge success. The knife costs a hefty $300.23 (300 for Nissan 300ZX and 23 for the number, which also sounds like Nis-san in Japanese and is therefore used on a lot of Nissan race cars), which didn’t stop people from buying the knife immediately.
The Nissan Z itself isn’t exactly breaking sales records, but the knife sold out immediately. As someone who usually only spends $3,000 to buy a car, the thought of spending one-tenth of that to buy a knife is slightly hard to fathom.
Considering the art that went into this knife, it’s probably a steal. Only 240 of these were made, making it rarer than almost any Z car out there. It also looks as sharp as it is.
If you bought this knife, I have some advice for you: If on your journey, you should encounter Cod, Cod will be cut.
Side note: If you’re a member, look in your inbox for an opportunity to get this knife. Nissan says we can keep it, but it’s too nice for me, so I’m going to send it to a lucky member.
Back when my kids were young, one used my favorite paring knife to cut som chocolate. Bent the tip of course. A rep from the company was at a local store and I had a chance to handle their newer version of it. I could tell that the handle was manufactured differently, though it looked the same. Bought a newer one , but barely use it. I still liked the older handle. It was two years later that I finally got around to grinding the knife to shape the cutting edge and the corresponding body to match. I did it on my decades old bouncy grinder. I can’t even tell which knife it is now!
I have a Lansky sharpening set at home, but yes our knives get regularly abused. I sharpened a bunch a few months ago, then got yelled at for them being too sharp.
As Obi-Wan nearly said, “An elegant tool for a more civilized age.”
Gotta love a good
melee weaponknife.I am shocked, SHOCKED that a Texan with German heritage that grew up amongst Lutheran bake sales is mediocre at making sushi.
Dip the tip in water. Raise the tip so water runs down the edge. Slice the roll by pulling the blade, not pushing through the roll.
Great write up though.
Ooh great advice. Thanks. Will try to remember that for next time the family makes sushi
I don’t think the price is particularly hefty considering who made it and the quality of the knife. I think the most I ever paid for a knife was about 220 for a 9′ Global that I’ve used professionally in the kitchen almost every day since, and it’s still fantastic. Quality costs, but it lasts
Yeah, $300 bucks is actually quite reasonable for high-quality Japanese specialty knives. It might blow some people’s mind, but if you are cooking a bunch a high-quality knife is the best investment you can make. Especially something like this, where you are carefully slicing high-grade fish a bad knife can very quickly ruin many hundreds of dollars worth of tasty bites.
If you look at knives like tools, yeah you’re going to pay way more for the Milwaukee, and yeah you could just pick up that Hyper Tough for so much cheaper, but which one is still going to be doing what it’s supposed to be doing 10 years later? I’ve paid a good amount of money for my knives, but pretty much all of them are 20 years old or older, all of them still doing exactly what they did when they were new, and all of them getting used almost every day for those 20+ years. I have a 7″ Global vegetable knife that’s at least a mm thinner than it used to be, but it still holds a fantastic edge and I wouldn’t trade it for a new one
Very cool.
But can it cut through a tin can like the one I saw on TV?
Slice the rolls, don’t chop them. No force should be needed other than to pull the blade through the rolls. Let the tool do the work as they say.
Have you ever tried a ceramic knife? I thought I knew what sharp was until I tried one. They just glide through things. It’s a bit weird. They don’t stay sharp forever and are hard to sharpen, but everyone should try one once IMO.
/expert mode off.
I have a ceramic knife that I keep at work to slice fruit, it’s amazing, zips right through anything. I had a play with one of the early ceramic knives once and you could bend it through 90 degrees and it returned to dead straight. Amazing material. I’m not risking that on one I own though.
I keep it at work since every knife at home ends up getting used on a ceramic plate and having the edge ruined, regardless of how much of a dick I am about telling everyone that this knife was expensive and I don’t want it ruined.
My Sabatier paring knife has a bent tip from being used as a lever, which was apparently done by a very skill cat-burglar who broke in one night just to bend my knife.
I have an old survival knife I keep in the knife block in the hope that it’s that one that gets grabbed to cut open parcels and lever open tins of paint. I should put a flat bladed screwdriver in there too.
Every time we get a knife in with a bent tip to sharpen, I tell the customer to put a screwdriver in their knife drawer (or in the block). Obviously they weren’t the one who bent it; it was always the spouse/offspring/in-law/aforementioned cat-burglar, so they’re quite happy with my friendly suggestion.
My dad has one and he loves it. He got the proper tools to sharpen it correctly and everything.
Just
Another
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Cutting
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Things!
If only Renault made a charcuterie board. And Mitsubishi made a fondue pot. Time for an awkward dinner party
The Altima-inspired knife would be a shiv.
Jeep could do a pineapple upside-down cake…
How about a nice set of Peugeot salt and pepper grinders?
Volkswagen gravy bowl anyone?
I’d love some VW currywurst 🙂
Double beveled… huh. That would make this a sujihiki and a strange one. Kiritsuke refers to the tip. There is such a thing as a kiritsuke knife, but those are single beveled, taller, and only for the best of the best. Don’t show up with one, or moribashi (plating chopsticks) unless you really know what you’re doing.
Slicing knives, like that one, need a lot more motion and a lot less force. It takes some getting used to, but you absolutely can “chop” quickly, it’s just an entirely different motion.
I noticed that “double beveled” comment as well. Every kiritsuke I’ve ever sold was single beveled, but I figured maybe they went double beveled as a nod to the twin turbo.
This is why I love this site.
I once saw Peugeot branded salt and pepper grinders. They looked nice enough to pair with this Nissan knife.
Peugeot made pepper mills before they started making cars!
https://us.peugeot-saveurs.com/en_us/inspiration/history/
That would certainly explain it!
I’ve had a pair ony table for years now. There are probably better, but I like them.
When my wife and I needed a new pepper grinder, I insisted we get a Peugeot grinder.
My parents once received a Peugeot pepper grinder as a gift! It’s in my kitchen now. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that my first thought on seeing it was “Huh, didn’t know there was more than one Peugeot.”
Watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi
I loved that movie. Kind biography of some old dude who’s merely the best in the world.
Least likely to cut the user out of the lineup?
Lovely review for a nice blade! When I was in Tokyo I went to Kamata Hakensha and got two of the most amazing knives in my collection. Whoever gets the Kiryu blade is a lucky person!
We stayed one block over from the Kitchen District and bought knives at a different store. I really wish we were driving back, I would have loaded up!
No kidding! Can you imagine living in Tokyo for a few months or a year? Such an amazing place with amazing things for whatever your interest is. One day we were on a namazake craze and went to the finest drinking establishments, on another we checked out amazing jazz kissa clubs for killer music, one day we were jonesing for Miyazaki so we hit Ghibli everything, towards the end of our trip we decided authentic pizza would be great and found three amazing joints that could have been in Naples.
I should re-watch Kill Bill 1.