Source: Suzuki Kanamono-ten (スズキ金物店), "History of Tools" (道具の歴史) series Author: Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭), Representative Director, Suzuki Kanamono-ten Co., Ltd. Date of original: An auspicious day in May, Heisei 25 (2013) Original pages: Part 1 — nihonniokerubutuzoutyoukokutonomi1–4.html (4 pages); Part 2 — nihonniokerubutuzoutyoukokutonomi21–24.html (4 pages)
Translator's note: This two-part essay traces the relationship between the development of Japanese Buddhist image carving (from the Kofun period through the Heian period) and the parallel development of the chisel (nomi 鑿). Part 1 covers the Kofun, Asuka, and Hakuhō periods; Part 2 covers the Nara (Tempyō) and Heian periods. The author draws heavily on excavated chisels from 5th-century burial mounds, the recollections of the sculptor Takamura Kōtarō, and the tool-history research of Yoshikawa Kinji. The full series is eight web pages (including introductions and a conclusion) and is translated here in full. Ambiguities: the reading of the sculptor-smith 正次 is given as "Masatsugu" (a standard reading; the text does not gloss it); the Buddhist sculptor 瑞泉 is rendered "Zuisen"; the era name 垣武天皇 in the original is a typographical variant of Kanmu (桓武) and is translated as Emperor Kanmu. Technical terms such as ura-suki (裏スキ, hollow-ground back), nakago (茎, tang), and katsura (カツラ, iron hoop on the chisel-handle head) are kept in romanized Japanese with explanations on first use.
Buddhist images were transmitted from India to China, and entered Japan by way of the Korean Peninsula in the middle of the 6th century, during the Asuka period (飛鳥時代); by the end of the 6th century, Buddhist images were being made in Japan as well. In the earliest phase of image-making, wooden sculptures were produced, but gilt-bronze images (kondō-zō 金銅像) were the mainstream; when the Nara period arrived, clay images (sozō 塑像) and dry-lacquer images (kanshitsu-zō 乾漆像) came to be produced in large numbers. It was only from the Heian period onward that wood sculpture of Buddhist images developed in earnest.
Wooden images, which in the early Heian period were carved in the single-block technique (ichiboku-zukuri 一木造り), changed in the late Heian period to the joined-block technique (yosegi-zukuri 寄木造り). In the Kamakura period this technique developed still further, and magnificent wooden Buddhist images came to be produced by busshi (仏師, Buddhist sculptors) such as Unkei (運慶) and Kaikei (快慶). However, Buddhist image production from the Muromachi period onward merely transmitted the forms of earlier images; no new currents arose, and the art went into decline.
In China and Korea wooden Buddhist images are rare, but in Japan roughly 90% of the Buddhist images designated as cultural properties are wood sculptures. This is partly thanks to Japan's humid, four-season climate, which blessed the country with rich nature and abundant high-quality trees suited to wood carving; but I believe the evolution of wooden Buddhist image-making is also intimately connected with the development of the chisel (nomi 鑿) in Japan. "Chisel" here is used as a collective term covering carpentry chisels, chisels for fine woodworking, chisels for the rough carving of Buddhist images, chisels for precise finishing work, and carving knives (chōkokutō 彫刻刀). Hereafter in this essay, "chisel" is used in this all-inclusive sense.
To carve an excellent Buddhist image, there must be sharp, well-cutting chisels and the smiths who forge them. However, none of the various chisels used by the busshi of those times survive. Nor do any records survive of the smiths who forged those chisels. Research on the relationship between wooden Buddhist image production and the development of the chisel has likewise hardly been undertaken. What has come down to the present are only the names of the busshi who carved in wood, and the magnificent Buddhist images they carved.
Therefore I have written up my investigation of the relationship between the evolution of wooden Buddhist image-making in Japan and the development of the chisel under the title "On Buddhist Image Carving and Chisels in Japan." Because the page count is large, I am dividing it into two parts — "On Buddhist Image Carving and Chisels in Japan (1): Centering on the Asuka through Hakuhō Periods" and "On Buddhist Image Carving and Chisels in Japan (2): Centering on the Nara through Heian Periods" — and publishing them in the "History of Tools" section of our shop's website. I begin with Part 1. (Hereafter, honorifics are omitted.)
Many chisels have been excavated from 5th-century burial mounds such as the Kanakurayama Kofun (金蔵山古墳, Okayama Prefecture) and the Nonaka-Ariyama Kofun (野中アリ山古墳, Osaka Prefecture). They include flat chisels (hira-nomi 平鑿) with blade widths of 6 mm to 25 mm, chisels with knife-like (tōsu-shaped 刀子状) edges, and small chisels with rounded tips curving back toward the spine. These chisels are in a considerably corroded state, but on some of them one can make out that the back has been hollow-ground (ura-suki 裏スキ).
