Translations of three article series from the "History of Tools" (道具の歴史) section of the Suzuki Kanamono Ten website ((有)スズキ金物店, Suzuki Kanamono Co., Ltd., "purveyors of plasterer's trowels and tools"), by company president Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭).
- The Genealogy of the Sanjō Plane Smiths (三条鉋鍛冶の系譜) — slug
sanjoukannakajinokeifu, 5 pages, dated Heisei 22 (2010), July - The Genealogy of the Sanjō Chisel Smiths (三条鑿鍛冶の系譜) — slug
sanjounomikajinokeifu, 4 pages, dated Heisei 20 (2008), December - The Master Saw Smiths of Sanjō, Niigata (新潟三条の鋸鍛冶の名工たち) — slug
niigatasanjounonokokaji, 5 pages, dated Heisei 23 (2011), October
Translator's note. These three series cover the blacksmith genealogies of Sanjō City (三条市), Niigata Prefecture — one of Japan's great edge-tool towns. The plane series traces the Eikō (永弘) and Hatsuhiro (初弘) lines; the chisel series traces the Yamada Yoshiei (山田よし栄) and Yamada Kaihiro/Umihiro (山田海弘) lines; the saw series profiles three independent masters (Ōba Shōichirō, Yamaguchi Sukezaemon, Satō Chōichirō) who stood outside the dominant Nakaya Inosuke (中屋伊之助) school.
Ambiguities: (1) The name 初弘 is read here as Hatsuhiro (the standard reading; the task brief's "Shokō" is the on-reading of the same kanji). Likewise 永弘 is rendered Eikō per the brief; "Nagahiro" is a possible alternative reading. 海弘 the author explicitly says was first read Kaihiro, later Umihiro — both appear below. (2) Page 4 of the plane series and page 4 of the chisel series consist almost entirely of a genealogy chart supplied as a GIF image (e.g.
image121.gif, alt-text "系図 of Eikō/Hatsuhiro") with no machine-readable text; the charts' content is reconstructed in tables from the essay text and so labeled. (3) A few obvious typos in the original (e.g. 主流とまりました for 主流となりました; 語り伝えれれた) are translated per evident intent. (4) 長次郎 vs 長二郎 for the first Kaihiro's given name varies between pages of the original; both spellings are preserved where they occur.
— Centered on the Eikō (永弘) and Hatsuhiro (初弘) Lines —
The history of plane smithing (kanna-kaji 鉋鍛冶) in Sanjō City, Niigata Prefecture, is said to have begun in the Meiji era, when tool smiths migrated in from Yoita (与板) and Nagaoka (長岡). In Meiji 17 (1884), Nobukichi (信吉), the second son of the Yoita farm-implement smith Kuribayashi Gonpei (栗林権平), settled in Sanjō and began making planes, becoming the pioneer of the town's plane smiths. In addition, Tsutsumi Densaku (堤伝作), a disciple of Ryūminsai Kaneyuki (龍眠斎兼行) — who is held to be the founding ancestor of the Yoita plane smiths — came from Nagaoka and transmitted plane-making technique.
Even before that, around Meiji 15 (ca. 1882), the chisel smith Kawachi Shōji (河内庄次) had migrated in from Yoita. Nagaoke Yonetarō (永桶米太郎), who apprenticed under him, began after gaining his independence to forge not only chisels but also planes under the mark Eikō (永弘).
With these events as the impetus, many plane smiths subsequently arose in Sanjō City, and it has come down to the present day as one of Japan's great centers of plane production.
Our shop possesses a sun-roku (寸六, 65 mm) plane bearing the Eikō mark, believed to have been made before the Pacific War, of the type called the "fukumimi Eikō" (福耳永弘, "lucky-ears Eikō"). A Tokyo wholesaler had taken it over from a hardware retailer that had gone out of business, and came to sell it to our shop around Shōwa 22–23 (1947–48), when my father purchased it. At the same time he also purchased a finishing whetstone inscribed in ink: "Exhibited at the Meiji 27 (1894) Industrial Promotion Exhibition — Awarded the Prize of Excellence — Selected by Katō Kōzan (加藤鑛山撰出)."
We also have a sun-pachi (寸八, 70 mm) plane with the mark Migaki Hatsuhiro (磨き初弘, "polished Hatsuhiro"), acquired in the latter half of the Shōwa 40s (early-to-mid 1970s) from a Niigata wholesaler, who called it the very finest grade of "Hatsuhiro."
