Sengiri (Japanese Fine Julienne)

Knife cut applied to vegetables; most classically to daikon (mooli), burdock root (gobo), cucumber, carrot, cabbage, and ginger. The geometry is a flat plank (hyoshigi-giri or katsura-muki sheet) stacked and sliced into fine strips.

1. 1Peel the vegetable and slice lengthwise into thin planks 1–2 mm thick using a sharp yanagiba or usuba; a mandoline speeds this step for daikon.
2. 2Stack 4–6 planks and align them precisely, then slice across the stack into 1–2 mm strips, keeping the blade vertical and using a push-cut with the knuckle as a guide.
3. 3For daikon tsuma, soak completed shreds in ice water for 10 minutes to maximise crispness before draining and patting dry.
4. 4For burdock (gobo), shave into water acidulated with rice vinegar as you cut to prevent oxidation, then parboil and dress.
5. 5When used in vinegared salads, toss with salt first, squeeze out excess water, then dress to avoid diluting the tare.
6. 6For stir-fries, cook over high heat no longer than 60–90 seconds to preserve crunch.

• Use an usuba (single-bevel rectangular vegetable knife) or a sharp thin-bladed gyuto for best results; a thick blade will crush the shreds.
• For cylindrical vegetables like daikon, first produce a thin sheet via katsuramuki (rotary peeling), then stack and slice.
• Chill the vegetable before cutting — cold flesh is firmer and produces cleaner, finer shreds.
• Keep a damp cloth handy to wipe the blade between passes to prevent cellular moisture from causing the strips to stick together.

• Mandoline fine-julienne blade

  Produces comparable width mechanically but can crush delicate vegetables; still acceptable for daikon.

• Western fine julienne (1/16 inch)

  Slightly coarser than sengiri standard; acceptable in most applications.

• Hasen-giri (torn shreds)

  Used for cabbage; gives a rougher, more rustic texture but achieves similar volume.

• Katsuramuki

  The rotary-peel sheet technique that produces the planks later sliced into sengiri.

• Hyoshigi-giri

  Thick rectangular batons — the opposite end of the width spectrum from sengiri.

• Sainome-giri

  Small cube cut derived from planks similar to those used for sengiri.

• Western julienne

  Broader 3 mm × 3 mm matchstick; sengiri is roughly half the width.

1. 1.Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art — Shizuo Tsuji
2. 2.The Japanese Kitchen — Hiroko Shimbo
3. 3.Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen — Elizabeth Andoh
4. 4.Knife Skills Illustrated — Peter Hertzmann

Confidence: high