Butoh

Butoh is the shear line of Green Mouse, a Japanese maker, and you’ll often see it badged “Green Mouse Butoh” on retailer pages. The blades are made in Japan, and the headline steel is 440C Japanese stainless — a hard, edge-holding grade that has long been the backbone of dependable salon cutters. It’s a brand most stylists outside Japan reach through a small number of importers rather than direct, so the line you can actually buy depends a little on which shop you’re shopping.

Three blades, three jobs

What I like about Butoh is that the cutting range is organized around blade shape rather than marketing names. There’s a convex edge for raw cutting power, a sword blade for control, and a wide “Bamboo Leaf” profile built for dry and slide cutting — pick the geometry that matches your technique and you’ve made most of the decision. Standard lengths run 5.5, 6.0, and 7.0 inches.

Two named models sit beside the core trio. The offset IY is listed in cobalt alloy across 5.7, 6.2, and 6.7-inch lengths, a step up in hardness for stylists who want a finer slice. The crane-handle KY runs stainless at 5.5 and 6.0 inches. For weight removal, the matching Butoh Texturiser comes in three strengths — a light 10 percent, a mid 20 to 25 percent, and a heavy 65 percent — so you can blend or genuinely thin depending on the head in front of you.

Where to buy

Pricing lands mid-range, roughly 200 to 400 dollars. In the United States Butoh is stocked through Shear World; in the UK it turns up at retailers including Yoi Scissors. A solid, traditionally-built Japanese line for a stylist who’d rather choose by blade shape than by badge.