Wishing this time to write about "Eikō" and "Hatsuhiro," the celebrated hereditary names (myōseki 名跡) of the Sanjō plane smiths, I researched them on the internet and was able to learn about them in detail. So along with introducing in photographs the planes and finishing stone in our collection, let me set out the genealogy of these plane smiths.
In writing this manuscript I have drawn on, among others, the website of the Sanjō hardware wholesaler Sotoei Kanamono Co. (外栄金物（株）) and the Sanjō City website. Honorifics are omitted below.
Nagaoke Yonetarō (永桶米太郎) was apprenticed as a boy to the chisel smith Kawachi Shōji (河内庄次), who had migrated from Yoita around Meiji 15 (ca. 1882). Having solidly built up his training as a chisel smith and mastered chisel manufacture, Yonetarō eventually became independent and took the name of the first-generation Eikō (永弘). He then took on the challenge of making not only chisels but planes as well, and came to forge planes too. At the time, it seems, he forged planes by day and chisels by night.
Working alongside the first Eikō was his younger brother, Nagaoke Kikuji (永桶菊次). As this younger brother Kikuji grew skilled at chisel making, Eikō came to entrust chisel production to him, and when Kikuji set up independently, Eikō handed the chisel side of the business over to him entirely. The independent Kikuji took the mark Kikuhiromaru (菊弘丸) as a chisel smith. In the Nagaoke Kikuji family thereafter, the eldest son Shōji (昭二) succeeded as second generation; the second son Keizaburō (啓三郎) became independent as a chisel smith under the mark Keiju (啓壽); and the third son Kinjirō (金次郎) apprenticed to Nakaya Inosuke (中屋伊之助) and became a saw smith under the mark Nakaya Shinsui (中屋深水). The Kikuhiromaru mark is today carried on in the third generation by Kazuyoshi (和良), son of the second-generation Nagaoke Shōji.
Among the disciples of the first Eikō were Hoshino Sankichi (星野三吉), who trained as a plane smith and later became the first-generation Hatsuhiro (初弘), and Ogino Shinji (荻野信次). Among Ogino Shinji's disciples is Sakaguchi Shōichi (坂口昭一, b. Shōwa 9 / 1934) of the mark Kunihisamitsu (国久光), who dedicated the spear-planes (yari-ganna 槍鉋) used in the restoration of Tōdai-ji temple in Nara.
As for the first Eikō's sons: his eldest son died young, and his second son went off into a different line of trade, so his third son Jisuke (次助) began helping in his father's work as successor after finishing elementary school. When Jisuke turned 16, his father directed him: "Go independent and manufacture chisels." From his own experience, the father believed that disciplined training as a chisel smith would without fail prove useful later when doing the work of a plane smith.
For ten years Jisuke devoted himself to the study of chisels — materials, form, hot-forging (hizukuri 火造り), finishing, and sharpness. When Jisuke was at last permitted to make planes, he next spent half a year researching the cutting performance of planes before beginning plane production in earnest. As if relieved at seeing this accomplished, the first Eikō died the following year.
Yonetarō, the first Eikō, was a plane smith of such mastery that, in an age when there was no good steel other than tamahagane (玉鋼), he used Western tool steel — lathe-bit steel for cutting large planes — for plane blades, and while working the steel could state its carbon content dead-on. It is also said that the Western steel materials the first Eikō used served as reference in the creation of Aogami ("Blue Paper") steel at Hitachi's Yasugi works.
The plane-making tradition of the first Eikō passed from the second-generation Jisuke to his son Yonetarō as third generation, and plane production continued; but in the Heisei era production was discontinued, the Sanjō hardware wholesaler Sotoei Kanamono Co. (外栄金物（株）) acquired the Eikō mark, and it came to have the planes forged by other plane smiths.
Hoshino Sankichi (星野三吉), who trained under the first Eikō, became independent, took the name of the first-generation Hatsuhiro (初弘), and forged planes. In contrast to his master, the first Eikō, who had succeeded using Western lathe-bit steel for plane blades, the first Hatsuhiro succeeded by forging Japan's traditional tamahagane. And it is said that the tamahagane Hatsuhiro used served as reference in the creation of Shirogami ("White Paper") steel at Hitachi's Yasugi works.
Among the first Hatsuhiro's (Sankichi's) disciples, his foremost disciple was Sakai Tomoji (坂井鞆治; he made planes marked Tomoji-saku Sakamitsu 友治作坂光), along with Kanai Yoshizō (金井芳蔵; maker of Yoshizō-mark planes) and others. Sakai Tomoji's son is Sakai Hisaji (坂井久二), who makes kogatana (小刀, marking knives) under the Sakamitsu (坂光) mark. Kanai Yoshizō was succeeded by a disciple, who as the second-generation Kanai Yoshio (金井芳雄) forged planes under the Yoshizō mark.