Ura-suki means hollowing out the central portion of the steel on a forge-welded chisel's back, which allows the entire blade portion to be honed flat right up to the cutting edge; by doing this, the blade can be sharpened and finished to cut very well. The presence of ura-suki means that steel (hagane 鋼) had been forge-welded on.
These chisels are of the type called nakago-style (茎式) chisels, used by inserting the iron part into a wooden handle. The nakago (tang) is also called the komi (コミ). Chisels of this form cannot practically be struck with a mallet; they are chisels pushed by hand to pare. From their form, one may say they belong not to the category of carpentry chisels but to that of fine-woodworking chisels or carving knives.
Also, from the Jingūjiyama Kofun (神宮寺山古墳, Okayama Prefecture), likewise a 5th-century mound, a socket-type chisel (fukuro-shiki nomi 袋式鑿) has been excavated with a total length of 90 mm, head width of 14 mm, blade width of 20 mm, and socket length of 30 mm. The socket chisel was a chisel devised in ancient China: the upper part of the blade was formed into a round iron socket, into which a wooden handle was inserted. This chisel was used by striking with a mallet.
Furthermore, from the 5th-century Hyōge Tomb No. 6 (兵家６号墳) and the Tsukayama Kofun (塚山古墳) in Nara Prefecture, several wide-bladed chisels with flared shoulders have been excavated. These are said to be chisels used for building construction, and are of the nakago type and socket type. Moreover, since these chisels also show ura-suki, we know that steel had been forge-welded onto them.
There are traces indicating that steel was already being made in the first half of the middle Yayoi period. In those days, smiths themselves gathered iron ore and iron sand, burned wood in hollows dug into mountainsides and the like, blew air into the fire, and carried out iron production by low-temperature reduction; they then decarburized, carburized, and forged this iron to make blades, ironware, and so on.
Accordingly, judging from the steelmaking technology of the time, the quality of the steel is thought to have still been rather poor. In the latter half of the 5th century, iron production, which until then had been carried out on a small scale in various regions, began in earnest. However, from antiquity through the medieval period, iron was smelted by the open-air "field tatara" (no-datara 野ダタラ) method — using a smelting furnace called a tatara made of clay and such, bellows (fuigo フイゴ) to supply air, and charcoal as fuel — so production remained small in scale and quantity, and iron was extremely precious. Steel, made by forging and refining iron, was more precious still.
Judging from the examples of chisels excavated from 5th-century burial mounds, the chisel was still at an early stage of development; but socket chisels for striking-and-cutting, nakago chisels for push-paring, carving knives (knife-shaped chisels), and round-edged chisels were being forged by smiths, and we can see that — although large wood sculpture was not feasible — small-scale wood carving was already possible.
When Buddhism was transmitted to Japan from Baekje (百済) on the Korean Peninsula in the middle of the 6th century, Buddhist images were transmitted along with it, and by the end of the 6th century the production of Buddhist images began in earnest in Japan as well. This was the birth of the busshi. In the Asuka period (6th–7th centuries; the age of Prince Shōtoku 聖徳太子), gilt-bronze images such as the jōroku Shaka Nyorai image of Asuka-dera (飛鳥寺丈六釈迦如来像) and the Shaka Triad of the Golden Hall of Hōryū-ji (法隆寺金堂釈迦三尊像) were made (Note 1); at the same time, wooden images were also carved, such as the Kudara Kannon of Hōryū-ji (法隆寺百済観音像), the Kuze Kannon of the Yumedono at Hōryū-ji (法隆寺夢殿救世観音像), the seated half-lotus pensive image (hanka shiyui-zō 半跏思惟像) of Chūgū-ji (中宮寺), and the Miroku half-lotus image of Kōryū-ji (広隆寺弥勒半跏像).
(Note 1) A gilt-bronze Buddha (kondō-butsu 金銅仏) is a Buddhist image cast in bronze and then gilded (mercury-gilded, kin-mekki); the periods in which they were most actively produced in Japan were the Asuka and Hakuhō periods.
As for the wood used in the wooden Buddha images: the Miroku half-lotus image of Kōryū-ji is a single-block carving of red pine (akamatsu 赤松, with camphor wood used in part), but all the other wooden images are single-block carvings of camphor wood (kusunoki 樟). The character 樟 is also written 楠. Properly, the fragrant, fine-grained, hard "sandal" woods — white sandalwood (byakudan 白檀), red sandalwood (shitan 紫檀), and sendan (栴檀) — should be used. But since these sandalwoods do not exist in Japan, camphor wood was used. Camphor wood has a fine, dense surface, is somewhat light and soft, excels in moisture resistance and durability, and moreover possesses an insect-repelling effect thanks to its strong camphor fragrance.
