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Part 1: From Ancient Times to the Muromachi Period (古代から室町時代まで) Part 2: From the Edo to the Shōwa Period (江戸から昭和時代まで)

Author: Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木 俊昭), Representative Director, Suzuki Kanamono Co., Ltd. ((有)スズキ金物店) Source: 道具の歴史 (History of Tools), misyuku-suzuki-kanamonoten.com, pages tennentoisitodaikudougunituite1–8.html Dated: An auspicious day, January, Heisei 26 (2014) (both parts)

Translator's note. This series is a two-part essay (8 web pages in total) by Suzuki Toshiaki on the history of Japanese natural whetstones (tennen toishi 天然砥石) and their relationship to the development of carpentry tools. Part 1 (pages 1–3) covers whetstone classification and the history from the Jōmon period through the Muromachi period; Part 2 (pages 4–8) covers the Edo period through the Shōwa period, with a dedicated section on the Kyoto finishing-stone (awasedo 合砥) mines and a concluding essay. Both parts end with the author's reference lists, which are translated in full. Ambiguities: (1) On page 3 the population figure for the Muromachi–Azuchi-Momoyama periods reads "about 15,000,000 to about 15,000,000" — an apparent typo in the original; I have preserved it with a note. (2) On page 8, item ① contains the typo 採掘さてた for 採掘された; the intended meaning ("came to be quarried") is translated. (3) Several whetstone and stratum names are traditional trade terms with no standard English equivalents; they are romanized with kanji on first occurrence. (4) The word 礪 (rei/to) is an old character for a coarse grindstone; it is rendered "coarse grindstone (rei 礪)". Grit numbers follow the JIS-based figures given by the author.

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Unless a blade is sharpened on a good-quality whetstone, it will not cut well, nor can it plane cleanly. This is true of the carpentry tools as well — the plane (kanna 鉋), chisel (nomi 鑿), yoki (与岐, also called ono 斧, the axe), the adze (chōna 手斧), the spear plane (yarigannna 槍鉋), and the various knives (kogatana 小刀). In Japan, it was by quarrying good-quality whetstones that were easy to sharpen on that these edged tools came to display their functions so effectively.

Moreover, from ancient times good-quality whetstones were regarded as extremely important — not merely as stones for sharpening blades, but as stones for sharpening weapons of war, and thus they were treated as military supplies. Soldiers going to battle are said to have always carried a small whetstone with them.

As an old document conveying the importance of whetstones, there is the "Nihon Sankai Meisan Zue" (日本山海名産図会, Illustrated Guide to the Famous Products of Japan's Mountains and Seas), published in Kansei 11 (1799), around the middle of the era of the 11th shōgun, Tokugawa Ienari (徳川家斉). This book explains, with illustrations, information on the principal products of each region, their production conditions, and methods of collection. In the entry "Toishi (砥礪): the fine ones are called to (砥), and the coarse ones are called rei (礪)," it states: "As the proverb says, whetstones are never more than five ri from the royal castle; that they are produced wherever the imperial capital goes is no empty saying." That is, the tradition holds that wherever a capital was built, there was a place nearby that produced whetstones.

Indeed, to the east of the Heijō capital (平城京) in Nara there was Mount Kasuga (春日山), where good-quality white whetstones (shirato 白砥) could be quarried, and to the north of the Heian capital (平安京) in Kyoto there was Mount Atago (愛宕山), where high-quality finishing stones (shiage-do 仕上砥, also awasedo 合砥) could be quarried. The Kyoto awasedo were managed as precious articles by the government of the day. That is how important whetstones were.

Chiyozuru Korehide (千代鶴是秀), the great master of carpentry tools, possessed high-quality awasedo and sharpened the blades of his planes and chisels on them. Usui Kengo (碓氷健吾), in his youth, received from Master Korehide the teaching that "a blade will not cut unless it is sharpened" — simple, yet profound in meaning. Around age 60 he came to appreciate this anew, devoted himself all the more to the study of sharpening and whetstones, and leaped from being a master plane smith of Echigo to being a master plane smith of all Japan.

