Thread: Inoue Tosuki Kamisori...

Thanks for all the help with this razor!

JimR, a special thanks for your help, and your blog Blogs | Eastern Smooth and the wonderful information that is available there (I also corrected the "TOSUKE" misspelling in my original post).

Here is some aditional information that I found for this razor...
Google is good!

On the ura side of the rubber grip is written "Kikusui" & I found in Wikipedia:

"Kikusui (菊水町; -machi) was a town located in Tamana District, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. On March 1, 2006 Kikusui was merged with the town of Mikawa, also from Tamana District, to form the new town of Nagomi and no longer exists as an independent municipality. As of 2005, the town had an estimated population of 6,523 and a density of 170 persons per km². The total area was 38.27 km²" and this: "The Kikusui ("Floating Chrysanthemum") raids, a series of ten large kamikaze suicide raids carried out by Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army aircraft against Allied ships off Okinawa in 1945"

And, are those floating chrysanthemum's on this kamisori's handle?????

Also, "Kikusui", among many other Google hits, is a brewer of saki and a hotel.

I think the name on the omote side of the rubber grip is "Yasuki" and it is the name of the steel. Some reference is made in an advanced honing post by "alx" from January 2011 here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...urr-edge.html; there is at least one more post with a mention of "Yasuki" steel in SRP.
If I am correct and that is the name of the steel from which this razor is made, details can be found here: http://www.mehr-als-werkzeug.de/medi..._M_WE_D_en.pdf

So I believe that my razor is an "Inoue Tosuke - Yasuki Kamisori" & the Master' name is not on the rubber grip, it is stamped into the ura. But, "What do I know" - read that somewhere...

Originally Posted by JimR

The box says it's a special new edition Stainless Tosuke...first I've seen, but that's what it says.

The razor is stamped "Tosuke" but lacks most of the other usual markings.

Interesting...you might have a collector's item there.

It's also ground from 1 piece instead of the usual design with high quality steel welded to a separate handle.
But it looks well made.

Interesting case here.

Originally Posted by JimR

I don't understand, why would you say that? His name is clearly on it. His ADDRESS is on it. What leads you to believe that there even is a "Tosuki" company?

As far as marketing goes, I've yet to see any "marketing" of Kamisori anywhere except shaving fora.

Japanese themselves hardly know what a kamisori is.
A couple of years ago when I was one of the first to get a dozen or so for members here, I asked around on a sumo forum filled with Japanese people and Japanophiles living in Japan. None of them understood what I was looking for. Eventually I found one person who understood me and who knew where to look for them.

I agree with Jim here. Very few people know what a kamisori is, even in Japan, and there is no 'marketing' anywhere outside of a couple of shaving forums.