Source: Suzuki Kanamono tool-history series (道具の歴史), misyuku-suzuki-kanamonoten.com — slugs aidusaigononokokaji1–4.html
Author: Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭), Representative Director, Suzuki Kanamono Co., Ltd. (有限会社スズキ金物店)
Dated: an auspicious day, January, Heisei 23 (2011)
Translator's note. A 4-page essay series (Introduction / Section 1 / Section 2 / Conclusion) on how Aizu saw-smithing culture was transmitted to Echigo and Edo, and on the three generations of Nakaya Denzaemon (中屋伝左衛門), the last saw-smith house of Aizu (family name Igarashi 五十嵐). Ambiguities: the author writes 伝藩 ("transmission") throughout where 伝播 is standard — translated as "transmission/propagation." Readings not certain: 阿部四兵衛門 rendered "Abe Shibeemon"; 中屋重内 rendered "Nakaya Jūnai"; 深沢一二 rendered "Fukasawa Ichiji." Date notes: the author gives Bunsei 1 as 1816 (conventionally 1818) and states the first Denzaemon was born Meiji 21 (1888) yet died in Shōwa 13 (1938) "at 53" — both kept as written. The book title 会津の鋸鍛冶―近代の群像とその系譜 is dated Shōwa 64 (= early 1989).
The history of saw smithing in the Aizu region — which flourished from the Azuchi–Momoyama period through the Edo period as one of the great production centers of carpentry tools in eastern Japan — began in Bunroku 1 (1592), when, by order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣秀吉), Gamō Ujisato (蒲生氏郷) was transferred there as the defensive stronghold of the Tōhoku region.
For his large-scale castle construction and building of the castle town, Gamō Ujisato brought saw smiths of superior skill from Fushimi (伏見) in Kyoto — then the representative saw-producing center of Japan — and they passed their techniques to the local smiths.
With this as the impetus, saw production in Aizu prospered. Of Kanbun 6 (1666), in the era of the fourth shōgun Tokugawa Ietsuna (徳川家綱), Mr. Tsutsumi Akira (堤章), who researched the Aizu saw smiths, states: "conservatively estimated, there were more than 20 houses producing saws."
Around the Kyōhō era (given as c. 1730), in the time of the eighth shōgun Tokugawa Yoshimune (徳川吉宗), the Aizu domain elder Tanaka Harunaka (田中玄宰) invited Nakaya Jūnai (中屋重内) and Jūgorō (重五郎), senior pupils of the saw smith Nakaya Gentarō (中屋源太郎) of the Tennōji temple-gate district of Osaka, who introduced to the domain the Tennōji saw (天王寺鋸) — the bent-handled saw for felling timber (see note 1) — and saw smithing flourished still further. And that saw-smithing technique was then transmitted to Echigo (越後) and Edo (江戸).
Note 1. As for the origin of the name "Tennōji saw": in the Edo period a saw smith near Tennōji in Osaka manufactured a new saw with a bent handle, and that saw came to be called the Tennōji saw. Another story is handed down: a thief broke into the house of a saw smith near Tennōji who was making bent-handled saws, stole such a saw, and was caught; when the saw smith was summoned to the magistrate's office and asked the name of the saw, he answered that it was the saw of Tennōji, the place where he lived — hence the name.
As an anecdote showing the excellence of Aizu saw-smithing technique: around the end of the Edo period, when storehouse-breaking thieves who sawed through the bolt-bars (kannuki カンヌキ) of earthen storehouses ran rampant in Edo, it was said that the only saw capable of cutting a bolt-bar must be a saw made by Nakaya Sukezaemon (中屋助左衛門) of Aizu, and — so the story goes — an order was issued prohibiting the manufacture of Sukezaemon saws.
The Meiji-era development of Hokkaidō and the postwar reconstruction period after the Pacific War were the most flourishing golden ages of the Aizu saw. From the saw smithies standing eave-to-eave in Bakurō-machi (博労町), Naka-Muika-machi (中六日町), Takizawa-machi (滝沢町) and elsewhere in Aizu-Wakamatsu, the hammer-ring of saw forging echoed busily from early morning.
However, with the appearance of the chainsaw and the electric circular saw around Shōwa 30 (c. 1955), and changes in construction methods, hand saws gradually fell out of use; the saw smiths closed one after another, and today the Aizu saw smiths have been reduced to one man: the third-generation Nakaya Denzaemon (中屋伝左衛門). The third Denzaemon is already advanced in age, and little remains of the steel he had stocked for forging saws; the culture of the Aizu saw is approaching its end.
