Source: Suzuki Kanamono Ltd. (有限会社スズキ金物店), "Sakan trowels and tools" — Suzuki Kanamono-ten, misyuku-suzuki-kanamonoten.com Author: Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭), Representative Director, Suzuki Kanamono Ltd. Date of composition: Originally written June, Heisei 18 (2006); revised and expanded August, Heisei 18 (2006).
Translator's note. This series is the site's central essay on the celebrated tool-smith Chiyozuru Korehide (千代鶴是秀): his birth, training, smith-name, pupils, and the network of smiths connected to him — the Ishidō (石堂) family of sword-smiths, his son Chiyozuru Tarō (千代鶴太郎), the third-generation Chiyozuru Nobukuni (千代鶴延國), Chiyozuru Sadahide (千代鶴貞秀) of Miki, the medieval sword-smith Chiyozuru Kuniyasu (千代鶴國安) of Echizen, and the founders of modern carpentry-tool smithing, Kunihiro (國弘) and Yoshihiro (義廣). Pages archived: 11 — the untitled introduction page (tiyodurukorehide.html) plus sections (2)–(10) and the conclusion (tiyoduru2.html–tiyoduru11.html). A page "tiyoduru1.html" does not exist on the server (HTTP 404): the numbered sections begin at (二) "Chiyozuru Korehide," so section (一) is evidently the Katō-family genealogy published on the site as the separate seven-page series katoukenokeifu1–7 (加藤家の系譜), which is archived separately in this corpus. Ambiguities: in section 6 the word 着層 (in "千代鶴銘の着層を得た") appears to be a typo for 着想 "conception/inspiration" and is translated accordingly; in section 9 the smith name 水無川 is read provisionally as "Minasegawa" (reading not given in the source). All dates are given as in the original, with Western years supplied.
(page: tiyodurukorehide.html — 「千代鶴是秀の系譜」)
Concerning the name "Chiyozuru Korehide" (千代鶴是秀): the many hardware stores that deal in carpentry tools, and the people who — drawn by the difficulty and fascination of mastering it — take an interest in the plane (kanna), "called the king of carpentry tools," will all have heard at least the name. But as for what sort of family this Chiyozuru Korehide was born into, what training he underwent as a blacksmith, what pupils he had, what relation he bore to the Ishidō (石堂) family — the hereditary name of sword-smiths — and to Ishidō Teruhide (石堂輝秀), and further what relation he bore to the names Chiyozuru Tarō (千代鶴太郎), Chiyozuru Unju (千代鶴運壽), Chiyozuru Kuniyasu (千代鶴國安), Chiyozuru Nobukuni (千代鶴延國), and Chiyozuru Sadahide (千代鶴貞秀) — now that almost all the people of his own generation who had ties to Chiyozuru Korehide have passed away, there are many who do not really know, and mistaken accounts are also being circulated on the internet.
Recently, some people in the hardware trade asked me whether I could tell them more about Chiyozuru Korehide. I have therefore drawn on the stories I heard in the past from people in the hardware trade who were on friendly terms with Chiyozuru Korehide during his lifetime; on the stories of my late father Sakio (左喜雄), a dai-ire craftsman (fitter of plane blades into their wooden bodies) who was acquainted with Chiyozuru Korehide — for Chiyozuru Korehide lived at Shukuyama (宿山) near my family's home, and would come to the shop in person, carrying planes he had forged, to commission their fitting into bodies; and on such sources as Shirasaki Hideo's 「千代鶴是秀」 (Chiyozuru Korehide), Tsuchida Noboru's 「千代鶴是秀」 (Chiyozuru Korehide), Kōda Morichika's 「随筆なにがなんだか ―名工千代鶴是秀―」 (Essays: What on Earth — the Master Craftsman Chiyozuru Korehide), and the Nihon Hamono Kōgu Shimbun (日本刃物工具新聞, Japan Blades and Tools Newspaper). On that basis let me set out the matters above in some detail.
(page: tiyoduru2.html)
When Chiyozuru Korehide was born in Meiji 7 (1874) as the third son, his father was 38; the eldest son Arata (新) was 16, the second son Gijirō (義次郎) was 11, the eldest daughter Jun (順) was 5, and his grandmother was 71. At that time the seventh-generation Ishidō (七代目石堂) was 55 and the eighth-generation Ishidō (八代目石堂) was 35, and fifty days before Chiyozuru Korehide's birth, the eighth-generation Ishidō's eldest son Mayumi (眞勇美) — the future ninth-generation Ishidō — had been born. And this year, Meiji 7, was also the year the Haitōrei (廃刀令) — the edict forbidding the wearing of swords — came into force, dealing a decisive blow to the livelihood of sword-smiths. Demand for swords had vanished.