Since Hoshino Sankichi, the first Hatsuhiro, had no children, his relative and nephew Hoshino Sansaku (星野三作) was adopted at the age of five. In time Sansaku's elder brothers, Hoshino Bunsaku (星野文作) and Hoshino Miyaji (星野巳弥治), apprenticed after finishing elementary school. The adopted Sansaku also trained as a plane smith, but relations soured, he left the first Hatsuhiro's house and set up independently, forging planes under the mark Hatsuyuki (初行), and for a time was busy at the plane-smith's trade employing a number of craftsmen.
The second-generation Hatsuhiro was succeeded by Bunsaku (文作). Miyaji, in Shōwa 22 (1947), married into the family of the saw smith Satō Hyōzaburō (佐藤俵三郎), who had been a disciple of Nakaya Inosuke, and as Satō Miyaji (佐藤巳弥治) forged planes. He registered as trademarks the marks Hatsunori (初則), Denju (伝壽), and Hyōzaburō (俵三郎). The connection was that the wife of Sansaku (of the Hatsuyuki mark) came from the natal family (the saw-smith Maruyama family 丸山家) of the mother of Miyaji's wife (of the Satō family). In Shōwa 24 (1949), Miyaji received the highest award, the Mayor's Prize, at Sanjō City's "Carpentry Tool Competition Commemorating the 15th Anniversary of Municipal Incorporation."
When the second-generation Hatsuhiro, Bunsaku, was stricken with cancer, his son Bun'ichirō (文一郎), who succeeded as third generation, had been doing drop-forging work and had never made a plane; so Satō Miyaji, an accomplished plane smith, was asked to instruct the third-generation Bun'ichirō in plane making, and did so. At present, Bun'ichirō's son Mitsuhiro (光宏), as fourth generation, guards the plane-smith name Hatsuhiro, continuing to make hand-forged planes while also taking on new plane manufacture.
Note that Hatsuhiro-mark planes are divided into three grades: the standard "Hatsuhiro" used Shirogami (White Paper) steel; the high-grade triangle-mark (三角印) "Hatsuhiro" used Aogami (Blue Paper) No. 1 steel; and the top-grade "Migaki (polished) Hatsuhiro" used Swedish steel.
[Translator: this page of the original consists of a genealogy chart supplied only as an image (image121.gif, alt-text "Genealogical chart of Eikō and Hatsuhiro"), with no transcribable text. The following table reconstructs the chart from the essay text.]
| Line | Generation / person | Mark(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| (Teacher) | Kawachi Shōji (河内庄次) | — | Chisel smith from Yoita, arrived ca. Meiji 15 (1882) |
| Eikō | 1st: Nagaoke Yonetarō (永桶米太郎) | Eikō (永弘) | Chisels, then planes; d. one year after son's plane debut |
| Eikō | 2nd: Nagaoke Jisuke (次助) | Eikō | Third son of 1st; 10 years on chisels first |
| Eikō | 3rd: Nagaoke Yonetarō (米太郎, grandson) | Eikō | Production ceased in Heisei era; mark sold to Sotoei Kanamono |
| Eikō branch | Nagaoke Kikuji (永桶菊次) | Kikuhiromaru (菊弘丸) | Younger brother of 1st Eikō; chisels. 2nd gen: son Shōji (昭二); 3rd gen (current): Kazuyoshi (和良). Shōji's brothers: Keizaburō (啓三郎), mark Keiju (啓壽); Kinjirō (金次郎), saw smith Nakaya Shinsui (中屋深水) |
| Eikō pupil | Ogino Shinji (荻野信次) | — | His pupil: Sakaguchi Shōichi (坂口昭一, b. 1934), mark Kunihisamitsu (国久光) |
| Hatsuhiro | 1st: Hoshino Sankichi (星野三吉) | Hatsuhiro (初弘) | Pupil of 1st Eikō; tamahagane specialist |
| Hatsuhiro pupils | Sakai Tomoji (坂井鞆治); Kanai Yoshizō (金井芳蔵) | Sakamitsu (坂光); Yoshizō (芳蔵) | Tomoji's son Sakai Hisaji (坂井久二), kogatana, Sakamitsu; Yoshizō succeeded by 2nd-gen Kanai Yoshio (金井芳雄) |
| Hatsuhiro branch | Hoshino Sansaku (星野三作, adopted son) | Hatsuyuki (初行) | Left the house after falling out |
| Hatsuhiro | 2nd: Hoshino Bunsaku (星野文作) | Hatsuhiro | Brother of Sansaku |
| Hatsuhiro branch | Satō (Hoshino) Miyaji (佐藤巳弥治) | Hatsunori (初則), Denju (伝壽), Hyōzaburō (俵三郎) | Married into saw-smith Satō Hyōzaburō family 1947; Mayor's Prize 1949; taught 3rd-gen Hatsuhiro |
| Hatsuhiro | 3rd: Hoshino Bun'ichirō (文一郎) | Hatsuhiro | Former drop-forger; trained by Satō Miyaji |
| Hatsuhiro | 4th (current): Mitsuhiro (光宏) | Hatsuhiro | Continues hand-forged planes |
This time I have written about the genealogy of "Eikō" and "Hatsuhiro," the celebrated names of Niigata planes. Until now I had known these lineages only in part, so having researched and written them up systematically in chronological order, I am satisfied both to make them widely known to people with an interest in carpentry tools and, for myself, to have grasped their full picture historically for the first time.
