Some of the most important lines on a katana are the smallest. The yokote (横手, pronounced “yoh-koh-teh”) is a short, sharp crosswise ridge near the tip — barely a fingernail wide — yet it is one of the truest measures of a smith’s hand. Once you learn to look for it, you cannot un-see it.
What the Yokote Is
The yokote is the clean line that divides the body of the blade from the point. It runs at an angle across the steel, marking exactly where the main blade ends and the point, or kissaki begins. Behind it, the geometry of the blade is one thing; in front of it, the planes change as they sweep to the tip. It meets the ridge line, or shinogi at a precise junction, and below it the cutting edge, or ha begins its final curve around the point.
A Line Carved by the Polisher
The yokote is not forged in — it is established by the polisher in the final geometry of the blade. Creating a yokote that is dead straight, crisp, and correctly angled, with the surfaces on either side meeting it at distinct planes, takes real skill and patience. On a hand-finished sword it looks like a knife-cut boundary; on a cheap blade it is soft, wavy, or simply absent, with the body flowing into the tip in one rounded smear. Place it among the other features on our katana anatomy guide.
Why the Yokote Matters to You
For a buyer, the yokote is a fast, reliable tell. A crisp, well-defined yokote means the blade was finished by someone who cared about the point — and the point is the hardest part to get right. A missing or muddy yokote almost always signals a mass-produced sword. When you are comparing options, look at the tip and check for that clean line. You will find it executed properly across our master-grade katana and our hand-finished traditional katana — and you can see how the geometry is shaped in our forge journal.