Thus, good-quality whetstones are indispensable and extremely important for edged tools. Therefore — since this became a long essay — I will tell the history of natural whetstones in Japan in two parts, (1) and (2), and consider their connection with the development of carpentry tools. Hereafter, honorifics are omitted.

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Whetstones are broadly divided into three types according to the stage of sharpening: first the "arato" (荒砥, coarse stone), used for the initial rough sharpening; the "nakato" (中砥, medium stone), used for intermediate sharpening; and the "shiage-do" (仕上砥, finishing stone; also called awasedo 合砥), used for the final finishing sharpening. These are classified by differences in the size of the whetstone's particles. The raw materials of natural whetstones are mainly sedimentary rocks and tuffs. The arato is made from sandstone, while the nakato and shiage-do are made from fine-grained mudstone (slate). In particular, sedimentary rock formed from the siliceous skeletons of radiolaria makes the highest-quality finishing stones.

Looking at each whetstone in terms of grit — the measure of coarseness or fineness of the whetstone's particles, with reference to the JIS standard:

1. The arato (荒砥) has extremely large abrasive grains of #240 and below. It sharpens quickly, but only roughly forms an edge. It is used when first sharpening a newly made blade, or for corrections such as when an edge has chipped. Famous examples are the Sasaguchi-do (笹口砥) of Karatsu, Saga Prefecture; the Ōmura-do (大村砥) of Ōmura, Nagasaki Prefecture; and the Kishū-do (紀州砥) of Tonda, Wakayama Prefecture.

2. The nakato (中砥) has grain sizes of (i) medium grade (chūme 中目), #500–3,000, and (ii) fine grade (saime 細目), #3,000–5,000. For the everyday sharpening of kitchen knives and of carpentry tools such as the yoki (axe), adze (chōna), and spear plane, this alone is sufficient; it combines grinding and polishing. Famous examples are the aoto (青砥, blue stone) of Kameyama, Kyoto Prefecture; the Bisui-do (備水砥) of Amakusa, Kumamoto Prefecture; the Iyo-do (伊予砥) of Tobe, Ehime Prefecture; the Numata-do (沼田砥) of Tozawa, Ozawa village, Gunma Prefecture; and the Nagura-do (名倉砥) of Mikawa, Aichi Prefecture, which is a fine-grade nakato.

3. The shiage-do (仕上砥), also called awasedo (合砥), is a whetstone of ultra-fine abrasive grains of #5,000 and above. With its fine polishing power it burnishes the steel to a mirror finish and brings out a good edge. It is used for the finishing sharpening of swords and razors, and of planes, chisels, and kiridashi knives. Famous examples are the Narutaki-do (鳴滝砥), Nakayama-do (中山砥), and Shōbu-do (菖蒲砥) quarried in the area around Mount Atago in Kyoto, and the Takashima-do (高島砥) of Takashima, Shiga Prefecture.

The act of sharpening is, in fact, the scratching of the blade by the whetstone's particles. The sharpening progression from arato to nakato to shiage-do is a matter of changing coarse scratches into fine scratches, until at the end a mirror surface is produced.

In China, the countries of Asia, and the West as well, natural whetstones have been used, but these seem to have been mainly medium-grade nakato; there is no trace of all three types — arato, nakato, and shiage-do — having been found within a single narrow region. For this reason, in the West artificial whetstones and files developed. Also, hard-fired good-quality red brick was used for finish sharpening.

Because crustal movements were vigorous in Japan from remote antiquity, orogenic phenomena — the uplift of strata — occurred in many regions, and Japan was blessed with the conditions for quarrying all three types of good-quality natural whetstone. As a result, sharpening technique improved, contributing greatly to the improved cutting performance not only of edged weapons such as swords, but of the blades of carpentry tools that cut and plane so well.

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In Japan, stones thought to have been used as whetstones for polishing have been discovered at Jōmon-period sites; these are believed to have been used for polishing stone axes, stone reaping knives, and the like.

From around the latter half of the Yayoi period (1st–3rd centuries), ironware and iron-making methods were transmitted from the Korean peninsula, and iron production on a very small scale was also carried out. Weapons such as spears, swords, and arrowheads (yajiri 鏃); edged tools such as spades, hoes, sickles, hatchets (nata 鉈), and kitchen knives; and building-trade edged tools such as broadaxes (masakari 鉞), adzes, and chisels must also have been made. From the Yokomakura site (横枕遺跡, Shime town, Fukuoka Prefecture) of this period, a portable aoto — a medium stone — has been excavated.