The surfaces of these wooden Buddhist images were not left as bare finished wood. They were finished by various methods: the mokushōshitsu (木屎漆) method, in which a paste of lacquer mixed with wood powder, powdered conifer needles, and the like was built up to finish the details and then polychromed (the Kudara Kannon of Hōryū-ji); the method of applying lacquer and a ground layer of white clay and such, then applying top-coat lacquer and affixing gold leaf (the Kuze Kannon of the Yumedono at Hōryū-ji; the half-lotus pensive image of Kōryū-ji); and the method of polychroming without affixing gold leaf (the half-lotus pensive image of Chūgū-ji).
Since the material of the Buddhist images in this period was the somewhat light and soft camphor wood, even chisels with poor cutting quality could achieve a clean finish. From the examples of the chisels excavated from 5th-century burial mounds, we know that in the Asuka period the many kinds of chisels needed for wood carving already existed. These were nakago-type and socket-type chisels; but the technical level of steelmaking was still low and the quality poor, and chisel-making technology was not yet very developed, so we can infer that the chisels' cutting performance was not very satisfactory. Thus I think this is one reason why the sculptors did not carve and finish every detail entirely with chisels, but instead built up the surface of the image by the mokushōshitsu method and the like, finishing the details with a spatula (hera ヘラ).
According to "The History of Sculpture in Our Country" (わが国の彫刻の歴史) in the Kaisōroku (回想録, Memoirs) of the sculptor Takamura Kōtarō (高村光太郎): "I think that in the Asuka period they probably used only flat chisels. In Asuka-period works, even places like the philtrum below the nose are carved in a triangular section, and there is no trace anywhere of a round gouge (maru-nomi 丸鑿) having been used." Takamura further states: "Asuka-period sculpture has the purity of cutting with the flat chisel; because they worked in that pure spirit, I imagine a round gouge would never even have occurred to them." These words are the personal view of one sculptor, but they seem to me a precious observation that should be consulted when inferring what chisels were used in the Buddhist sculpture of that era.
Who, then, forged the chisels used for carving Buddhist images? The rural smiths (no-kaji 野鍛冶, farm smiths) who forged spades, hoes, sickles, kitchen knives and the like could not make chisels. From of old, only a very few swordsmiths could live by sword-forging alone; most swordsmiths, to make a living, put their superior forging skills to use making all sorts of blades, chisels included.
It is recorded that when the famous sculptor Takamura Kōun (高村光雲), in the Meiji era, carved a statue from horse-chestnut wood (tochi 栃) — hard and full of contrary grain — ordinary chisels were utterly unusable, so he had various carving chisels forged for him by Masatsugu (正次), known as a swordsmith of the Masamune (正宗) lineage.
In 593, at the beginning of the Asuka period, the great wooden Buddhist temple Shitennō-ji in Osaka (大阪四天王寺) was erected. Many craftsmen gathered to build this temple and were engaged in its construction over a long period. Blade-and-tool smiths who forged construction tools for them came from Sakai (堺) in Osaka and elsewhere to live before the temple gate, and it is known that thus the first center of carpentry-tool production in Japan was born. Since there were also smiths who made chisels, it seems likely that they made chisels for the busshi for producing Buddhist images. Chiyozuru Korehide (千代鶴是秀), the great master of carpentry-tool smithing from the Meiji through early Shōwa eras, likewise made chisels for the famous sculptors of his day.
From the above, it appears that the swordsmiths living in the capital and elsewhere, and the blade-and-tool smiths who forged tools for the kidakumi (木工 — the term of the time for craftsmen engaged in construction) building palaces and temples, made the chisels for the busshi. The names of these smiths survive in no records. Nor do the chisels the busshi used survive.
In the Hakuhō period (白鳳時代, later 7th century to the beginning of the 8th century — from the reigns of Emperors Tenmu and Jitō to the transfer of the capital to Heijō-kyō), gilt-bronze images were made such as the Amida Triad of Hōryū-ji (法隆寺阿弥陀三尊像), the Buddha head of Kōfuku-ji (興福寺仏頭), the Shō Kannon of the Tōin-dō at Yakushi-ji (薬師寺東院堂聖観音像), the Yakushi Triad of the Golden Hall of Yakushi-ji (薬師寺金堂薬師三尊像), and the standing Yume-chigai Kannon of Hōryū-ji (法隆寺夢違観音立像). In addition, clay images were made — the clay figures at the base of the Five-Storied Pagoda of Hōryū-ji (法隆寺五重塔塔本塑像) — leading on to the Buddhist image production of the following Tempyō period.
