Source: Suzuki Kanamono Ten (スズキ金物店), "History of Tools" (道具の歴史), misyuku-suzuki-kanamonoten.com Author: Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭), Representative Director, Suzuki Kanamono Ten Co., Ltd.
Translator's note: This file contains two related article series, translated in full.
- "On the Changes in the Kanji Writing of 'Gennō'" (「げんのう」の漢字表記の変遷について) — 4 pages (Introduction, sections 1–2, Conclusion), dated August 2011 (Heisei 23). Traces how the carpenter's hammer came to be written 源翁 / 玄翁 / 玄能.
- "On Hasegawa Kōzaburō, Master Gennō Smith" (玄能鍛冶の名工「長谷川幸三郎」について) — 3 pages (Introduction, section 1, Conclusion), dated September 2011 (Heisei 23). A biography of the Sanjō gennō master Hasegawa Kōzaburō (長谷川幸三郎, 1935–2004) and the Hasegawa smithing house.
Ambiguities: the name of Hasegawa Jūgo/Shigesato (重郷) has an uncertain reading — "Shigesato" is used below as the most common reading; the source gives no furigana. The exhibition in which Sakai Shōhei repeatedly took first place is described only as "a certain exhibition of edged tools" (利器の或る展示会) — the author does not name it. The reading "Masatsura" for 正行 (the art name) versus "Masayuki" (the personal name of the same smith, 馬場正行) is given explicitly by the author and preserved as written.
For a while I have been resting from posting manuscripts related to carpentry tools in this "History of Tools" column. One major reason was that I had been rewriting manuscripts already published on this website and writing new ones, in preparation for publishing them as a book titled Nihon no Daiku Dōgu Shokunin (日本の大工道具職人; "Japan's Carpentry-Tool Craftsmen"), to be released in late August by Zaikai Kenkyūjo (財界研究所). Having finished two rounds of galley-proof corrections, with nothing left but to wait for printing, I now have some spare time again, and I would like to resume writing manuscripts for the "History of Tools" column.
In late July I visited the home of Yuzawa Akio (湯沢昭男), the second-generation Masayoshi (正芳), for the first time in a long while. In the book I borrowed on that occasion — Muramatsu Teijirō (村松貞次郎), Kaji no Tabi — Waga Natsukashi no Kaji Mandara (鍛冶の旅――わが懐しの鍛冶まんだら――; "A Journey Among Blacksmiths — My Beloved Blacksmith Mandala") — there was a brief account of the career of Hasegawa Kōzaburō (長谷川幸三郎), the master gennō smith of Sanjō, Niigata, about whom I still did not know much.
So for my first article after the break I suddenly resolved to write about this Hasegawa Kōzaburō. But in the course of investigating, I became greatly interested in why the hammer has been written with the kanji "源翁" (Gennō), "玄翁" (Gennō), and "玄能" (gennō); and since these terms are also confused with one another today, I decided to postpone the piece on Hasegawa Kōzaburō to next time and give priority to clarifying these matters first. In the course of my research, unexpected facts came to light one after another. Let me set them out below under the title "On the Changes in the Kanji Writing of 'Gennō'."
In writing this manuscript I consulted the free encyclopedia Wikipedia; the Edo-period works Wakan Sansai Zue (和漢三才図会; "Illustrated Sino-Japanese Encyclopedia") and Dōgu Jibiki Zukai (道具字引図解; "Illustrated Dictionary of Tools"); Watanabe Akira (渡辺晶), Daiku Dōgu no Nihonshi (大工道具の日本史; "A Japanese History of Carpentry Tools," Heisei 16 / 2004); and many websites.
Ordinary people may call a hammer tonkachi or "hammer," but unless they have considerable understanding of carpentry tools, they will not know that a certain kind of hammer is called gennō and has been written with the kanji 源翁, 玄翁, or 玄能. This is because gennō was a special name for the hammers used by stonemasons and carpenters.
Where, then, does the custom of writing the hammer as 源翁 or 玄翁 and calling it gennō come from?
In the early Muromachi period, from 1336 to 1392, there was the era called the Nanbokuchō (Northern and Southern Courts) period, when the imperial house was split between Kyoto and Yoshino in Nara. In this era there lived a high priest of the Sōtō school of Zen called Gennō Shinshō (源翁心昭), also known as the priest Gennō (玄翁和尚).
This high priest confronted the Sesshōseki (殺生石, "Killing Stone") of Nasuno (那須野, in present-day Nasu District, Tochigi Prefecture) — a mysterious rock feared for instantly taking the lives of birds that flew past and of humans and beasts that approached. Chanting an incantation, he struck and shattered the stone with the great iron hammer used by stonemasons, removing the terror. This is said to have taken place in the 8th month of Shitoku 2 (至徳２年, 1385).