When the first-generation Tsunatoshi (初代綱俊) died at 66, the second-generation Tsunatoshi (二代目綱俊) was 27. Thereafter the second-generation Tsunatoshi signed his blades Chōunsai Tsunatoshi (長雲斎綱俊) and continued forging swords even after the Meiji Restoration; but the eldest son Arata, who had been sword-smithing alongside his father, lost heart for forging swords under the staged prohibition edicts, left his father, and later died destitute by the roadside in the provinces. The second son Gijirō likewise developed an interest in politics and left his father. In time the second-generation Tsunatoshi was struck down by palsy (chūbū), and after a long illness he departed this world in November of Meiji 28 (1895) at the age of 59. At that time Chiyozuru Korehide was 22, and had not only just become independent as a smith but had also just married.
The man who supported the Ishidō house from around the Meiji Restoration onward and became the core of the Chōunsai school was the eighth-generation Ishidō, who, from two or three years before the sword-abolition edict, had begun forging sickles and hoes at the request of nearby farmers. This is called no-kaji (野鍛冶, field smithing) or nō-kaji (農鍛冶, farm smithing); for the eighth-generation Ishidō — who as a sword-smith had served not only the Uesugi (上杉) house but the shogunate itself as official sword-smith, and had been selected to exhibit a sword at the International Exposition — this was inwardly mortifying, but he complied, saying it could not be helped, for the sake of livelihood. In time his reputation spread and he came to forge planes and chisels as well, but however he was begged, he would never sign them. Among the carpentry-tool smiths of planes and chisels of this period were masters whose names would endure — the Kunihiro (國弘) and Yoshihiro (義廣) school, Shigekatsu (重勝), and others.
On June 4, Meiji 17 (1884), Katō Hiroshi (加藤廣) — that is, Chiyozuru Korehide — at the age of 11, was taken by his mother Kiku (キク) to the house of Ishidō Korekazu (石堂是一) in Kita-Shinmonzen-chō to be apprenticed as a blacksmith. The seventh-generation Ishidō was 63, the eighth-generation 42. He became the formal pupil of the seventh generation and received his technical instruction from the eighth. From these two Ishidō he was told: "If you mean to become a smith who does not disgrace the name, you must never put money first in your thoughts. And you must never neglect your training." Chiyozuru Korehide faithfully kept these words all his life. By the time he entered his apprenticeship, his father the second-generation Tsunatoshi was already palsied and half-paralyzed.
In October of Meiji 24 (1891), sudden misfortune visited the Ishidō house. The eighth-generation Ishidō contracted typhus and died suddenly at 49. One month later the seventh-generation Ishidō, his spirit gone, followed him in death. He was 70. Chiyozuru Korehide was then 18.
When he turned 19, the time came to take a smith-name (kaji-mei). Ordinarily one places one character of the master's name first and one's own name after; but that would have produced "Korehiro" (是廣), easily confused with the Kunihiro–Yoshihiro school, so he abandoned it. Instead he took the "Kore" (是) of the seventh-generation Ishidō Korekazu, and — since the eighth-generation Ishidō Korekazu had also gone by the name Hidekazu (秀一) — the "hide" (秀) from that, and decided to sign himself "Korehide" (是秀). As for the surname: one tradition says he recalled the old story of Ōta Dōkan (太田道灌), builder of Edo castle, who on seeing three cranes dancing in the sky named it Chiyoda castle, and — "chiyo" (千代, a thousand generations) and "tsuru" (鶴, crane) both being highly auspicious — resolved to call himself "Chiyozuru" (千代鶴); another tradition says that once, walking to the Nijūbashi bridge of the Imperial Palace, he happened to see a crane dancing in the sky and so came to call himself "Chiyozuru." Which is correct is not known; but thus he came to sign himself with what was, for the time, an exceedingly unusual smith-name: "Chiyozuru Korehide" (千代鶴是秀).