From Kofun-period sites as well, weapons such as swords, and also many building-trade edged tools, have been excavated; naturally, whetstones for sharpening those blades existed.

The population of Japan in antiquity was about 20,000 in the early Jōmon period, roughly 100,000–200,000 through the rest of the Jōmon period, and about 600,000 in the Yayoi period; from this we can gauge the quantity of whetstones in use.

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With the Nara period, old documents recording whetstones appear. They are found among the "Shōsōin Documents" (正倉院文書).

Among those documents, the oldest record concerning whetstones appears in the "Kyōji-ra jōe narabi ni zōmotsu jūchō" (経師等浄衣並雑物充帳, Register of Pure Robes and Sundries Allotted to Sutra Copyists), under the date Tenpyō 18, 1st month, 30th day, which reads: "One whetstone, allotted for general use; assigned to Hata no Kohiro (秦小広)." Tenpyō 18 (746) is the middle of the Nara period. The whetstone recorded here is written "to" (砥), so it would have been a fine finishing-grade medium stone rather than the coarse stone called "rei" (礪). In this age of the Heijō capital, good-quality white whetstones were being quarried at Mount Kasuga east of the capital.

A document of Tenpyō Hōji 4 (760) states that three Iyo whetstones (伊予砥三顆) were levied as materials for the erection of a statue of the bodhisattva Kannon. Iyo-do are whetstones quarried at Tobe in Iyo Province (伊予国砥部) in Shikoku. Historically, this is the first whetstone to be given the name of its place of production. That this whetstone was transported from Shikoku, far from the capital, and used there shows how greatly whetstones were prized. By fineness of grain, this stone falls into the class of finishing-grade medium stones.

In the "Tōdaiji chūkyō yōdo chūmon" (東大寺鋳鏡用度注文, Order of Supplies for Mirror-Casting at Tōdaiji), under the date Tenpyō Hōji 6, 4th month, 2nd day, appears: "Whetstones, two; aoto, two blocks (青砥二村)." Tenpyō Hōji 6 (763; the author gives 763 for this year) is the latter half of the Nara period. This is the first appearance of aoto in the Shōsōin Documents. At the time, aoto was also being quarried at Mount Wazuka (和束山, Wazuka town, Sōraku district, Kyoto Prefecture), adjacent to Mount Saho (佐保山) in northern Nara City, which produced arato — so the stones may have been from there, or brought from some other producing area.

Further, in the "Zō-Tōji-shi shakyō yōdo ge" (造東寺司泰写経用度解, Report on Supplies for Sutra Copying by the Office of Tōji Construction) appears: "Two whetstones, one requested — Hōki 6, 2nd month, 9th day — for use in sharpening the various worn edged implements of the woodworkers." Hōki 6 (776; the author gives 776) falls at the end of the Nara period; it records that whetstones were used for sharpening the edged tools used in woodworking.

Concerning the high-quality, ultra-fine finishing whetstones that would come to be quarried in Kyoto in the following era, nothing is recorded, so it is thought they were not yet being quarried. The population of Japan in this era was about 2,000,000–2,500,000.

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Among Heian-period documents there is the "Engishiki" (延喜式), a set of supplementary regulations to the ritsuryō codes compiled in the mid-Heian period. It contains descriptions of whetstones.

From volume 4 to volume 49 of the Engishiki, the words to (砥), aoto (青砥), and Iyo-do (伊予砥) appear frequently. In volume 49 the character ara-to (麁) also appears; this means a coarse stone (arato).

In this era, it is said, good-quality finishing stones began to be quarried at Mount Atago north of the Heian capital. Aoto, I believe, was being quarried in many regions at the time, but in the Engishiki only Dazaifu (大宰府, Kyūshū, Fukuoka Prefecture) is recorded as a producing area of aoto.

The Iyo-do, as written in the Nara-period section, was a special product of Iyo Province (Shikoku, Ehime Prefecture). It is the only whetstone in the Engishiki to bear the name of its producing area, and it is the oldest whetstone to have been so named. This region produced everything from arato to fine finishing-grade medium stones; the name Iyo-do was attached to the finishing-grade medium stones.