The great iron hammer he used on this occasion — of the form with no point on either end of the head — came to be called 源翁 (Gennō) or 玄翁 (Gennō) after the high priest's name, or so it is said. There are, however, also traditions that what the priest used was not a great iron hammer but a staff, or a staff shaped like an iron hammer.
The Sesshōseki itself derives from the "Legend of Tamamo-no-Mae" (玉藻前伝説) of the late Heian period. A white-faced, golden-furred, nine-tailed fox transformed itself into a beautiful woman called Tamamo-no-Mae and enjoyed the favor of the retired emperor Toba (鳥羽上皇). But when the ailing Toba failed to recover and an onmyōji (yin-yang diviner) examined the case, Tamamo-no-Mae's true identity was exposed. She fled to Nasuno, where she was slain by her pursuers, and — so it has been handed down — she turned into the Sesshōseki, which took the lives of all who approached.
Gennō Shinshō, for his merit in crushing the Sesshōseki and removing the terror, is said to have been granted the title Zen Master Hōō Nōshō (法王能昭禅師) by Emperor Go-Komatsu (後小松天皇) the following year.
Today, when one says gennō, the kanji 玄能 — considered an ateji (phonetic substitute characters) — is commonly used. Forty-odd years ago, when I graduated from university and entered Suzuki Kanamono Ten, the characters 玄能 were used as a matter of course for the hammers used by carpenters.
It is not known for what reason the writing shifted from 源翁 / 玄翁 to 玄能. But according to the Kōjien dictionary, one meaning of the character 能 is "the power to accomplish things well"; so given the origin of the name 源翁 / 玄翁, I think applying this character to the hammer was quite apt.
When, then, did the great iron hammer written 源翁 / 玄翁 begin to be written with the characters 玄能?
The encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue (和漢三才図会, 1712), from the time of the sixth shōgun Tokugawa Ienobu (徳川家宣), still writes the great iron hammer as 源翁. What is illustrated there is the long-handled great iron hammer used by stonemasons, not the hammer used by carpenters.
In the Dōgu Jibiki Zukai (道具字引図解, first volume) — thought to date from around Genji 1 (元治元年, 1864), in the latter half of the era of the fourteenth shōgun Tokugawa Iemochi (徳川家茂) — a large short-handled iron hammer with no point on either end of the head is introduced as 玄能 (gennō), while an iron hammer with one pointed end is introduced as a kanazuchi (金槌, ordinary hammer). These, too, are the iron hammers used by stonemasons, not the hammers used by carpenters.
From this we can surmise that the writing 玄能 arose from the latter half of the Edo period onward. In fact, we learn that the iron hammers written 源翁, 玄翁, and 玄能 were chiefly the large iron hammers used by stonemasons. They were not the hammers used by carpenters.
When, then, did the carpenter's hammer come to be called gennō?
Carpenters had used hammers since antiquity, but because nails were not much used in construction, the metal hammer was still an auxiliary tool. For carpenters, wooden mallets large and small were the principal striking tools, heavily used for fitting joinery together and for striking chisels. However, according to Watanabe Akira (渡邊晶), chief researcher at the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum (竹中大工道具館), pictorial sources indicate that the mallet used for striking chisels shifted from wood to iron in the late 18th to early 19th century. From around that time, it seems, the metal hammer began to be used as a principal carpenter's tool, and the large chisel-striking hammer with no point on either end of the head began to be called gennō.
As for the written form of the carpenter's gennō: in the novel Seibei to Hyōtan (清兵衛と瓢箪; "Seibei and the Gourds"), written by Shiga Naoya (志賀直哉) in Taishō 2 (1913), we find: "The father beat Seibei soundly and smashed every last one of the gourds with a gennō (玄能)." And in Tsuioku (追憶; "Reminiscences"), written by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (芥川龍之介) toward the end of the Taishō era, there is: "Only a carpenter called Hiro-san, perched on a ladder or some such, was striking the ceiling with a gennō (玄能)." So it appears that in the society of that time, writing the carpenter's gennō as 玄能 had become general.
Inferring from all the above, it seems that in the latter half of the Edo period the chisel-striking metal hammer appeared, came to be called gennō and written with the kanji 玄能, and that this spread to later generations.
The oldest metal hammer in Japan is an iron hammer excavated from the Harunotsuji site (原の辻遺跡) on Iki (壱岐), Nagasaki Prefecture, a site dated from the late Yayoi period (1st century) to the early Kofun period (4th century). It is said to be a hammer that came over from the Korean peninsula, the advanced region of the day; it resembles the form of today's double-faced sledge or stone-head hammer, and was probably used by stonemasons or smiths.
