Gyutou - Gyutou

…A knife for cooking. Originally, it was the name of a famous chef in ancient China, which appears in Zhuangzi, and by extension, it meant a person who cooks. In Japan, it also came to mean “cooking,” and a cook was called a “knife-man” or “knife-slayer,” and a knife used in cooking was called a “knife-tou,” which was then shortened to “knife.” An example of a knife simply being called a “knife” is found in the “Konjaku Monogatarishu,” volume 28, “Saya naru knives,” and before that, it was called a “tosu,” which meant a small knife or short sword. In the “Engishiki,” the Naizenshi section, 77 knives were recorded for offerings per year, including 10 for peeling oysters and two for cutting abalone. …

*Some of the terminology explanations that refer to "Goto" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…料理用の刃物。本来は《荘子》に見える古代中国の名料理人の名で，転じて料理する人をいった。日本では〈料理すること〉をもいうようになり，料理する人を包丁人，包丁者，料理に使う刀を包丁刀と呼ぶ風を生じ，さらに包丁刀を略して包丁というようになった。包丁刀を単に包丁と呼んだ例は《今昔物語集》巻二十八に見られる〈鞘（さや）なる庖丁〉あたりが古く，それ以前は小刀，短刀の意味で刀子（とうす）と呼んでいた。《延喜式》内膳司の条下には，供御用の刀子として年間77枚が計上され，その中には〈蠣（かき）〉をむくためのもの10枚，〈鰒（あわび）〉を切るためのもの2枚も含まれていた。…

※「午刀」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報