In the Asuka and Hakuhō periods wooden Buddhist images were also made, but these were eras in which cast gilt-bronze images were the main form produced. One reason for this may relate to the developmental stage of the chisel — chisel manufacture was still immature. Accordingly, in this period there were no conspicuous major changes in the form of the chisel.
At that time, before the gate of Shitennō-ji in Osaka (erected 593) where the carpenters gathered, there were blade-and-tool smiths forging chisels and other carpentry tools, and in the capital there were swordsmiths retained by the court; so it seems the busshi who carved wooden Buddhist images had their chisels forged by them. However, none of this survives in records either, and the chisels the busshi used do not survive.
(Part 1 ends here. Part 2 will be published later in the "History of Tools" section.)
An auspicious day in May, Heisei 25 (2013) Suzuki Kanamono-ten Co., Ltd. Representative Director: Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)
- Manabe Shunshō (真鍋俊照), ed., "Nihon Butsuzō Jiten" 日本仏像事典 (Dictionary of Japanese Buddhist Images), 2004
- Yoshikawa Kinji (吉川金次), "Mono to Ningen no Bunkashi: Ono, Nomi, Kanna" ものと人間の文化史／斧・鑿・鉋 (Cultural History of Things and People: Axe, Chisel, Plane), 1984
- Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭), "Nihon no Daiku Dōgu Shokunin" 日本の大工道具職人 (Japan's Carpentry-Tool Craftsmen), 2011
- Suzuki Toshiaki, "Zoku: Nihon no Daiku Dōgu Shokunin" 続・日本の大工道具職人 (Japan's Carpentry-Tool Craftsmen, Continued), 2012
- Suzuki Toshiaki, "Nihon ni okeru Nomi, Kanna no Ura-suki ni tsuite" 日本における鑿・鉋の裏スキについて (On the Hollow-Ground Backs of Chisels and Planes in Japan), 2013
- Nagasawa Ichirō (長澤市郎), paper: "Nihon no Mokuchō Butsuzō: Sono Seisaku Gihō to Shūri Gihō" 日本の木彫仏像―その製作技法と修理技法― (Japan's Wooden Buddhist Images: Their Production and Repair Techniques)
- Free encyclopedia "Wikipedia": dry-lacquer images (kanshitsu-zō)
- Blog: "Nihon no Butsuzō Yōshiki no Hensen" 日本の仏像様式の変遷 (The Evolution of Japanese Buddhist Image Styles)
- Blog: "Nihon no Butsuzō Seizō no Rekishi" 日本の仏像製造の歴史 (The History of Buddhist Image Manufacture in Japan)
- Blog Tōhoku Bunko: Takamura Kōtarō, "Waga Kuni no Chōkoku no Rekishi" (The History of Sculpture in Our Country), from Takamura Kōtarō's "Kaisōroku" 回想録 (Memoirs)
- Blog: "Introductions to the famous temples of the old capital Nara and commentary on Buddhist cultural properties, etc." — Talks on wooden images (single-block images), wooden images (joined-block construction), hollow dry-lacquer images, wood-core dry-lacquer images
Last time, I published in the "History of Tools" section the results of my investigation into the relationship between the evolution of wooden Buddhist image production in Japan and the development of the chisel, as Part 1, "On Buddhist Image Carving and Chisels in Japan (1): Centering on the Asuka through Hakuhō Periods." This time I publish Part 2, "On Buddhist Image Carving and Chisels in Japan (2): Centering on the Nara through Heian Periods." Hereafter, honorifics are omitted.
In cultural history, the Nara period is called the Tempyō period (天平時代, from Empress Genmei's transfer of the capital to Heijō-kyō in 710 to Emperor Kanmu's transfer of the capital to Heian-kyō in 794). This was an era in which Buddhism enjoyed the protection of the court; temples and outstanding Buddhist images were made in great numbers, and Buddhist image production reached one of its peaks.
In this period, with the influx of miscellaneous esoteric Buddhism (zōbu mikkyō 雑部密教) and other currents, the variety of Buddhist images increased; in addition to the traditional gilt-bronze and wood-carved images, many clay images (sozō) and dry-lacquer images (kanshitsu-zō) were produced. Representative works include the Eight Legions (Hachibushū 八部衆) of Kōfuku-ji (wood-core dry lacquer), the Nikkō and Gakkō Bosatsu of Tōdai-ji (東大寺日光月光菩薩像, clay), the Shukongōjin of Tōdai-ji (東大寺執金剛神像, clay), the Four Heavenly Kings of the Kaidan-in at Tōdai-ji (東大寺戒壇院四天王像, clay), and the Ganjin portrait of Tōshōdai-ji (唐招提寺鑑真像, hollow dry lacquer). (See ※1.)