As for the coarse stones written ara-to (麁), these too, I believe, were being quarried in many regions at the time, but there is no particular record of arato producing areas in this era. Over the roughly 400 years of the Heian period, the population was about 2,500,000 to 4,000,000.

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At the beginning of the Kamakura period, in Shōbudani, Umegahata (梅ケ畑菖蒲谷), on the eastern skirts of Mount Atago in Yamashiro Province — that is, in Kyoto — the high-quality finishing stones called awasedo were discovered. Honma Tōzaemon Tokinari (本間藤左衛門時成), a local country samurai (gōshi 郷士), presented finishing whetstones he had quarried in the mountains of Shōbudani, Umegahata, to the retired emperor Go-Toba (後鳥羽上皇), and in Kenkyū 1 (1190) he was appointed "Master Director of Japan's Whetstone Quarriers" (Nihon reisekishi tōryō 日本礪石師棟梁) by Minamoto no Yoritomo (源頼朝), who was then in the capital, and became the head supervisor of quarrying in his home Shōbudani.

The awasedo quarried in this valley were called Higashi-mono (東物, "eastern goods"); the whetstone mountains were Narutaki-Mukōda (鳴滝向田), Nakayama (中山), Okudono (奥殿), Ōzuku (大突), and Shōbu (菖蒲), and the stones were called Honyama whetstones (本山砥石), meaning awasedo quarried by the Honma clan. (Today, all awasedo quarried in Kyoto are called Honyama whetstones.)

Later, quarrying also took place at the whetstone mountains of Ōhira (大平), Mizukihara (水木原), Umajiyama (馬路山), Shinden (新田), Okunomon (奥の門), and Yazutsu (八筒) north of Mount Atago; these were called Umaji-mono (馬路物) among the Tanba goods (丹波物), and together with the Higashi-mono they were esteemed as the aristocracy of whetstones.

The Kyoto awasedo all became articles reserved for the imperial house and the shogunate, used for swords and other blades, and did not circulate among the general public. The population of the Kamakura period was about 5,000,000.

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Around the beginning of this period, in the province of Mikawa (三河), the Nagura-do — finishing stones and medium stones — began to be quarried, and in particular the finishing whetstone called Mikawa White Nagura (三河白名倉) began to be used for sharpening swords and the like.

As for the Kyoto awasedo, in the late Muromachi period the "difficult pieces" (nan-mono 難もの) — badly shaped stones and those with flaws or cracks — began to circulate as leftovers from the official whetstone supply. These difficult pieces, though awkward to use, were high-quality awasedo, so their cutting performance was superb, and they came to exert a great influence on the field of edged tools for building, craftwork, and so on.

Also, in the latter half of the same period, finishing-grade medium stones began to be quarried at Tozawa in Nanmoku village, Gunma Prefecture (群馬県南牧村の砥沢); named Tozawa-do (砥沢砥/戸沢砥) and later Numata-do (沼田砥), this became one of the leading whetstone-producing areas in the country, and in the Edo period it developed as a whetstone producer designated for official use by the shogunate. With the onset of the Sengoku (Warring States) period, the Amakusa-do (天草砥), a medium stone, began to be quarried in Higo (肥後, Kumamoto Prefecture).

The famous medium stone Tanba aoto (丹波青砥) from Kameyama in Kyoto also appears to have begun to be quarried in this latter half of the Muromachi period. However, there is also a theory that quarrying began in the Keichō era at the start of the 17th century (around the beginning of the Edo period), so this is not certain.

As for the population from the Muromachi period into the Azuchi-Momoyama period: since the population of the early Edo period is said to have been about 15,000,000 to about 15,000,000 [sic — apparent typo in the original; the second figure was presumably meant to differ], one can infer from that.

(Part 1 ends here. Part 2 will be posted at a later date in the "History of Tools" column.)