As for the history of the plane in Japan: from a primitive plane of chisel origin thought to have appeared around the 13th century, it was greatly improved around the 15th century, and appeared in the latter half of the 16th century as the single-blade plane (there is an excavated plane from Osaka Castle as physical evidence), which was used together with the spear-plane (yari-ganna). By the 17th century, the single-blade plane had become the mainstream for flat-surfacing timber (Watanabe Akira 渡邊晶, "Daiku Dōgu no Nihonshi" 大工道具の日本史, A Japanese History of Carpentry Tools). Then, from the latter half of the Meiji era to the beginning of Taishō, the two-blade plane with chip-breaker (uragane 裏金) appeared, and the plane reached its golden age.
From around Shōwa 30 (1955), however, the electric planer began to spread, and with great changes in construction methods the hand plane gradually fell out of use, down to the present day.
Today on the internet, planes from old times to the present are discussed from many angles by people of all professions, and the discussion flourishes. In contrast, the plane smiths are aging; business is hard, and most have no successors; their numbers only decline.
The plane smiths of Sanjō, Niigata are no different — is this simply the current of the times, and not to be helped? I can only pray that the "kanna," king among Japan's carpentry tools of which we boast to the world, will continue to be forged by many plane smiths in the years to come.
An auspicious day, July, Heisei 22 (2010) Suzuki Kanamono Co., Ltd. Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)
— Centered on the Yoshiei (よし栄) and Kaihiro (海弘) Lines —
As I have already written in "The 'Tokyo Chisel Cooperative Association' as Handed Down" (《語り伝えられた「東京鑿共同組合」》), in the five-tier chisel box left by my father — who was a plane-body fitter (daiire-shoku 台入れ職) by trade — there are chisels with the marks Koshitaka (越孝), Yoshiei (よし栄), and Kaihiro (海弘). Where and by whom were these chisels forged, and to what lineages do they belong? Since my father used the chisels of smiths reputed to be masters and virtuosos, and since I had heard from him long ago that Takagi Kōjirō (高木孝次郎), the first-generation Koshitaka, would often stay at our house when he came to Tokyo from about the middle of the Shōwa 20s (ca. 1950), I had long taken a keen interest in these questions.
Then, in the course of my extensive research for writing up the Tokyo chisel and plane smiths for our shop's website, I unexpectedly came to learn in detail that these chisels were the work of the virtuosos who form the mainstream of the Niigata Sanjō chisel smiths.
Therefore, based on the materials gathered on these matters, I wish to set them down under the title "The Genealogy of the Sanjō Chisel Smiths — Centered on the Yoshiei and Kaihiro Lines."
In writing this manuscript I have drawn on the Sanjō Kanamono News (三条金物ニュース) issue of March 15, Shōwa 52 (1977), "Craftsmen of Sanjō, No. 3: Yamada Kaihiro" (三条の職人 第三回 山田海弘); the issue of June 15, Shōwa 52 (1977), "Craftsmen of Sanjō, No. 4: Takagi Koshihiko" (三条の職人 第四回 高木越彦); and the Tasai Chisel Works (田斎鑿製作所) website's "Sanjō Yamada Yoshiei Genealogy" (三条 山田よし栄系図). Honorifics are omitted below.
The history of Sanjō's chisel smiths is old, and within it the Yamada line — with the Yoita-born Yamada Tsunekichi (山田常吉) as its ancestor — produced many virtuosos who form the mainstream of Sanjō chisel smithing.