※1 A hollow dry-lacquer image (dakkatsu kanshitsu-zō 脱活乾漆像) is made as follows: a roughly formed clay figure is wrapped over its whole body with hemp cloth soaked in lacquer, layer upon layer (several layers for a seated image, about ten for a standing image); after drying, the back or another part is cut open, the clay core inside is broken up and removed, and a wooden armature of thin boards is placed into the hollowed interior and fixed with nails. Then the surface is detailed and finished with mokushōshitsu (木屎漆) — lacquer mixed with wood powder into a paste. After drying, the image is finished with lacquered gold leaf (shippaku 漆箔) or polychromy. Shippaku means affixing gold leaf on top of applied lacquer.
A wood-core dry-lacquer image (mokushin kanshitsu-zō 木心乾漆像) is an image in which a rough wooden prototype is carved, lacquer and mokushōshitsu paste are built up on it for detailed shaping and finishing, and it is completed with shippaku or polychromy. Because the production of hollow dry-lacquer images required enormous expense, the wood-core dry-lacquer image was devised as a cheaper alternative.
In this period, government-operated tatara ironworks were established, laid out with charcoal kilns, smithies, casting shops, and so on, where integrated operations from smelting through smithing were carried out. This was the placing of iron under state control. That is how precious iron and steel were to the government of the day.
Furthermore, Takamura Kōtarō — introduced in the section on the Asuka period — says that the dry-lacquer image, which appeared in this era, brought a new development to the chisels used in wooden sculpture.
According to him: "In my view, the first use of the round gouge (maru-nomi 丸鑿) arose, I believe, from the making of dry-lacquer images. In dry-lacquer work, when one works with a spatula the valleys become rounded, so work like that of the flat chisel cannot be done — but this gave the dry-lacquer image an exceedingly soft feeling. So I surmise that, wishing to produce that soft feeling in wood carving as well, they began to use it [the round gouge]. The round gouge began to be used in the Tempyō era, and I think it was really from around the images of Tōshōdai-ji that its use truly began." This personal view, too, may be called a precious observation from a sculptor's standpoint for considering the chisels of this period.
Further, there appeared the striking chisel fitted with a katsura (カツラ) — an iron ring — on the head of its handle. When a katsura is fitted, it prevents the handle from splitting even when struck hard with a mallet. What was used to strike chisels was the wooden mallet; the iron hammer (the so-called gennō 玄能) began to be used for striking chisels only from the latter half of the Edo period. Until then, the iron hammer was used mainly by stonemasons and smiths.
The carpentry-tool researcher Yoshikawa Kinji (吉川金次), in his book "Mono to Ningen no Bunkashi: Ono, Nomi, Kanna" (Cultural History of Things and People: Axe, Chisel, Plane; Shōwa 59 / 1984), attempts to infer with what edged tools the 8th-century (Nara-period) furnishings, furniture, and other wooden articles illustrated in "Shōsōin no Mokkō" 正倉院の木工 (Woodwork of the Shōsōin; compiled by the Shōsōin Office, 1978) were made.
For chisels, he infers:
| No. | Type | Range |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Striking chisels (with handles) — Kurihara-type chisels | from large to small |
| 2 | Paring chisels | medium and small; various thick and thin |
| 3 | Round gouges for carving | from large to small |
| 4 | Curved-blade chisels (kyokutō-nomi 曲刀鑿) | from large to small |
The "Kurihara-type chisel" (栗原式鑿) referred to here is the form of chisel excavated from the Kurihara dwelling site (栗原住居址) in Itabashi Ward, Tokyo (dating to around the end of the 9th century, in the Heian period). This chisel has a thin, single-bevel blade; a stout iron body of the same width as the blade runs through the handle all the way to the handle head, and an iron ring — a katsura — is fitted on the handle head. It is a striking chisel. The excavated chisel measures 17 cm in length with a blade width of 1 cm.
The socket chisel, which had until then been used as the striking chisel, could not be driven hard into wood; moreover it had the defect that the socket would spread open with use. Also, because the socket portion bulges, it is problematic as a chisel for accurate paring.
The Kurihara-type chisel, being a single iron body of the same width from blade through chisel shank to the handle-mounting portion, can be driven and made to cut at a precise spot; and if a katsura is fitted on the handle head, the handle does not split even when struck hard there. As a chisel form, it can be called a considerably advanced chisel.
