The Five Pointed Star Benten, by Kojak Razor in Japan, first launched in December 2025. Its backstory follows a journey of discovery familiar to so many wet shavers: a discovery that grows into a passion, and ultimately into a decision to join the ranks of the community’s artisans.

The founder of Kojak Razor, Mr. Kosaku Ota, explains that his awakening to traditional wet shaving began in 2015, when his father passed away. Memories of his father using a DE razor inspired him to try one himself, beginning with a purchase on Amazon. He quickly fell in love with the ritual. “Shaving every morning creates a rhythm. Life is a daily battle outside the home. Every morning, I'm performing a ritual before going into battle. From the first thing in the morning, I can interact with people at work with a clear mind. What has happened to me is that I have become able to treat people kindly. My life has started to change for the better! I can clearly feel that.”

The Ota family has a long history in retail, operating a women’s apparel store in Toyooka, Japan, called Tamaya, dating back to 1966. In 2023, Mr. Ota opened Kojak Razor, an online store dedicated to wet shaving gear from around the world. In 2025, he took the next step and launched his first in house razor, the Five Pointed Star Benten, CNC machined in Toyooka.

The Benten is clearly the product of careful attention to detail and thoughtful design. The head is made from 316L stainless steel for corrosion resistance, while the handle is made from 304 stainless steel for strength. ShaveSplash chose the 85mm 202 handle, which features three broad grip sections separated by attractive scalloping and proved exceptionally secure in the hand. With the 202 handle, the razor measures 93mm overall and weighs 109g. Although substantial, it remained surprisingly nimble and maneuverable throughout the shave.

But what really sets the Benten apart is its inspired and highly unusual approach to blade clamping, which holds the blade extremely rigidly and, to ShaveSplash’s knowledge, is not duplicated by any other modern razor. Three elements work together to achieve this. The first, and probably the most important, is the narrow 11mm clamp width. ShaveSplash defines razors with clamp widths of 7mm to 11mm as Blade Benders. Rather than clamping the blade close to its cutting edge, these razors secure it nearer the center of the top cap and rely on bending the blade downward to generate rigidity through torsion. In our testing, only three other razors have so far fallen into this category: the Blackland Blackbird at 7mm, the Tedalus Velocity One at 8mm, and the Rocnel Elite 2023 at 11mm.

The second factor is the width of the top cap itself, which measures 20mm. Since a standard DE blade is approximately 22mm wide, the Benten leaves a very narrow reveal of only about 1mm on each side. This gives the blade a broad span of support across its upper surface while minimizing the amount of unsupported steel that can flex during the shave. The third element is the shape of the top cap. Its sides slope sharply downward, giving the head a pronounced trapezoidal profile. That steep geometry forces the blade downward and places it under additional tension, further contributing to the rigidity of the cutting edge.

Blade rigidity is the attribute that, in ShaveSplash’s testing, appears to have the strongest relationship with a razor’s overall performance. And overall performance means considerably more than efficiency alone. It also encompasses Comfort, Ease of Use, and Consistency. When it comes to raw efficiency, meaning the cutting ability of a single stroke, Blade Gap and Blade Exposure become particularly important.

Neither measurement has been published by Kojak, so ShaveSplash used ImageJ to estimate both from photographs. Our measurements put the Blade Gap in the region of 1.2mm. More interestingly, and somewhat counterintuitively, the images suggest that Blade Exposure sits just shy of Neutral. This was also supported by the simple test of running a piece of cardboard along the shave plane.

Despite that slightly negative exposure, the Benten is a forcefully efficient razor. The combination of exceptional blade rigidity and a substantial gap gives it tremendous cutting authority, earning an Efficiency score of 9 out of 10. The large gap and rigid blade also produce a deep and assertive blade feel, something ShaveSplash happens to enjoy. It approaches the sensation of the Blackbird and Velocity One, which is particularly interesting given that both of those razors have considerably larger blade reveals of roughly 1.5mm. That assertiveness ultimately caps the Benten’s Comfort score at 8 out of 10.

Where the razor becomes especially impressive is in Ease of Use and Consistency. Once again, much of this appears to come back to rock solid blade control. Both attributes score 9 out of 10, bringing the Benten to a class leading Composite Score of 35. Across multiple test shaves, the Benten repeatedly delivered the same result: an exceptionally smooth, buttery BBS.

As a Blade Bender, the Benten uses an architecture perhaps closest to the Blackland Blackbird and Tedalus Velocity One. But in terms of the actual shaving experience and the balance between its individual performance scores, the razor it most brings to mind is the Nord Freyja with the E plate. Architecturally, the two could hardly be more different. The Freyja is very much an Edge Clamper, with a 20mm clamp width. Yet it shares two important characteristics with the Benten: a narrow blade reveal and a strongly trapezoidal head shape.

The result is that both razors feel extraordinarily controlled on the face. Both routinely deliver BBS level results, although the Benten may have a slight edge in outright efficiency. Both are also beautifully machined, thoughtfully engineered, and unquestionably deserving of the description of premium, high performance razors. ShaveSplash cannot help but admire the design intelligence behind both.

As for the Benten, there is a Five Pointed Star rising over the wet shaving world, and its light is shining brightly. With the Five Pointed Star Benten, Kojak has added something different from Japan: a thoroughly modern artisan safety razor with distinctive engineering, exceptional blade control, and performance capable of standing alongside some of the finest artisan double edge razors anywhere.

A star is born.