From then on, iron hammers were also made in Japan; but the carpenter's hammer called 玄能 (gennō) appears to have been created as a chisel-striking hammer only around the late 18th to early 19th century. The hammers written 源翁, 玄翁, and 玄能 before that time may fairly be said to have been chiefly the great iron hammers used by stonemasons.
Today, the carpenter's gennō is also written 源翁 or 玄翁 and comes in large and small forms, but from the standpoint of the original derivation this is an error. Strictly speaking, the kanji for the carpenter's gennō should be 玄能, the writing that spread from around the end of the Edo period. Many people seem to confuse these points.
I expect there will be many objections to the above conclusions, but I hope this essay will serve as an occasion for further and deeper discussion of the question.
An auspicious day, August, Heisei 23 (2011) Suzuki Kanamono Ten Co., Ltd. Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)
It is not certain when the manufacture of the gennō — the metal hammer used by carpenters — began in Sanjō (三条), Niigata Prefecture. But the "Membership Register" (組合員名簿) of the Sanjō Hardware Trade Purchasing Union (三条金物業購買組合), published in Taishō 11 (1922), records one gennō smith, and names thought to be the predecessors of present-day gennō smiths appear in the "large sundries" (大荒物) classification; from this one can imagine that by around the end of the Taishō era there was already some number of gennō manufacturers.
Compared with carpentry tools such as saws, chisels, and planes, full-scale specialized production of gennō in Sanjō began unexpectedly late — only in the Shōwa era.
In the original method of gennō manufacture, scrap wrought iron (namagane) from decommissioned iron ships and the like was used, and the gennō's shape was formed with a great hammer; but because steel had to be forge-welded onto the striking faces and the piece finished with files, even a gennō was a very expensive item.
Later, the present type of all-steel gennō made from round steel bar came to be mass-produced through the successive introduction of belt hammers, drop hammers, and air hammers, and prices became affordable, bringing us to the present day.
In this history of gennō manufacture in Sanjō, there was a gennō smith who raised the gennō from mere tool to the level of a work of art: the master craftsman Hasegawa Kōzaburō (長谷川幸三郎), of the "Kōzaburō" (幸三郎) mark. Hasegawa left this world, mourned by many, in November of Heisei 16 (2004) at the age of 69, but he left behind many masterpiece gennō under the "Kōzaburō" mark.
This time, let me speak about him under the title "On Hasegawa Kōzaburō, Master Gennō Smith."
I consulted the Sanjō City website; Muramatsu Teijirō (村松貞次郎), Kaji no Tabi — Waga Natsukashi no Kaji Mandara (鍛冶の旅――わが懐しの鍛冶まんだら――, Shōwa 60 / 1985); the website of Sotoei Kanamono Co., Ltd. (外栄金物株式会社) and many other websites; and things I heard from the Sanjō carpentry-tool wholesaler Yoshimura Shōten Co., Ltd. (株式会社吉村商店). Honorifics are omitted below.
Hasegawa Kōzaburō was born in Sanjō, Niigata Prefecture, in August of Shōwa 10 (1935), as the third son of Sakai Shōhei (坂井庄平), a smith of kibasami (木鋏, garden/bonsai shears). His father Shōhei, who died in Shōwa 56 (1981) at the age of 79, was a smith known as one of the masters carrying on the tradition of Sanjō kibasami forging, said to have begun in the Keiō era (慶応年間) at the end of the Edo period.
At a certain exhibition of edged tools held in those days, which gathered works by blade and tool smiths from all over the country, the story survives that Sakai Shōhei's works were always chosen first — except for a second place at the first exhibition — and that his skill was so highly recognized that he was later exempted from jury examination (mukansa, 無鑑査).
The eldest brother, Shōsaku (昇作, born Shōwa 4 / 1929), succeeded their father as a kibasami smith (under the mark Honjōji Noboru, 本成寺昇); the second brother, Masayoshi (政善, born Shōwa 5 / 1930), became a smith of tinsmith's shears (buriki-basami, also called kiribashi smithing; mark Masahisa, 正久). But the third son, Kōzaburō, at the young age of five, entered the Hasegawa family of hammer smiths as an apprentice-adoptee (deshi-yōshi), changed his name from Sakai Kōzaburō to Hasegawa Kōzaburō, and devoted himself to training as a hammer smith.
However, he gradually became dissatisfied with hammer manufacture, which was drifting into mass production. Toward the end of his teens, Kōzaburō learned the fundamentals of gennō making while working together with his brother-in-law Hasegawa Kan'ichirō (長谷川貫一郎), who later became famous under the Hishikan (菱貫) mark; and in order to take on the profoundly deep field of the gennō hammer, he eventually became independent of his adoptive father.