However, to withstand strong blows, this chisel has a stout tang (nakago 茎, also called komi) of full blade width running all the way to the handle head, so it used extra iron — a precious material at the time — and had the defect of being heavy.
Yoshikawa Kinji, the foremost authority on the history of the Japanese chisel, points out — given that it was excavated in Itabashi, Tokyo, then a backward region — that "chisels of a structure like the Kurihara-type chisel probably already existed and were in use in the advanced regions in the 7th–8th centuries." "Advanced regions" means the capital of the time, Nara, and its environs.
When carving a wooden Buddhist image, a striking chisel for rough carving (arabori 荒彫り) was used first to establish the approximate form, and thereafter small striking chisels for detail work before finishing. Previously, this rough carving and pre-finish detail work had been done with the socket chisel and its various defects. But with the appearance of the Kurihara-type chisel fitted with a katsura, capable of being driven strongly and accurately, the production of wooden Buddhist images became easier.
According to Yoshikawa Kinji, cited above, judging from the wooden furnishings and furniture preserved in the Shōsōin, the chisels of the 5th-century Kofun period had been dramatically improved by the 7th–8th centuries, and their variety had grown rich. This development of the chisel, we may say, greatly spurred the flowering of wooden Buddhist sculpture in the following Heian period.
The Heian period runs from Emperor Kanmu's transfer of the capital to Heian-kyō in 794 to Minamoto no Yoritomo's establishment of the Kamakura shogunate in 1192. Let us divide it into the early-to-middle Kōnin-Jōgan (弘仁・貞観) era and the late Fujiwara (藤原) era, and describe the relationship between the wooden Buddhist images and the chisels of this period.
From this era, the concept of state Buddhism as in the Nara period was reconsidered; the separation of state and Buddhism progressed, and Buddhist image production could no longer obtain state patronage. For this reason, expensive dry-lacquer images and clay images (with their preservation problems) gradually ceased to be made, and wooden Buddhist images became the main form produced.
Also, at the beginning of this era, Saichō (最澄) and Kūkai (空海) brought the new Buddhism — esoteric Buddhism (mikkyō 密教) — from Tang China, and the Buddhist worldview underwent a great transformation. Consequently, many esoteric Buddhist images were made, and the production of many-faced, many-armed images (tamen tapi-zō 多面多臂像), typified by the Myōō (明王), increased.
As major characteristics of Kōnin-Jōgan image production, three lineages of images were made:
- Esoteric-Buddhist wooden images;
- Images inheriting the techniques of the Nara period (wood-core dry lacquer);
- Images in a single-block carving style that appeared suddenly in this era, with stern facial features and design-like, varied drapery folds (the "rolling-wave" style, honpa-shiki emon 翻波式衣文).
Examples of lineage 1: the Nyoirin Kannon of Kanshin-ji (観心寺如意輪観音像; head and main body a single block of kaya 榧, Japanese nutmeg-yew); the Godai Kokūzō Bosatsu of the Hōtō (pagoda) at Jingo-ji (神護寺宝塔五大虚空菩薩像; single-block hinoki 檜 cypress; by the busshi Zuisen 瑞泉).
Examples of lineage 2: the seated Amida Nyorai of the Lecture Hall of Kōryū-ji (広隆寺講堂阿弥陀如来坐像; wood-core dry lacquer); the standing Senju Kannon of Tōshōdai-ji (唐招提寺千手観音立像; wood-core dry lacquer).
Examples of lineage 3: the seated Yakushi Nyorai of Shin-Yakushi-ji (新薬師寺薬師如来坐像; head and main body a single block of kaya); the standing Yakushi Nyorai of Jingo-ji (神護寺薬師如来立像; single-block hinoki); the standing Yakushi Nyorai of Gangō-ji (元興寺薬師如来立像; single-block cherry).
For single-block Buddhist images, besides the conifer woods hinoki (cypress) and kaya, broadleaf woods easy to obtain in each place of production — katsura (桂), keyaki (欅, zelkova), cherry (桜), camphor (樟) — were also used. Later, in the late Heian period, the above three lineages merged into one, becoming the prototype of Japanese-style (wayō 和様) sculpture.
In 894 the missions to Tang China were abolished, and as Japanese-style culture blossomed, Buddhist sculpture too shed Chinese influence, and a uniquely Japanese wayō sculpture approached completion. In this era the status of the busshi also rose, and there appeared busshi, like Jōchō (定朝), who served particular noble houses. This Jōchō perfected the "Jōchō style" (Jōchō-yō 定朝様) of Buddhist image — downcast eyes, a gentle round-faced countenance, low knee height, an equilateral-triangle body — using the new production technique of joined-block construction (yosegi-zukuri 寄木造り) in hinoki, and he was to exert an enormous influence on subsequent Buddhist sculpture.