Therefore, on this occasion, under the title "The Last Saw Smith of Aizu: Nakaya Denzaemon," let me relate both how the saw-smithing culture of Aizu was transmitted, and the story of Nakaya Denzaemon, who has become the last one remaining. Honorifics are omitted below.
Let me first describe how the culture of the Aizu saw smiths — who in the Edo period became a great saw-production center of eastern Japan with superior saw-making technique — was transmitted to Echigo and to Edo.
In the Kanbun era (1661–1673), in the time of the fourth shōgun Tokugawa Ietsuna, the saw-manufacturing techniques of Aizu are said to have been conveyed to Echigo. Abe Shibeemon (阿部四兵衛門), said to be the founding ancestor of the Echigo Sanjō saw and thought to have received that influence, appears already to have been manufacturing saws in Kaji-machi, upper Sanjō (三条上町古鍛冶町), by Enpō 2 (1674).
In the Genroku era, under the fifth shōgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (徳川綱吉), the wrought-nail (wakugi 和釘) craftsmen of Tsubame (燕) took up the specialized manufacture of saw-sharpening files, which later became famous as Echigo files (越後ヤスリ).
Further, in the Genbun era (1736–1741), under the eighth shōgun Tokugawa Yoshimune, the Aizu saw smith Nakaya Heiemon (中屋平右衛門) is also said to have migrated to Echigo, manufacturing saws and sharpening files and transmitting his techniques there.
Nakaya Shōbei (中屋庄兵衛), born in Wakinomachi (脇野町) in Bunsei 1 (given as 1816), in the time of the eleventh shōgun Tokugawa Ienari (徳川家斉), went to Aizu at the age of 18 and trained under the Aizu saw smith Nakaya Jūzaemon (中屋重左衛門). Having mastered those techniques, Nakaya Shōbei returned to his home town in Tenpō 13 (1842), in the time of the twelfth shōgun Tokugawa Ieyoshi (徳川家慶), opened a saw smithy, and trained four apprentices. For this reason Nakaya Shōbei is revered as the founding ancestor of the Wakinomachi saw.
If one traces the genealogies of the four apprentices he trained, nearly all the saw smiths of Nagaoka (長岡), Kashiwazaki (柏崎), Sekihara (関原), Izumozaki (出雲崎) and elsewhere, down to the present day, belong to this school; and the saw smiths of this lineage, scattered not only within the prefecture but also in Hokkaidō and the Kantō region, made the fame of the Wakinomachi saw known to the world.
As for Edo, then the center of politics and the economy: when Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康) was transferred to Edo by order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he brought saw smiths along for castle construction and the building of the castle town; and Tokugawa Yoshimune, on becoming eighth shōgun, also brought saw smiths of the Futamiya Jinpachi (二見屋甚八) line from Kishū (紀州) — so saw smiths were present there. Naturally they are thought to have been influenced by the superior Aizu saw smiths, but what transmission concretely took place is, regrettably, unknown, because no documents have been discovered.
What is known at present is that the Edo master Nakaya Heijirō (中屋平治郎), who lived in Asakusa Abekawa-chō (浅草安倍川町) and is said to have been a pupil of the Aizu saw smith Nakaya Sukezaemon (中屋助左衛門) — the man credited with devising the oil-quenching method (油焼き入れ法) — transmitted saw-smithing technique in Edo in the last years of the shogunate.
In this way the superior saw-smithing techniques of Aizu were transmitted to Echigo, and then to Edo.
The long history of the Aizu saw smiths, continuous since the Azuchi–Momoyama period and proud of its nationwide fame, came in Heisei 17 (2005) to the point where the third-generation Nakaya Ichiemon (中屋市右衛門, Kawamura Ken'ichi 川村健一) extinguished the fire of his forge, leaving at last only the third-generation Nakaya Denzaemon.
In the heyday of the first and second generations, the Denzaemon workshop had more than ten people, apprentices included, busily forging saws from early morning. In those days Aioi-machi (相生町, formerly named Bakurō-machi 博労町) had 35 saw smithies. It is said this was because soil suited to building bellows-forges (fuigo 炉) was found nearby.