A gennō is not something where you merely make the shape and open the diamond-shaped eye (hishi-ana) for the handle and are done. To borrow the words of Muramatsu Teijirō, professor emeritus of the University of Tokyo: precisely because the gennō is "the tool of the simplest form and function, its overall shape and dimensions, and the position, shape, and dimensions of the handle eye, all have a subtle influence on its balance and govern the effectiveness of the blow."
Moreover, steel is forge-welded onto both ends of a soft-iron body. The soft iron softens the shock to the hand and heightens the effect of the blow, while the forge-welded steel secures the strength and resilience of the striking face; but if it is too hard it will chip, and if too soft the striking face will collapse. The position and finishing of the handle eye are also important, and the utmost care must be taken over the overall balance and over ensuring the handle does not come loose.
The gennō is the tool of simplest form and function among carpentry tools, yet in its manufacture it is an exceedingly deep and difficult tool.
For the sake of this gennō making, Hasegawa Kōzaburō in his late twenties visited Tsuchida Ichirō (土田一郎), known as one of the pioneers of carpentry-tool research. Thereafter, receiving much instruction in gennō making from Tsuchida, and repeating failures, he overcame these problems one after another and made his name as a gennō smith.
In time Kōzaburō took up the challenge of manufacturing gennō whose body he folded and forged repeatedly, drawing out beautiful patterns like the mokume (杢目) figure of wood grain. After eight years of research, when he brought a finished mokume gennō to Tsuchida, he was shown a mokume gennō once forged by the master carpentry-tool smith Chiyozuru Korehide (千代鶴是秀), and felt keenly his own immaturity. Taking Chiyozuru Korehide's mokume gennō as his goal, he continued his training, and went on to produce one gennō after another with magnificent mokume patterns like works of art, raising the name of Kōzaburō as a master craftsman still higher.
Of this Kōzaburō, Muramatsu Teijirō, professor emeritus of the University of Tokyo, wrote as follows: "A temperament like split bamboo — stout-hearted and open-hearted. The hardships of his childhood do not show on the surface at all. His feelings are tender. One might call him a nobleman of the fields."
Just when Kōzaburō was reaching full maturity and great expectations were held for what marvelous gennō he would produce next, he was struck down by illness, and in November of Heisei 16 (2004) he ended his 69-year smithing life, mourned as the finest master gennō smith in Japan.
But Kōzaburō left two apprentices: Baba Masayuki (馬場正行, born Shōwa 24 / 1949), whose mark is Dōshinsai Masatsura (道心斎正行 — the art name reads the same characters 正行 as "Masatsura"), and Aida Hiroki (相田浩樹, born Shōwa 39 / 1964), whose mark is Hiroki (浩樹). Dōshinsai Masatsura already enjoys high renown as a master craftsman, and Aida Hiroki, noted for his careful and beautiful finishing, is expected to have a great future. Kōzaburō has left this world, but the gennō-making techniques he mastered over a lifetime are being reliably passed on.
In the course of gathering various materials on the master gennō smith Hasegawa Kōzaburō for this article, I was able to learn in detail about the history of gennō manufacture in Sanjō, about Kōzaburō's birth family the Sakai (坂井) house and his adoptive family the Hasegawa (長谷川) house, and about his two apprentices; and thereby I was able to complete this essay.
The master Hasegawa Kōzaburō is introduced in various places on the internet today, but those are only partial introductions; no one has yet written an account that grasps the whole as this essay does, so I think it will be of great use to those who wish to know about him.
Before closing, let me say a little about the Hasegawa family into which Kōzaburō was adopted.
The Hasegawa family were at first smiths manufacturing hammers of various kinds; from the generation of Kōzaburō's brother-in-law Hasegawa Kan'ichirō (長谷川貫一郎) they became gennō smiths under the Hishikan (菱貫) mark, and their products were rated markedly higher than those of other makers in both quality and price. This first-generation Kan'ichirō was affectionately nicknamed "Hasekan-san" or "Hishikan-san."
Hasegawa Kan'ichirō had no son to succeed him, so Shigesato (重郷), who married into the family as an adopted son-in-law from the Abe (阿部) family, became the second generation. Shigesato's natural father was Abe Akitada (阿部昭忠, real name Matsuichi 松一), a metal chaser (chōkinshi) well known for blade carving (horimono) on Japanese swords and for tsuba (sword-guard) making.
The second-generation Shigesato was gentle and well regarded; if fellow tradesmen came to him for technical advice, he would openly share his techniques with anyone, and he earnestly and quietly supplied good products at reasonable prices.
But Shigesato collapsed suddenly in October of Heisei 18 (2006) and passed away. He was 68. With no one to succeed him, the distinguished gennō-smithing house of Hasegawa regrettably closed its business. One more flame that had borne Japan's carpentry-tool culture was extinguished.
An auspicious day, September, Heisei 23 (2011) Suzuki Kanamono Ten Co., Ltd. Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)