Through the shift from single-block to joined-block construction, and the appearance of workshops in which teams carved the respective parts of an image, it became possible to carve many large Buddhist images, and the technique became overwhelmingly yosegi-zukuri.
Also in this era, the doctrine of the Latter Day of the Law (mappō shisō 末法思想) spread, and many large Amida Nyorai images came to be made — typified by the Amida Nyorai of the Phoenix Hall of Byōdō-in (平等院鳳凰堂阿弥陀如来像; joined-block hinoki), the seated Amida Nyorai of Hōkai-ji (法界寺阿弥陀如来坐像; joined-block hinoki), the Nine Amida images of Jōruri-ji (浄瑠璃寺九体阿弥陀像; joined-block hinoki), and the Amida Triad of Ōjō-Gokuraku-in (往生極楽院阿弥陀三尊像; joined-block hinoki) — and hinoki became the principal material. Amida Nyorai was believed to be the Buddha who comes to meet one after death and guides one to the Pure Land of Supreme Bliss.
Passing through this era, the Japanese Buddhist image developed into the large joined-block wooden images of the Kamakura period, with their powerful realism and rich humanity.
In the Heian period, the raw material of iron gradually shifted from iron ore and iron sand to iron sand alone. Iron production then became concentrated in the mountainous districts of the Chūgoku region, where iron sand could be obtained in abundance. In the Nara period iron production had been government-run, but as iron spread, regional magnates and others also came to produce iron.
As iron production increased, the work became divided: the ō-kaji (大鍛冶, "great smiths") who smelted by tatara in the mountains; the ko-kaji (小鍛冶, "small smiths") who used that iron to make products; and the imoji (鋳物師, casters) who made cast goods.
Swords, too: up to the Nara period they were straight-bladed or double-edged swords — heavy, poor at cutting, weapons for striking and thrusting; but from the Heian period, swords became the wantō (湾刀, curved sword), slimmer and lighter than the swords of the earlier era — a sword for cutting. After the transfer of the capital to Heian-kyō, the swordsmiths called the "Yamashiro tradition of old swords" (古刀の山城伝), centered on Kyoto, produced curved swords. This signifies improvement in steel manufacture and forging technique.
With the above as foundation, in this Heian period there was a further advance in the development of the chisel: the appearance of the striking chisel whose handle was fitted with both a katsura and a ferrule (kuchigane 口金).
The iron ferrule attached at the base of the chisel handle is an evolution of the socket portion of the ancient striking chisel, the socket chisel. The socket chisel, as noted in the section on Nara-period chisels, had various problems as a striking chisel. Thus the Kurihara-type chisel was newly devised around the 7th–8th centuries, it seems, and came into use.
But this Kurihara-type chisel, though improved in function as a striking chisel over the socket chisel, had the problem that — because a stout iron body of full blade width had to run all the way through to the katsura-fitted handle head — the wider the blade, the heavier it became, using extra amounts of iron, which was precious at the time.
Improvement of the chisel's function is the simple, clear-cut pursuit of a tool that cuts well and is light and easy to use. So the following form was devised: make a sturdy short tang (nakago/komi) on the chisel body to lighten it, insert it into the handle, and — to prevent handle splitting — fit a katsura on the handle head and a ferrule at the handle base to withstand strong blows. This was the birth of the kuchigane (ferrule). It is the prototype of the modern chisel.
In Kamakura-period picture scrolls such as the Taima Mandala Engi (当麻曼荼羅縁起) and the Kasuga Gongen Genki (春日権現霊験記), there are depicted banshō (番匠 — the term of the time for building craftsmen), wearing soft eboshi caps, swinging wooden mallets against striking chisels fitted with katsura and ferrule. We can see that by that time chisels were already being used fitted with katsura and kuchigane.
When, then, did the striking chisel fitted with katsura and ferrule appear?
There is no record in Heian-period painting or writing, but the aforementioned Yoshikawa Kinji conjectures the date thus: "These improvements and advances of the chisel were not achieved in a day, but I think the chisel with ferrule and katsura had already appeared in the Heian period."
Accordingly, the katsura and ferrule were naturally fitted not only to chisels for construction and for wooden articles, but also to the tools used by the Heian-period busshi — striking round gouges and flat chisels for rough carving, and striking round gouges, flat chisels, and triangular (V-section) chisels for detail work — and Buddhist images were carved with them.
Also, as can be inferred from Heian-period swords, steelmaking technology improved and the quality of steel became considerably better; and I believe well-cutting chisels were made using it for the blades. These chisels were then inherited and used by the busshi of the subsequent Kamakura period, who carved large and magnificent Buddhist images.