Then, together with his cousin the ninth-generation Ishidō Hidekazu (九代目石堂秀一), the two young men devoted themselves to study, researching the works of the forerunners known as masters of carpentry-tool smithing. In Meiji 27 (1894) he married Nobu (信), fourth daughter of the eighth-generation Ishidō. Korehide was 21, Nobu 19. They would have one son and three daughters.
(page: tiyoduru3.html)
Chiyozuru had four pupils. The first was Tsuyukubo Sadakichi (露窪貞吉), born in Nasu, Tochigi prefecture. After finishing his training he returned to his home village and set up independently, and Chiyozuru Korehide granted him the smith-name Sadahide (貞秀); but he did not succeed, and while helping with his family's tenant farming he died young of tuberculosis. The second was called Katsujirō (勝次郎), an exceedingly quick-witted and skillful pupil of whom Chiyozuru Korehide expected much; but family circumstances forced him, in tears, to give up becoming a smith midway through his training, and he moved on to become an apprentice workman in a factory. The third was Sakakibara Miyoji (榊原美代治), who entered as a pupil but gave up early on becoming a smith and went on to the Tokyo Higher Technical School (東京高等工業学校); he died of illness, however, just before graduation day. The last pupil was Nishio Eikichi (西尾英吉). Tatsusaburō (辰三郎) — son of Tsunahide (綱秀), the eldest son of the first-generation Tsunatoshi, who had been adopted into the sword-smith Nishio family and become the fourth-generation Nishio Tatsusaburō (四代目西尾辰三郎) — had married Jun (順), Chiyozuru Korehide's sister five years his senior; Eikichi was their second son. He stayed with Chiyozuru Korehide until nearly the age of 30, then became independent in Taishō 6 (1917), married a woman related by adoption to Raku (ラク), wife of the ninth-generation Ishidō, and took the smith-name Hidefusa (秀房); but he suffered mental collapse, was hospitalized, and never recovered. Eikichi's wife afterwards placed their two children with Eikichi's relatives and divorced him.
Thus he had not only failed to raise his own pupils into full-fledged smiths — they had, while still young, come to ill-fated ends — and as their master he could not but feel deep grief and heavy responsibility.
In later years Chiyozuru Korehide always said, "I have taken no pupils since Taishō 7 (1918)." Perhaps this was the true meaning behind those words.
(page: tiyoduru4.html)
Mayumi (眞勇美), eldest son of the eighth-generation Ishidō — that is, the ninth-generation Ishidō Hidekazu (九代目石堂秀一) — was born, like Chiyozuru Korehide, in Meiji 7 (1874), a mere fifty days older. He lost his mother at age 10; when Chiyozuru Korehide entered the Ishidō house he trained rigorously alongside him under the seventh- and eighth-generation Ishidō, the two spurring each other on as good rivals toward becoming full-fledged smiths. But at 18, in the latter half of Meiji 24 (1891), he lost his father (the eighth generation) and his uncle (the seventh generation) in quick succession, took the name ninth-generation Ishidō Hidekazu while still young, and shouldered the Ishidō house. In time the ninth-generation Ishidō Hidekazu and Chiyozuru Korehide became the twin pillars representing carpentry-tool smithing.
In Meiji 42 (1909), Kikuchi Seiichi (菊池清一) — the future tenth-generation Ishidō Teruhide (十代目石堂輝秀) — entered apprenticeship under the ninth-generation Ishidō Hidekazu at the age of 13. The ninth-generation Ishidō was then 37. He already had two pupils. One was Sugiyama Takeo (杉山武勇), three years older than Seiichi, from the same home region as the ninth-generation Ishidō's wife Raku and her cousin. He excelled as a smith too, set up independently at Shintomi-chō, Shinbashi, and took the name Hideyuki (秀行), but died of illness in Taishō 10 (1921) at the age of 26. The other, three years younger than Seiichi, was Sugiyama Takeo's younger brother Hidesaku (秀作), who had become the adopted heir of the childless ninth-generation Ishidō. This Hidesaku, in Taishō 12 (1923), took poison and killed himself in the anguish of a failed love.
The ninth-generation Ishidō worked only until Taishō 13 (1924); from around the time of Hidesaku's third-anniversary memorial in September of Taishō 14 (1925), he never again went down to the workshop. All the works attributed to the ninth-generation Ishidō after that were made in his stead by Seiichi. Seiichi was carrying the Ishidō house alone.