An auspicious day, January, Heisei 26 (2014) Suzuki Kanamono Co., Ltd. Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木 俊昭)

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Last time, I posted Part 1, "The History of Natural Whetstones and Carpentry Tools (1) — From Ancient Times to the Muromachi Period," in the "History of Tools" column. As its continuation, I now post Part 2, "The History of Natural Whetstones and Carpentry Tools (2) — From the Edo to the Shōwa Period," in the "History of Tools" column, and will speak of the relation between the history of natural whetstones and carpentry tools. Honorifics are omitted.

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In the Edo period, the Hon'ami family (本阿弥家) — who from around the early Muromachi period had made sword polishing and appraisal their family profession and had used the Narutaki whetstone — was granted by the shogunate, around Keichō 12 (1607) in the era of the 2nd shōgun, Tokugawa Hidetada (徳川秀忠), the quarrying rights at five locations: Narutaki (鳴滝), Nakano (中野), Takao (高雄), Toganoo (栂尾), and within Umegahata (梅ケ畑). They came to manage the whetstone mountains until the Meiji era.

Since the whetstones remaining after those delivered to the shogunate could be sold to the public, stones that at first were exclusively for swords gradually came to be used for sharpening razors, planes, chisels, and the like.

In the Edo period many publications introduced the whetstone-producing areas and so on; here let us take up the "Kefukigusa" (毛吹草) and the "Nihon Sankai Meisan Zue" (日本山海名産図会).

In the era of the 3rd shōgun, Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光), a book was published introducing whetstones bearing the names of their producing areas. This was the "Kefukigusa" (1638), which in its section on the famous products of the provinces introduces various whetstones, letting us know the principal whetstone-producing areas of the time. They are as follows:

The Tozawa-do (戸沢砥, also written 砥沢砥) of Kōzuke Province; the Nagura-do (名倉砥) of Mikawa Province; the Jōkeiji-do (常慶寺砥) of Echizen Province; the Toishiyama-do (砥石山砥) of Ōmi Province; the Takao-do (高雄砥) of Yamashiro Province; the Mikanohara-do (瓶原砥) of Yamashiro Province; the Saeki-do (佐伯砥) of Tanba Province; the Moroiso-do (諸磯砥) of Tajima Province; the Mikohama-do (神子浜砥) of Kishū Province; the Amakusa-do (天草砥) of Higo Province; and the aoto (青砥) of Tsushima Province.

Then, some 160 years later, around the middle of the era of the 11th shōgun, Tokugawa Ienari, the "Nihon Sankai Meisan Zue," published in Kansei 11 (1799), introduces the whetstone-producing areas of that time, as follows:

The awasedo of Narutaki and Takao near Saga in Kyoto, and the uchigumori-do (内曇り砥) and asagi-do (浅黄砥) of Harayama (原山) and Tanba Shiratani (丹波白谷) — these, it says, were used not only for swords and razors, but also by carpenters and other woodworking craftsmen. In addition: the Tozawa-do of Kōzuke, the White Nagura (白名倉砥) of Mikawa, and the Jōkeiji-do of Echizen — these are finishing stones.

Aoto is obtained at Hirao (平尾), Somada (杣田), Minamimura (南村), Monzen (門前), Nakamura (中村), Ideguro (井出黒), and Yubune (湯船) in Kyoto, and at Inokura (猪倉), Saeki (佐伯), Ashinoyama (芦野山), Ōgidani (扇谷), Hase (長谷), Ōbuchi (大渕), Iwaya (岩谷), and Miyagawa (宮川) in Tanba. As medium stones there are the Amakusa-do of Hizen (Saga and Nagasaki Prefectures), the Iyo-do of Iyo, and the mushikui-do (虫喰砥, "worm-eaten stone") of Tsushima.

For arato there are the Karatsu Monguchi (唐津紋口) of Hizen; the kayaganaka (茅ガ中) of Kii — this is not a place name, but denotes an especially coarse-grained whetstone — and Mikohama; and the stones of Iyo.

Further, the guide states that carpenters, box-makers, and joiners (sashimono-shi 指物師) did their medium sharpening with the aoto of Monzen, Hirao, and Somada — medium stones — and finished with the awasedo of Narutaki and Takao and the like.

This description is a precious source for knowing the whetstones that the carpenters of the day were using. From the middle of the Edo period onward, the population held steady in the thirty-millions.