Yamada Tsunekichi, who converted from lock smith (jōmae-kaji 錠前鍛冶) to maker of bōtō-kiri gimlets (棒刀錐鍛冶) while also beginning to forge chisels, trained his sons under him: the eldest, Eiji (栄治), who became the first-generation Yoshiei (よし栄), and the second son, Chōjirō (長次郎), who became the first-generation Kaihiro (海弘).
The disciples of the first Yoshiei included Yamada Eizaburō (山田栄三郎), who became the second-generation Yoshiei; the first-generation Koshihiko (越彦) (Takagi Hikoji 高木彦治, the elder brother); and the first-generation Koshitaka (越孝) (Takagi Kōjirō 高木孝次郎, the younger brother).
The first Koshihiko became independent in Taishō 6 (1917) and from around Shōwa 6–7 (1931–32) began forging chisels under the Koshihiko mark. When the Sanjō Chisel Association (三条鑿組合) was formed in Shōwa 23 (1948), he became its first chairman, and as a leader of the Sanjō chisel-smith trade rendered great service to its advancement. In time his son Hikohachirō (彦八朗), born Taishō 10 (1921), succeeded as second-generation Koshihiko, but the business has now closed.
[Photo caption:] First-generation Koshitaka, Aogami-steel chisel (初代 越孝 青紙鑿)
The first Koshitaka, whose renown as a chisel-smith virtuoso stood as high as his brother's, was caught up in the crowd that surged in at the New Year's Day mochi-throwing at Yahiko Shrine (弥彦神社) in Shōwa 31 (1956), and, together with the son who forged chisels alongside him, regrettably died. [Translator: the Yahiko Shrine New Year crush of 1 January 1956 was a well-documented disaster with over 120 deaths.]
Afterward, the Koshitaka mark was bought up by a wholesaler, and "Koshitaka" chisels were forged by other chisel smiths.
The disciples of the second-generation Yoshiei included Yamada Ryūshirō (山田隆四郎), who became the third-generation Yoshiei; Satō Hideo (佐藤栄男, the elder brother), who became the first-generation Toshiei (とし栄); and Satō Eitoshi (佐藤栄登志), who became the first-generation Eitoshi (栄とし). The younger brother, the first Eitoshi, also became for a short time a commuting guest-disciple (kayoi kyakubun deshi 通い客分弟子) of the first Koshihiko. The elder brother "Toshiei" has already closed his business; the younger brother, the first Eitoshi, was succeeded by his son Satō Wataru (佐藤亘), who continues today as the second-generation Eitoshi.
Among the disciples of the first Eitoshi is the first-generation Tasai (田斎) (Tasai Akio 田斎明夫), born Shōwa 14 (1939). He became independent in Shōwa 33 (1958), and now forges chisels together with his son Tasai Michio (田斎道生), born Shōwa 44 (1969), who will be the second generation; he has raised his name as a chisel-smith virtuoso carrying on the chisel-making style transmitted from the first Yoshiei. (See Note 1.)
Note 1. According to the Tasai Chisel Works website, the chisel-making style transmitted from the first Yoshiei is as follows:
"The blade (ho 穂) portion of the chisel is 1 sun 8 bu 5 rin [ca. 56 mm], the neck 1 sun 4 bu 5 rin [ca. 44 mm], for a total length of 3 sun 3 bu [ca. 100 mm]. The side lands (koba コバ) are rolled slightly toward the face; the shoulders are made sloping, like the neck below the mouth of an isshō bottle. The ridge (shinogi 鎬) of the neck is filed with a twisting stroke so that the ridge appears to stand up. The fundamental principle of the chisel is to make it easy to drive in and easy to withdraw."
The first-generation Kaihiro (Yamada Chōjirō 山田長二郎), like many chisel smiths, at first forged under wholesalers' marks, but from around Taishō 10 (1921) began stamping the Kaihiro (海弘) mark on his chisels. At first he had it read "Kaihiro," but at some point it came to be called "Umihiro."
The first Kaihiro's disciples included his sons: Yamada Yūichi (山田勇一, the elder brother), born Meiji 38 (1905), who became the second-generation Kaihiro, and Yamada Tsunegorō (山田常五郎, the younger brother), who became the first-generation Tsunehiro (常弘). These two also came in time to be esteemed as chisel-smith virtuosos.
The elder brother, the second-generation Kaihiro, upon becoming the second chairman of the Sanjō Chisel Association in Shōwa 30 (1955), invited Iwasaki Kōsuke (岩崎航介), the foremost authority on steel research, and formed a steel study group, laying the path for the conversion from a hardening (yaki-ire 焼き入れ) process that relied solely on experience and intuition to a modern process using the microscope (see Note 2). From this point on, the steel-hardening technique of Sanjō chisels improved dramatically. He also formed the National Federation of Chisel Manufacturers' Associations (全国鑿製造業組合連合会) (see Note 3), served as association chairman for 16 years, and contributed greatly to the development of the chisel trade.