In Shōwa 4 (1929) Seiichi became independent and forged planes under the mark Teruhide (輝秀), but for more than two years did not take the name Ishidō. The ninth-generation Ishidō, who had been ill for some time, was taken in by the Chiyozuru household at Shukuyama, Meguro ward, in Shōwa 4, and departed this world in Shōwa 6 (1931) at the age of 57.
Then in Shōwa 30 (1955), Chiyozuru Korehide's wife Nobu, in order to revive the extinguished Ishidō house, divorced by mutual agreement and returned to being Ishidō Nobu; she adopted Hideo (秀雄) — the eleventh-generation Ishidō (十一代目石堂), Teruhide's second son, born Shōwa 7 (1932) — thereby restoring the Ishidō family register, and immediately thereafter married Chiyozuru Korehide again.
The tenth-generation Ishidō Teruhide, after receiving the Minister of Labour Award as a Master Craftsman of the Shōwa era, ended his life not long after, in Shōwa 57 (1982), at the age of 85. The Ishidō house is today maintained by the eleventh generation, Hideo (秀雄), and the twelfth generation, Yoshitaka (良孝).
(page: tiyoduru5.html)
Koyama Munetsugu (固山宗次) was related to the Chōunsai school: he was the heir of Tsunahide (綱秀), elder brother of the first-generation Tsunatoshi, and was also a pupil of the first-generation Tsunatoshi. This Koyama Munetsugu was esteemed as one of the foremost master smiths from the end of the shogunate into early Meiji; he kept his residence at Nagasaka in Azabu, and was a sword-smith of high renown with many pupils. But when, at 40, the Meiji government's prohibition on wearing swords deprived him of his livelihood as a sword-smith, he led the pupils of his school to seek work at the powder magazine in Meguro, becoming a workman gun-smith; this too did not last long, he resigned, and thereafter never again appeared in the world. His pupils dispersed, but among them were some who afterwards found success in the making of scissors and shears — such as Abukumagawa Munehiro (阿武隈川宗寛) of pruning shears, and Yoshikuni (義國; Tomono Kamagorō, 友野釜五郎) of haircutting scissors.
(page: tiyoduru6.html)
In the biographical rolls of sword-smiths there is, at Takefu (武生) in Echizen province, a Chiyozuru school whose founding ancestor was Chiyozuru Kuniyasu (千代鶴國安); his descendants likewise styled themselves Chiyozuru for generations, taking the names Kuniyasu (國安), Munemitsu (宗光), Kunihide (國秀), and others. The first-generation Chiyozuru Kuniyasu was a famed master sword-smith of Kyōto in the Nanboku-chō period who, in 1337, seeking land suited to the making of swords, came to settle at Takefu in Echizen; he is said not only to have taught the advanced techniques of sword-forging to the smiths of Takefu, but also to have forged sickles himself, and he was revered as the founding patriarch of Echizen uchi-hamono (越前打刃物, Echizen forged blades). As a sword-smith who contributed greatly to the later flourishing of Echizen forged blades, the people of the region built the Chiyozuru Shrine (千代鶴神社) enshrining Kuniyasu.
Whether Chiyozuru Korehide knew of this Chiyozuru Kuniyasu's name and story during his apprentice years is not certain. But when at 19, going out into the world on his own, he pondered over what smith-name to take, there is no doubt that his pride in his lineage as heir of famed sword-smiths led him to the conception of the Chiyozuru mark — a smith-name at that time exceedingly rare, and auspicious besides.
That in later years Chiyozuru Korehide himself used the gō Chōunsai (長雲斎) which his grandfather and father had used, sometimes writing his signature "Chōunsai Chiyozuru Korehide" (長雲斎千代鶴是秀), shows how, even while forging carpentry tools, he always kept the pride of a sword-smith.
(page: tiyoduru7.html)
Chiyozuru Tarō (千代鶴太郎; Katō Tarō, 加藤太郎) was born in Meiji 40 (1907) as the eldest son of Chiyozuru Korehide. His marks at elementary school were outstanding, and his handiwork astonishingly deft. After finishing higher elementary school he trained as a smith under his father; partly through the influence of his elder sister Tama (玉), he was a young man of rich sensibility who read literature and philosophy and listened to Western classical music. In Shōwa 4 (1929) he passed his conscription examination in class A, but under the system of the time he was exempted from service by lottery; and Tarō, who had an interest in sculpture (chōso), entered the Tama Fine Arts School (多摩美術学校) with his father's consent. Thus, while continuing his discipline with smithing as his principal occupation, he was also to study sculpture at art school.
