As Jeff Clark said, these were often sold as a set of 4 knives, with a lifetime warranty card, and called "Master Gourmet Knives." I tried looking for the symbol on Google images, but it was when I searched for the text (400C GOLD 3 STAINLESS JAPAN) that I found these knives. And the opposite side of the blade has a unique serial number. All the examples I've seen so far are two letters followed by 4 numbers. My set of four has a different S/N on each knife.
The wooden handles are clearly showing they aren't new (I bought them new in about 1975 for $25, which be over $100 in 2014*)and have used them constantly), but the blades hold up so well it's obvious the 400C has nothing to do with our American Steel numbering.
The wooden handles appear to be virtually identical (about 5" long) except on the paring knife (4" long), and are all the same shape, with three 'rivets' holding the handle to the knife. They are the 'offset handle' style (except the next to the shortest) so you can hold the blade down on the table while holding the handle without hurting your knuckles.
The paring knife blade is about 4" long, and is almost flat on the cutting edge, but tapers down from the top of the handle to about .5" tall. All except the next knife are the same shape.
The next longer knife is about 6" long and a bit over 3/8" tall. It is the exception, and does not have an offset handle. Rather, the blade comes straight (flat) out of the top of the handle, and it is the cutting edge that is covered.
The third longest is the butcher knife (but the same shape as 2 of the other blades) and is over 8" long and over 1" tall.
The longest blade is 10" long and about 7/8" tall.
These are my favorite kitchen knives, especially the paring knife and the butcher knife. They are very thin (about 2mm - a little more than 1/16" - thick at the top of the handle; and only 1mm thick at the top of the blade itself on the paring knife, thicker on some of the other blades), but very durable. I rarely sharpen them, because it's not easy to do, and I don't think the strop afterwards actually does anything - certainly not visibly.
So, in my opinion they are very nice kitchen knives, but I'm not in the $200/knife snob, so can't judge how they compare to those. When I bought them, I hoped they'd be worth the price, but wasn't sure how they'd last. I'm very satisfied. Sunnie asked their value. I don't know, but a few weeks ago I found complete sets for up to $35. That's the ones labeled 400C GOLD3 from Japan, with serial numbers. (On my paring knife, I can't see the writing as well as on the others.)
* According to
http://www.davemanuel.com/inflation-calculator.php