In Shōwa 48 (1973), however, a cerebral hemorrhage left him disabled and unable to forge chisels. Since then his son Yamada Ken'ichi (山田賢一), born Shōwa 9 (1934), who trained under his father from the age of 16, has continued as the third-generation Kaihiro.
The first Tsunehiro closed his chisel-smith business.
Note 2. Iwasaki Kōsuke's microscope-based steel hardening is introduced on the internet, for example in his lecture to the Sanjō Hardware Young Men's Association, "How to Judge Edge Tools" (刃物の見分け方); please see it there.
Note 3. On the National Federation of Chisel Manufacturers' Associations, please see "The 'Tokyo Chisel Cooperative Association' as Handed Down" in the "History of Tools" section of our website.
[Translator: this page of the original consists of a genealogy chart supplied only as an image, with no transcribable text beyond the colophon below. The following table reconstructs the chart from the essay text.]
| Line | Generation / person | Mark(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ancestor | Yamada Tsunekichi (山田常吉) | — | From Yoita; lock smith → gimlet smith → chisels |
| Yoshiei | 1st: Yamada Eiji (山田栄治) | Yoshiei (よし栄) | Eldest son of Tsunekichi |
| Yoshiei | 2nd: Yamada Eizaburō (山田栄三郎) | Yoshiei | Disciple of 1st |
| Yoshiei | 3rd: Yamada Ryūshirō (山田隆四郎) | Yoshiei | Disciple of 2nd |
| Yoshiei pupils | Takagi Hikoji (高木彦治) | Koshihiko (越彦) | Indep. 1917; 1st chairman, Sanjō Chisel Assoc. 1948; 2nd gen: son Hikohachirō (彦八朗, b. 1921), now closed |
| Yoshiei pupils | Takagi Kōjirō (高木孝次郎) | Koshitaka (越孝) | Younger brother of Hikoji; died with son at Yahiko Shrine, 1 Jan Shōwa 31 (1956); mark sold to wholesaler |
| 2nd-gen pupils | Satō Hideo (佐藤栄男) | Toshiei (とし栄) | Closed |
| 2nd-gen pupils | Satō Eitoshi (佐藤栄登志) | Eitoshi (栄とし) | Also brief guest-disciple of 1st Koshihiko; 2nd gen (current): son Satō Wataru (佐藤亘) |
| Eitoshi pupil | Tasai Akio (田斎明夫, b. 1939) | Tasai (田斎) | Indep. 1958; 2nd gen: son Tasai Michio (田斎道生, b. 1969) |
| Kaihiro | 1st: Yamada Chōjirō (山田長次郎/長二郎) | Kaihiro (海弘) | 2nd son of Tsunekichi; own mark from ca. 1921 |
| Kaihiro | 2nd: Yamada Yūichi (山田勇一, b. 1905) | Kaihiro | Assoc. chairman 1955, 16 years; Iwasaki Kōsuke study group; disabled by stroke 1973 |
| Kaihiro | 3rd (current): Yamada Ken'ichi (山田賢一, b. 1934) | Kaihiro | Trained under father from age 16 |
| Kaihiro branch | Yamada Tsunegorō (山田常五郎) | Tsunehiro (常弘) | Younger son of 1st Kaihiro; closed |
An auspicious day, December, Heisei 20 (2008) Suzuki Kanamono Co., Ltd. Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)
— Ōba Shōichirō (大場正一郎), Yamaguchi Sukezaemon (山口介左衛門), Satō Chōichirō (佐藤長一郎) —
The history of saw manufacture in Sanjō, Niigata Prefecture, begins with Abe Shiheimon (阿部四兵衛門), who was influenced by the saw-smith culture of Aizu (会津). Abe Shiheimon was already manufacturing saws by around Enpō 2 (1674), in the late years of the fourth shōgun, Tokugawa Ietsuna.
According to "Sanjō Shishi Shiryō I" (三条市史資料・Ⅰ, Sanjō City History Materials I; ed. Sanjō Historical Materials Survey Committee, Shōwa 29 / 1954), Torazō (虎造), third head of the Fukazawa Inosuke family (深澤伊之助家) — whose first generation is said to have been a disciple of this Abe Shiheimon (see Note 1) — was dissatisfied that, while the advanced saw-making regions of the day such as Kyoto's Fushimi and Aizu forged saws from tamahagane, Sanjō still forged them from the traditional mild steel. He resolved to forge with tamahagane, and after several years of research succeeded in manufacturing tamahagane saws, raising the reputation of Inosuke saws at a stroke; thereafter the mark Nakaya Inosuke (中屋伊之助) became a great hereditary name.