Tarō, who until then had chiefly forged small items — kiridashi marking knives, kogatana, and the like — began in earnest, from around age 23 in Shōwa 5 (1930), to forge planes under the mark Unju (運壽), with the support of the carpentry-tool wholesaler Wakui Seiichi (涌井精一) and of his father. At this period Chiyozuru Korehide was forging planes under the Korehide (是秀) mark and the Tōshirō (藤四郎) mark. The Chiyozuru Unju mark was registered by Wakui Seiichi.
The name Unju was a venerable hereditary name of the Ishidō house handed down through the generations; because the tenth-generation Ishidō [sic — the ninth-generation] lay ill, the intention was to have Tarō carry on that mark. Thus Tarō, as Chiyozuru the Second, and as a kinsman of the illustrious sword-smith house of Ishidō, made plain to the world that he carried the blood of master craftsmen — and at the same time he came to bear the fate that he must never stain that name. The Unju planes won high acclaim.
But this brought unforeseen tragedy upon the Chiyozuru house. Tarō wished to continue his study of sculpture at the art school, but unable to defy his parents' wishes he gave it up after two years. Yet he wavered over succeeding to his father's smithing and devoting himself to it alone, and since he longed intensely to study sculpture, he suffered and agonized terribly. And in January of Shōwa 8 (1933), Tarō vanished into the crater of Mount Mihara on Izu Ōshima. He was only 28.
After Tarō's death, Chiyozuru Korehide's style, through added polish and refinement, became still more artistic in character. Also, as an act of memorial devotion he forged Unju planes himself; later Suzuki (鈴木) of Ōizumi, and for a time after the war Nobukuni (延國), forged them too, and Kanayama (金山) of Toyama and other smiths made them as substitute makers — but with the exception of Nobukuni, Chiyozuru Korehide did the hardening (yaki-ire) and finishing himself.
(page: tiyoduru8.html)
Chiyozuru Nobukuni (千代鶴延國; Ochiai Uichi, 落合宇一) was born in Meiji 28 (1895) at Mishima in Shizuoka prefecture, and at 13 was apprenticed to Munetsugu (宗次) of Mishima, a pupil of Munechika (宗近), who was himself a pupil of the first-generation Kunihiro (初代國弘). Munetsugu was at that time acclaimed as the finest chisel- and plane-smith on the Tōkaidō. Uichi entered the navy in Taishō 5 (1916). Being poor, he had not even properly finished elementary school; in the navy he studied the fundamentals of mathematics, an experience that in later years led him to think about smithing in quantitative, calculating terms. He was discharged in Taishō 9 (1920) and returned to the smith's trade.
In Taishō 11 (1922), at Yokohama, he forged planes under the Hisakuni (久國) mark, the trademark of the carpentry-tool wholesaler Wakui Shōten (涌井商店); but the reception was poor, and so, with an introduction from Wakui Seiichi, he called at Chiyozuru Korehide's house in Taishō 14 (1925) and begged to be taken as a pupil. He was refused — told that no pupils had been taken since Taishō 7. But because the introduction came from Wakui Seiichi, to whom he owed a debt of gratitude, Chiyozuru Korehide went down to the workshop and transmitted to him everything about the making of planes. Thanks to this, from Taishō 15 (1926) the Hisakuni planes Uichi forged began to win a good reputation.
Around Shōwa 6 (1931), a dispute over sales rights with Wakui Shōten left Uichi unable to use the Hisakuni mark. At a loss, Uichi went to consult at Chiyozuru Korehide's house, and was granted the mark Nobukuni (延國). From then on he forged planes under the Nobukuni mark. But in the depression planes ceased to sell, and to live he temporarily left smithing and sought work at the naval arsenal at Yokosuka. That was August of Shōwa 7 (1932), when Nobukuni was 37.
In November of Shōwa 22 (1947), Chiyozuru Korehide appeared without warning at Nobukuni's house in Meguro-honchō. Nobukuni had been bombed out in the air raids during the war and had evacuated to his native Mishima, but soon after the war's end he returned to his old address, put up a shack, and resumed smithing — hence the visit. Chiyozuru Korehide had come to tell him that, trusting in Nobukuni's passion and skill as a plane-smith, he wished him to succeed as the third-generation Chiyozuru. In January of the following year, Shōwa 23 (1948), in the presence of Chiyozuru Korehide and those concerned, Nobukuni formally succeeded to the illustrious Chiyozuru name as its third generation. Chiyozuru Korehide was then 78, Nobukuni 52. Thereafter Nobukuni stamped his planes "third-generation Chiyozuru Nobukuni" (三代目千代鶴延國). In Shōwa 48 (1973) he handed over all his work to his two sons and retired, and in Shōwa 53 (1978) he departed this world at 72. Afterwards, in January of Heisei 4 (1992), the workshop burned, and plane-smithing was never resumed there again.