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With the Meiji era, demand for whetstones expanded with the building of the new nation, and new whetstone mines opened one after another. Quarrying, which had been manual work, gained efficiency through the introduction of explosives, mine carts (torokko), and the like, and output also increased.

At the First National Industrial Exhibition (第１回内国勧業博覧会) in Meiji 10 (1877), whetstone-producing areas exhibited as follows. For finishing stones and medium stones: the prefectures of Ehime, Kyoto, Kanagawa, Saitama, Hyōgo, Nagasaki, Niigata, Gunma, Chiba, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Mie, Aichi, Shizuoka, Yamanashi, Shiga, Gifu, Nagano, Miyagi, Fukushima, Iwate, Aomori, Yamagata, Akita, Ishikawa, Shimane, Okayama, Yamaguchi, Kagawa, Fukuoka, Ōita, and Kumamoto. For arato: the prefectures of Nagasaki, Ibaraki, Aichi, Shizuoka, Gifu, Nagano, Fukushima, Iwate, Shimane, Hiroshima, Wakayama, Kōchi, Fukuoka, and Kumamoto. The number of exhibiting producing areas was 173. From this we can see that in the early Meiji years, whetstone-producing areas extended across the whole country.

Representative whetstones that developed as local industries in the Meiji era include the following: the Hirashima-do (平島砥), Sasaguchi-do (笹口砥), and Tsushima-do (対馬砥) of Nagasaki Prefecture; the Amakusa-do (天草砥) and Bisui-do (備水砥) of Kumamoto Prefecture; the Iyo-do (伊予砥) of Ehime Prefecture; the aoto (青砥) of Hiroshima Prefecture; the Ōmura-do (大村砥) of Wakayama Prefecture [sic — the Ōmura-do is elsewhere attributed to Nagasaki]; the Tajima-do (但馬砥) of Hyōgo Prefecture; the awasedo (合砥), aoto (青砥), Monzen-do (門前砥), and Saeki-do (佐伯砥) of Kyoto Prefecture; the Jōkeiji-do (常慶寺砥) of Fukui Prefecture; the Mikawa White (三河白) and Fine Nagura (細名倉) of Aichi Prefecture; the Mino-do (美濃砥) of Gifu Prefecture; the Numata-do (沼田砥) and Kōzuke Tora-do (上野虎砥) of Gunma Prefecture; the aoto (青砥) and Hikoma-do (飛駒砥) of Tochigi Prefecture; the Sukegawa-do (助川砥) and Ōizumi-do (大泉砥) of Ibaraki Prefecture; the Igarashi-do (五十嵐砥) of Niigata Prefecture; the Kaisei-do (改正砥) of Yamagata Prefecture; the Ebisu-do (恵比寿砥) of Miyagi Prefecture; and the Shizukuishi-do (雫石砥) and Natsuya-do (夏屋砥) of Iwate Prefecture.

From around the middle of the Meiji era to the early Shōwa era, whetstone production reached its peak. In the early Shōwa years, the number of whetstone quarrying sites is said to have grown to nearly 1,000.

While the population of Japan held steady at about 30,000,000 in the Edo period, it was about 33,000,000 around the Meiji Restoration, and grew to about 84,000,000 around the Pacific War. In Meiji 19 (1886) the population of Tokyo was about 1,120,000, Osaka about 360,000, and Kyoto about 260,000; three years later, in Meiji 22 (1889), Tokyo had grown to about 1,390,000, Osaka to about 480,000, and Kyoto to about 280,000.

With this population growth as one principal factor, wooden construction flourished, and with it carpentry tools too reached their golden age from the Meiji era through the first half of the Shōwa era. The increase in whetstone production and the prosperity of carpentry tools are closely related, for carpentry tools — edged tools — were the principal users of whetstones.

However, in the latter half of the Taishō era, artificial kongō whetstones (金剛砥石, carborundum stones) capable of efficient rough sharpening began to be produced, and natural sandstone arato gradually fell out of use. Furthermore, around the beginning of the Shōwa 30s (mid-1950s), the King whetstone (キング砥石) — an artificial medium stone capable of efficient medium sharpening — and inexpensive artificial finishing stones, replacing the costly natural finishing stones, came onto the market, and the sharpening of building-trade edged tools gradually shifted from natural to artificial whetstones.