Note 1. "Sanjō Senkaku Jiryaku" (三条先覚事略, Brief Accounts of Sanjō Pioneers), published Shōwa 2 (1927), also has an entry on the saw-smith Fukazawa Inosuke family; it is introduced on the Sotoei Kanamono website. Its content differs somewhat from "Sanjō City History Materials I," but in summary it says:
"Fukazawa Torazō, the third-generation Inosuke, was born in Bunka 14 (1817), around the middle of the era of the eleventh shōgun, Tokugawa Ienari. His father was called Izō (伊造) and later assumed the hereditary name Inosuke. The Fukazawa family has enjoyed renown as saw smiths for generations. Of the first Inosuke, it is not well known what he did. It was the second Inosuke (Izō) who made saw smithing the family trade; he had no master and was entirely self-taught."
The illustrious saw-smith Fukazawa Inosuke family continued thereafter for seven generations. In the Shōwa 40s (late 1960s–early 1970s), the golden age of the double-edged (ryōba 両刃) saw, with Inosuke at the apex, there were famous saw smiths among the Fukazawa kin bearing the marks Sadaji (定次), Genji (源次), Seikichi (清吉), Torajirō (寅次郎), Katsuji (勝次), and Tatsuji (達次), and in the disciple lines such renowned saw smiths as Shibuki Sadagorō (渋木貞五郎), Shibuki Sadasuke (渋木貞助), and Nagaoke Shinsui (永桶深水); the Inosuke school reigned large over the saw-smith world not only of Sanjō but of Niigata.
Within this school, the head house Inosuke's saw prices were the highest, and the others set their saw prices according to rank.
In such an age, there were smiths in Sanjō who forged saws priced higher than the Inosuke saws. They were masters of lines separate from the Inosuke school, who as mechanization advanced persisted in forging saws by hand: the three men Ōba Shōichirō (大場正一郎), Yamaguchi Sukezaemon (山口介左衛門), and Satō Chōichirō (佐藤長一郎).
This time, under the title "The Master Saw Smiths of Sanjō, Niigata — Ōba Shōichirō, Yamaguchi Sukezaemon, Satō Chōichirō," let me speak of these three.
I have drawn on 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 Smiths — My Beloved Mandala of Smiths, Shōwa 60 / 1985); the Sotoei Kanamono Co. website, which introduces the Sanjō Kanamono News; and other websites. Honorifics are omitted below.
Ōba Shōichirō was born in Sanjō in Meiji 32 (1899), the eldest son of the Ōba family, whose father worked as a cart-puller. Finishing elementary school in Meiji 44 (1911), he was apprenticed to the well-known saw smith Igarashi Mankichi (五十嵐万吉) and began his training as a saw smith. In those days, saws were made by forging out a metal plate one bu (3 mm) thick with the sledgehammer.
In Mankichi's day there were well-known saw smiths such as Inosuke (伊之助), Isaburō (伊三郎), Tomizō (富蔵), and Umatarō (馬太郎); but cutting one's own smith's mark, as is done today, was frowned upon by the wholesalers one dealt with, and except for a handful of famous saw smiths, unmarked saws were the more welcome in that era.
Learning this, Shōichirō, a few years after his apprenticeship began, made a vow to the deity Myōjin-sama (明神様): "Make the Ōba saw famous." From that time on, on the 1st and 15th of every month, he never once forgot to pay his respects at Myōjin-sama, Hiyoshi Shrine (日吉神社), and Ijima Inari (居島稲荷).
During his training he wished, once his term was up, to go off and train in tamahagane work; but family financial circumstances forced him to give that up, and in Taishō 9 (1920) he became independent and set up a workshop in Sanjō. He was 21.
In the spring of Taishō 12 (1923) he went up to Tokyo to sell saws to a Tokyo wholesaler, and for the first time was able to sell saws cut not with no mark as before, but with the mark Nakaya Shōichirō (中屋正一郎). Having had the quality of his forged saws recognized and gained confidence, Shōichirō began selling saws under his own mark directly to the Sanjō wholesalers, then booming with reconstruction demand after the Great Kantō Earthquake.