(page: tiyoduru9.html)
Kanki Yoshirō (神吉義良) was born in Meiji 41 (1908) at Miki in Hyōgo prefecture, and was apprenticed to his elder brother, a plane-smith. In the depression years of early Shōwa he went up to Tōkyō as a journeyman, working under Kunitaka (國高), a pupil of the second-generation Kunihiro (二代目國弘), and under a plane-smith called Minasegawa (水無川) of Ogu, Arakawa ward, who made handicraft planes for schoolchildren. In Shōwa 7 (1932), before returning home to Miki, he called several times at Chiyozuru Korehide's house. Chiyozuru Korehide took no pupils whatsoever, but he received warmly anyone who came to visit.
After returning home he forged planes, using as his advertising slogan the fact that he had met the great master Chiyozuru Korehide; then he was called up for military service. After the war, on being demobilized, he resumed plane-smithing, chiefly under the stamped mark Yoshichiyo (義千代), adding a crane-shaped stamp and a lettered seal reading "direct transmission from Chiyozuru" (千代鶴直伝).
In Shōwa 24 (1949) he was presented by Chiyozuru Korehide with Sadahide (貞秀), the mark once granted to his pupil, and from then on he styled himself Chiyozuru Sadahide (千代鶴貞秀). In time he was introduced as a plane-smith in 「道具曼陀羅」 (Dōgu Mandara, "Tool Mandala") written by Muramatsu Teijirō (村松貞次郎), professor at the University of Tōkyō, and the name Chiyozuru Sadahide became widely known to the world. From Shōwa 26 (1951) to Heisei 2 (1990) he received various awards in Banshū Miki, and as a modern master craftsman he raised a second generation.
The second-generation Chiyozuru Sadahide (二代目千代鶴貞秀; Kanki Iwao, 神吉岩雄) was born in Miki in Shōwa 19 (1944), and at 16 was apprenticed to his father Chiyozuru Sadahide. He succeeded to the name second-generation Chiyozuru Sadahide in Heisei 2 (1990), became a Traditional Craftsman (dentō kōgeishi) certified by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry in Heisei 10 (1998), and maintains plane-smithing to this day.
(page: tiyoduru10.html)
The first-generation Kunihiro (初代國弘; Tanaka Watakichi, 田中和多吉) was born in Bunsei 3 (1820), came out from Echigo Sanjō to Edo at the end of the shogunate, and forged chiefly planes and chisels. At the Meiji Restoration he was 49, living in what is now Hatchōbori. He was two years older than the seventh-generation Ishidō and twenty-five years older than the eighth-generation Ishidō. He had a younger brother, Yoshihiro (義廣) of the Asakusa rice-fields (Asakusa Tanbo), whose specialty was forging great planes of four and five sun. The brothers are said to have trained in their youth under Kōdō (幸道) of Echigo, known by the Hyōbu (兵部) mark.
Yoshihiro's planes were of a calm, refined workmanship; the elder brother Kunihiro was fierce-tempered and the blades he forged were keen, their sharpness first-rate — it was said that Kunihiro suited the rough preliminary shaving (ara-shiko) of under-planing, and Yoshihiro the finishing.
The achievements of the first-generation Kunihiro were these: he took the tataki-nomi (striking chisel) used until the end of the shogunate for cutting deep mortises, shortened the length of its neck, and created the oshi-ire chisel suited to finish joinery work; and where the steel had hitherto been laid on only two-thirds of the blade's length, he laid steel along the full length of the blade. This chisel was called the Kunihiro pattern (國弘型). He also gave the head of the plane blade the gently rounded form called the Kunihiro pattern, and from then to the present day nearly all planes have been forged to the Kunihiro pattern. For these things the first-generation Kunihiro is called the founding father of modern carpentry-tool smithing.