However, the names of the swordsmiths and blade-and-tool smiths who forged these chisels are unknown, both before and after this era. Nor do the chisels the busshi used survive. The first point at which the names of chisel makers become clearly known is around Doi Sukeemon (土肥助右衛門) and Tsuboi Kōdō (坪井幸道), swordsmiths of Echigo (越後) in the latter half of the Edo period. But whether these two made chisels for busshi is not recorded.
This is probably because the smiths who forged blade tools such as chisels were, unlike swordsmiths, looked down upon socially. Yet it was they who, by making chisels for the busshi, supported from behind the scenes the development of Japan's wooden Buddhist sculpture.
The occasion that made me decide to write about the relationship between Buddhist image carving and the chisel was this: seeing in the newspaper a photograph of a wonderful Buddhist image carved by Unkei (運慶), I suddenly became curious — with what kind of chisels did Unkei carve his images, and do those chisels survive? I had finished writing "On the Hollow-Ground Backs of Chisels and Planes in Japan" (日本における鑿・鉋の裏スキについて) in January of this year (published in the "History of Tools" section of the Suzuki Kanamono-ten website), and so knew the history of the chisel from antiquity in some detail; perhaps that resonated in my heart with Unkei's Buddhist images.
When I promptly began investigating, I learned that neither the chisels used by the busshi nor the names of the smiths who made them survive, and that research in this field has hardly been undertaken at all. Blade tools such as chisels are used all the more heavily the better they cut and the easier they are to use; they wear out, eventually become unusable, and are discarded. There must also have been cases where a master's chisels were handed down to a disciple, but those too, I imagine, were worn out through the disciple's use and did not survive. This may be called the fate of the blade tool.
So I investigated historically the relationship between Buddhist image carving in Japan and the development of the chisel, wrote it up, and published it in the "History of Tools" section in two parts, covering the Asuka period through the Heian period. Because source materials are exceedingly scarce, and because much had to be inferred from the circumstantial evidence of the eras in which the chisel developed, there are doubtless still many insufficient points in the account. This essay is the first step in research in this field. If by publishing it I can provide the occasion for further investigation and research to be undertaken, that would be my heartfelt wish.
An auspicious day in May, Heisei 25 (2013) Suzuki Kanamono-ten Co., Ltd. Representative Director: Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)
- Manabe Shunshō (真鍋俊照), ed., "Nihon Butsuzō Jiten" 日本仏像事典 (Dictionary of Japanese Buddhist Images), 2004
- Yoshikawa Kinji (吉川金次), "Mono to Ningen no Bunkashi: Ono, Nomi, Kanna" ものと人間の文化史／斧・鑿・鉋 (Cultural History of Things and People: Axe, Chisel, Plane), 1984
- Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭), "Nihon no Daiku Dōgu Shokunin" 日本の大工道具職人 (Japan's Carpentry-Tool Craftsmen), 2011
- Suzuki Toshiaki, "Zoku: Nihon no Daiku Dōgu Shokunin" 続・日本の大工道具職人 (Japan's Carpentry-Tool Craftsmen, Continued), 2012
- Suzuki Toshiaki, "Nihon ni okeru Nomi, Kanna no Ura-suki ni tsuite" 日本における鑿・鉋の裏スキについて (On the Hollow-Ground Backs of Chisels and Planes in Japan), 2013
- Nagasawa Ichirō (長澤市郎), paper: "Nihon no Mokuchō Butsuzō: Sono Seisaku Gihō to Shūri Gihō" 日本の木彫仏像―その製作技法と修理技法― (Japan's Wooden Buddhist Images: Their Production and Repair Techniques)
- Free encyclopedia "Wikipedia": dry-lacquer images (kanshitsu-zō)
- Blog: "Nihon no Butsuzō Yōshiki no Hensen" 日本の仏像様式の変遷 (The Evolution of Japanese Buddhist Image Styles)
- Blog: "Nihon no Butsuzō Seizō no Rekishi" 日本の仏像製造の歴史 (The History of Buddhist Image Manufacture in Japan)
- Blog Tōhoku Bunko: Takamura Kōtarō, "Waga Kuni no Chōkoku no Rekishi" (The History of Sculpture in Our Country), from Takamura Kōtarō's "Kaisōroku" 回想録 (Memoirs)
- Blog: "Introductions to the famous temples of the old capital Nara and commentary on Buddhist cultural properties, etc." — Talks on wooden images (single-block images), wooden images (joined-block construction), hollow dry-lacquer images, wood-core dry-lacquer images