Now only the third-generation master remains, forging bent-handled felling saws from his scant remaining materials. The history of the Aizu saw is truly approaching its end. Let me therefore give an account of the three generations of this Nakaya Denzaemon, the last saw smiths of Aizu.
The first Nakaya Denzaemon, whose real name was Igarashi Chiyoji (五十嵐千代治), was born in Meiji 21 (1888). He became the foremost pupil of the third-generation Nakaya Chūzaemon (中屋忠左衛門), of the Nakaya Jūzaemon (中屋重左衛門) line. After completing his indenture he worked for a while as a journeyman under his master, but in time set up independently at the present location in Aioi-machi. For his smith name he took the name of the grandfather he revered — Igarashi Denzaemon (五十嵐伝左衛門), a samurai of the Aizu domain — and called himself "Nakaya Denzaemon."
The first Denzaemon was devoted to his work and widely respected; he became the leading advocate in forming a trade guild of carpentry-saw makers, and as its representative worked hard for the development of the industry. However, in Shōwa 13 (1938), at 53 (as written) — the very prime of a saw smith's life — he died.
The second Nakaya Denzaemon, born in Taishō 7 (1918), real name Igarashi Tokuichi (五十嵐徳市), trained in carpentry-saw making under his father, the first Denzaemon. Later he mastered by self-study the method of making Tennōji felling saws. Like his father devoted to work and research, he expanded sales channels to the wholesale houses of Echigo and worked to mechanize the saw smith's trade, for instance by using an electric furnace for heat treatment. He died in Heisei 22 (2010) at the age of 92.
The third Nakaya Denzaemon, born in Shōwa 19 (1944), real name Igarashi Seiichi (五十嵐征一), is now 67. After graduating from high school, through his father's arrangement he was apprenticed to Fukasawa Ichiji (深沢一二; reading uncertain), of the branch family of the famous Sanjō (Niigata) saw smith Nakaya Inosuke (中屋伊之助), and trained there. When his indenture ended, after his period of thanks-service (orei bōkō お礼奉公) he returned to his native Aizu and succeeded his father.
However, with the precipitous collapse in demand for saws, in Heisei 20 (2008) he intended to extinguish the fire of the saw forge; but the opening of his website made his name known throughout the country, he received many messages of encouragement by e-mail, and he has continued saw smithing with his remaining material — Yasugi steel "Kigami" (yellow-paper) stock (安来鋼の黄紙材).
The third Denzaemon says: his is "a smith's life with the fascination of making, so long as there is steel," and "even if my saw-smith's life ends when the steel on hand runs out, I am content that as a saw sharpener (metate-ya 目立て屋) I can carry on for a long time yet."
On this occasion, under the title "The Last Saw Smith of Aizu: Nakaya Denzaemon," I have described how the superior saw-smithing techniques of Aizu were transmitted to Echigo and Edo, and told of the three generations of the saw smith Nakaya Denzaemon. That the saw-smithing culture of Aizu, with no successor, will in time vanish into the stream of the ages is a lonely thing indeed for me, who study the history of carpentry tools — but I suppose it cannot be helped.
Yet it is a joy that the history of the Aizu saw smiths will be left as a record for posterity: through the precious histories written by the local researcher Mr. Tsutsumi Akira (堤章) — Aizu nokogiri kaji: Nakaya Yasuemon to Yasuzaemon no shūhen (会津鋸鍛冶―中屋保右衛門と保左衛門の周辺―, "The Aizu Saw Smiths: Around Nakaya Yasuemon and Yasuzaemon," Shōwa 60 / 1985) and Aizu no nokogiri kaji: kindai no gunzō to sono keifu (会津の鋸鍛冶―近代の群像とその系譜―, "The Saw Smiths of Aizu: Modern Figures and Their Genealogies," Shōwa 64 / 1989) — and through the Nakaya Denzaemon website, among others. If, by publishing it, this manuscript of mine may be of some small help toward that end, it is my dearest wish.
This manuscript drew on the Sanjō City website, a website concerning Nakaya Shōbei, the Tsubame City website, the Nakaya Denzaemon website, and Tsutsumi Akira's Aizu nokogiri kaji: Nakaya Yasuemon to Yasuzaemon no shūhen, among other sources.
An auspicious day, January, Heisei 23 (2011) Suzuki Kanamono Co., Ltd. (有限会社スズキ金物店) Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)