The first-generation Kunihiro cut his smith-mark as Amano Kunihiro (天野國弘) or Ama-Kunihiro (天國弘), and the second through fourth generations did likewise. The younger brother Yoshihiro cut his planes with the mark Tanbo Yoshihiro (田圃義廣).
The first-generation Kunihiro had such pupils as Kunimichi (國道), Kunisada (國貞), Kuniyoshi (國義) of Waseda, Munechika (宗近) of Mishima, and his own son Kuniyuki (國行), and the school reigned over the world of carpentry-tool smithing. Among the pupils, the son Kuniyuki — who inherited all his father's virtues in hardening, finishing, and every other respect — was an exceptionally fine master, surpassing Kunimichi and Kunisada, who were themselves rated highly skilled. Yet he forged under the Kuniyuki mark for barely two years; he seems also to have made works in his father's name, and he died young around Meiji 19 (1886) at the age of 26. He was fifteen or sixteen years older than Chiyozuru Korehide.
It was the works of the first-generation Kunihiro that the eighth-generation Ishidō — who had turned from sword-smith to field-smith and then to carpentry-tool smith — took especially as his model; and Chiyozuru Korehide and the ninth-generation Ishidō likewise revered the works of the first-generation Kunihiro and learned much from them.
The second-generation Kunihiro (二代目國弘; Tanaka Kuniyoshi, 田中國吉) was born in Kaei 2 (1849), and after moving to Botan-chō died in Taishō 7 (1918) at the age of 69. The third-generation Kunihiro met the earthquake of Taishō 13 [sic — the Great Kantō Earthquake of Taishō 12/1923] and, after moving to Kamiuma in Setagaya, died in Shōwa 20 (1945) at 59. The second and third generations, though they received the fame and benefit of the first, were never rated his equal. Afterwards the Kunihiro family gave up the smith's trade.
(page: tiyoduru11.html — 「千代鶴是秀の系譜むすび」)
Long years have already passed since the famed carpentry-tool smiths of plane, chisel, and saw fell into decline. After the war's end, the building rush of reconstruction from a landscape of scorched ruins brought carpentry-tool smithing a period of prosperity; but it was gravely affected by the advent of power tools, and then decisively struck by changes in construction methods, the pre-cutting of timber-framed housing, and the spread of replaceable-blade saws and planes, down to the present. Specialist carpentry-tool shops and saw-sharpening shops could no longer make a living. Yet even now some carpentry-tool smiths keep the fire burning; and in recent years, on the internet, general interest in the plane especially runs high — web pages on the plane are opened from every point of view, worthy of the king of carpentry tools, which is gratifying indeed.
The occasion for writing this "Genealogy of Chiyozuru" was that, in conversation, friends asked me: "We don't know much about Chiyozuru — won't you write about him?" After graduating from university I succeeded to my father's shop, and while learning the running of the store I took an interest in the carpentry tools that were our goods — planes, chisels, ink-lines (sumitsubo); listening to my father — called a master of plane dai-ire (fitting blades to bodies), deeply versed in planes and chisels, and personally acquainted with Chiyozuru Korehide — and investigating this and that, I came to take an interest in the smiths, ancient and modern, who forge planes and chisels; I heard the stories of great seniors of the trade, searched the literature myself, and collected works. In my childhood, too, I met several times Mr. Chiyozuru Korehide and his wife Mrs. Nobu when they visited our house; and a year or two before the tenth-generation Ishidō Teruhide died, I visited the Ishidō home with a group of young men of the trade to hear Mr. Teruhide talk, and on that occasion was allowed to watch, at close hand, the eleventh-generation Ishidō Hideo forge a plane. Out of a wish to offer broad repose to the souls of the carpentry-tool smiths who died in the Meiji, Taishō, Shōwa, and Heisei eras, and also wishing that my eldest son Tomoo (智雄), who has succeeded to the shop, should know these things for the future, I wrote this, centering especially on the plane-smiths.
Of course, this account is by no means complete. I suspect there are many places that will need correction. Be that as it may, I believe it makes intelligible the several smithing lineages centered on Chiyozuru Korehide. That my eldest son Tomoo prepared the "Family Tree of Chiyozuru Korehide" (千代鶴是秀の家系図) was a great help in writing this manuscript. Note: this manuscript is a rewriting, with corrections and new additions, of one written in June of Heisei 18 (2006).
An auspicious day, August, Heisei 18 (2006) Suzuki Kanamono Ltd. (有限会社スズキ金物店) Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)