As the principal natural-whetstone producing areas around Shōwa 25 (1950), the paper by Satō Kōhei, "The Whetstones of Tozawa: Geology and History," introduces the following:

As arato, three: the Chōshi-do (銚子砥) of Chōshi, Chiba; the Kishū-do (紀州砥) of Tonda, Wakayama; and the Hirashima-do (平島砥) of Hirashima, Nagasaki.

As nakato, eighteen [as listed]: the Shitomae-do (志戸前砥) of Omyōjin village, Iwate; the Maemori-do (前森砥) of Higashi-Oguni village, Yamagata; the Takinohara-do (滝ノ原砥) of Arakai village, Fukushima; the Sukegawa-do (助川砥) of Taga town, Ibaraki; the Ōizumi-do (大泉砥) of Iwase town, Ibaraki; the Arauchi-do (荒内砥) of Sakagawa village, Tochigi; the Kōzuke-do (上野砥) of Osaka village, Gunma; the Numata-do (沼田砥) and Tora-do (虎砥) of Tozawa, Gunma; the Fukuhira-do (福平砥) of Higashi-Fuse village, Toyama; the Nagura-do (名倉砥) of Furikusa village, Aichi; the Gasshōji-do (合掌寺砥) of Ōhito village, Shizuoka; the Yoneyama-do (米山砥) of Inazusa village, Shizuoka; the Miyagawa-do (宮川砥) of Miyamae village, Kyoto; the Mesuki-do (目透砥) of Miyamae village, Kyoto; and the Iyo-do (伊予砥) of Iyo, Ehime.

As awasedo, two: the Mikawa White (三河白砥) of Tozawa, Miwa village, Aichi; and the Narutaki-do (鳴滝砥) of Umegahata, Kyoto.

The appearance from around Shōwa 30 (1955) of electric power tools for wooden construction, the shift of building to concrete, changes in construction methods, and so on greatly affected the use of whetstones, and whetstone mines closed one after another. Today, natural-whetstone quarrying is carried on only slightly, in Kyoto and a few other places.

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In this section, let us speak of the Kyoto-produced whetstones called "awasedo" (合砥), especially superb finishing stones. The origin of the word awasedo appears to be that merely by touching the blade to the stone (awaseru, "to bring together"), a fine edge is produced.

Once, in the finishing-whetstone strata that run from Kyoto City to Kameyama [Kameoka] City, there were numerous whetstone mountains, and quarrying was carried on vigorously. In the peak Shōwa years, the quarrymen are said to have received four times the daily wage of a carpenter; but because of pneumoconiosis (dust lung) and cave-in accidents, many died in their thirties — one can see what punishing work quarrying was.

As related earlier in the history of whetstones, quarrying seems to have gone on in this district from the Heian period, about 1,000 years ago; but it was when Honma Tōzaemon (本間藤左衛門) of Umegahata presented the high-quality finishing whetstones he had quarried to the imperial house at the beginning of the Kamakura period that Kyoto finishing whetstones made their appearance in history.

These finishing whetstones were born of crustal movements dating back 250 million years or more, and they are the finest finishing whetstones, without parallel in the world. At first they were used for the finish sharpening of swords, and afterward for the finish sharpening of edged tools — razors, chisels, planes. This whetstone stratum stretches from Hyōgo Prefecture through the Tanba region northwest of Kyoto, then through the northern part of Kyoto City to western Shiga Prefecture (Takashima City), and was quarried at each point along the way. With the changing times, closures and suspensions of mines followed one after another from Shōwa 40 to Shōwa 60 (1965–1985), and today only a handful of people continue quarrying.

As for the whetstone strata: the uppermost layer is the "tenjō suita" (天上（天井）巣板, "ceiling suita"), which yields the uchigumori-do (内曇砥) used for swords. Below this come the "hachimai" (八枚, a stratum of eight stones), the "senmai" (千枚, "thousand sheets" — many thin layers stacked together, a hard stratum), and the "tomae" (戸前) — so called because it was said that if you struck this stratum you could build a storehouse (kura), hence tomae, "before the storehouse door." The tomae stratum is further divided into tenjō-tomae (天上戸前), hon-tomae (本戸前), tomae (戸前), and shiki-tomae (敷戸前). From within the hachimai, senmai, and tomae strata come the stones commonly called "Honyama-do" (本山砥) in green, yellow, gray, and pale blue.

Below the tomae stratum is a layer called the "aisa" (合さ), which yields the hard, abrasive "karasu-do" (カラス砥, "crow stone"). Below the aisa come the "namito" (並砥, a comparatively thick stratum of stable composition), the "ōjō" (大上, sometimes treated as namito), and then the "shiki-suita" (敷巣板) stratum — called suita ("nest board") because of the small holes left where gas escaped. At Maruoyama (丸尾山) in Tanba Kameyama [Kameoka], where quarrying continues even now, the whetstone stratum is about 15 meters thick.

Note also that, with the Kyoto Natural Whetstone Association (京都天然砥石組合) as organizer and the Kyoto Whetstone Dealers' Guild (京都砥石販売同業組合) as supporter, October 14 has been designated "Whetstone Day" (砥石の日), and every year in Kyoto whetstone exhibitions, lectures, and other events are held, in the effort to have many people take an interest in whetstones.

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I had long harbored a strong desire to investigate the whetstones used for sharpening the blades of carpentry tools such as planes and chisels; but once I actually began to investigate, I learned how deep the subject of whetstones goes, and for a long time I could hardly get a grip on it.

I had published my two books, "Nihon no daiku dōgu shokunin" (日本の大工道具職人, Japan's Carpentry-Tool Craftsmen) and "Zoku: Nihon no daiku dōgu shokunin" (続・日本の大工道具職人, Japan's Carpentry-Tool Craftsmen, Continued), and thought that with these the aim of my many years of investigation and research had been achieved. But as I went on publishing several further essays on carpentry tools, the conception came to me of a "Daiku dōgu bunkaron" (大工道具文化論, A Cultural Theory of Carpentry Tools) that would bring together my decades of investigation and research on carpentry tools, and the desire arose to write and publish it without fail.

For that, I felt I had to write up the remaining subject — the relation between whetstones and carpentry tools — and so, under the title "The History of Natural Whetstones and Carpentry Tools," I have made a historical survey of the producing areas of the natural whetstones used for sharpening swords, carpentry tools, and other blades.

In setting down the history of whetstone quarrying, unexpected things came to light one after another:

  1. Although Kyoto finishing whetstones seem to have been quarried from the Heian period, the high-quality Kyoto awasedo came to be quarried [translator: original has typo 採掘さてた] at the beginning of the Kamakura period.
  2. At first they were presented to the imperial house and the shogunate of the day, and did not circulate among the general public.
  3. Until then, carpenters had used whetstones from other producing areas for their finish sharpening.
  4. In the late Muromachi period, badly shaped Kyoto awasedo and those with flaws and cracks began to circulate publicly as "difficult pieces" (nan-mono), and this improved the cutting performance of planes and chisels.
  5. For the mid-Edo period, the names of the medium and finishing stones that carpenters used became known.
  6. The prosperity of carpentry tools and the expansion of whetstone demand coincide.

In the old days it was said, "half a day sharpening, half a day planing" (togi hannichi, kezuri hannichi 研ぎ半日、削り半日) — sharpening planes and chisels was hard work. This shows that the natural whetstones used for rough and medium sharpening did not have good abrasive power. For that reason, the body (mi 身) — the soft-iron backing of planes and chisels — was forged thin; the blade width of planes was chiefly 1 sun 4 bu (about 42 mm); and the steel too was forge-welded on thin. Consequently the hollow of the back (urasuki 裏スキ) was also made shallow.

Today, since we have artificial kongō (carborundum) stones and King stones with strong abrasive power, the forging of the body of planes and chisels and the welding of the steel have become thicker, and the urasuki deeper. The blade width of planes, too, is now chiefly 1 sun 8 bu (about 54 mm) among carpenters.

Thus, when we look at the development of carpentry tools from the standpoint of the whetstone, we can learn unexpected facts.

An auspicious day, January, Heisei 26 (2014) Suzuki Kanamono Co., Ltd. Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木 俊昭)

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