He exhibited saws at the Nagoya Exposition celebrating the imperial enthronement in November of Shōwa 3 (1928) and received a commendation. He also exhibited and won a prize at the Jōetsu Line Completion Commemorative Exposition held by Nagaoka City in September of Shōwa 6 (1931), and came to be watched as a promising young talent of Sanjō saws. At the 25th-anniversary competition of the Sanjō Hardware Trade Association in October of Shōwa 10 (1935), the Shōichirō saw was chosen first overall, and his name rose all the higher.
In March of Shōwa 17 (1942), his eldest son Masahiro (政弘, born Shōwa 2 / 1927), having graduated from higher elementary school, entered the forge. Masahiro, who from his higher-elementary days had been made to help with tooth-setting (metate 目立て) and the like, was no ignorant apprentice but already a full-fledged craftsman; but in January of Shōwa 19 (1944), as the Pacific War situation grew severe, he was taken for labor conscription.
Shōichirō refused to introduce machinery and insisted on the old handwork. With machines he could not forge the saw he had in mind, and if he made them any other way, they would not, he felt, be Ōba Shōichirō saws. For that reason his monthly production was very small — a few dozen blades.
In the postwar Shōwa years, in carpenters' saws he was esteemed highly as "Ōba Shōichirō in the East, Miyano Tetsunosuke (宮野鉄之助) in the West." Shōichirō forged saws together with his eldest son Masahiro, but in time, being of advanced age and in failing health, most of the work came to be done by Masahiro. His grandson Masanori (正哲), after finishing high school, also came to help with saw making.
In Shōwa 51 (1976) he received, together with the second-generation Miyano Tetsunosuke and the first-generation Chiyozuru Sadahide (千代鶴貞秀), the first Special Prize of the Yoshida Isoya Award (吉田五十八賞), the most prestigious award in the field of architecture. Ōba Shōichirō was 77. Not long afterward, his health failing, Shōichirō ended a life devoted single-mindedly to saw smithing, mourned by many.
Thereafter his son Masahiro and grandson Masanori forged saws by hand under the Ōba Shōichirō mark for some time, but closed the saw-smith business around Heisei 13 (2001).
Yamaguchi Sukezaemon, called a master of the dōzuki (胴付, tenon/back) saw, was named Yamaguchi Shunsuke (山口俊介). He was born in Meiji 44 (1911) before the Tenjin shrine in the smiths' quarter (Kajiya-chō 鍛冶屋町) of Sanjō, the son of Kinji (金治), a saw smith. On finishing elementary school he immediately helped his father, and one of Shunsuke's daily tasks became carrying the saws his father had finished to the wholesaler and converting them to cash.
Seeing his father's saws — without a shop-name or brand — bought up mercilessly cheap by the wholesalers, while the saws of famous men were bought at high prices without their quality even being examined, he tasted as a child the humiliation of chagrin and anger. He resolved then to make saws so splendid they would yield to no one's.
In time he came to stand on his own and forge saws, and this conviction only strengthened. Though people around him advised, "Your saws are good, but shouldn't you give a little thought to profitability?", he would say, "I cannot deceive my own heart," and never once bent his conviction.
As the Pacific War situation grew severe he was conscripted into a munitions factory and for a time could not make saws, but with the war's end he resumed. However, the workshop from his father's time had passed into others' hands, and his restart was from lodgings of a single six-mat room.
Though he obtained good steel, hot-forging was done at an acquaintance's workshop; tang-fitting (komi-tsuke コミ付け) and hardening at another workshop; rough grinding at three or four smithies he made the rounds of; and finishing at his lodgings — a continuous run of poverty and hardship.
Even the saws made this way, his name being unknown, were hardly recognized by the trade, and as before were bought up cheap by the wholesalers. At times he did under-work for colleagues, and other smiths' marks were put on saws he had made; but he never bent his conviction to make good saws.
Amid this straitened life he extended a workshop into the space adjoining the neighboring house, so that rough grinding, finishing, and truing (kurui-naoshi 狂い直し) could be done at home; but hot-forging he still did in a borrowed colleague's workshop. From early morning until about 11 at night, taking even his meals in the workshop, he strove desperately.
At length his saw-smith technique was recognized and Yamaguchi Sukezaemon saws came to be highly esteemed; he became known above all as a master of the dōzuki saw. An ordinary dōzuki saw has 25 to 35 teeth cut per sun (30 mm) of width; Sukezaemon's sometimes exceeded 40. Naturally such teeth have almost no set (asari アサリ) — the burr (makure まくれ) from sharpening alone suffices.
In the first half of the Shōwa 40s (late 1960s–early 1970s), thanks to a well-wishing patron, he was at last able to build his own long-desired workshop where hot-forging could be done. Finally he could forge good saws exactly as he wished, beholden to no one.
Around that time, Hiromitsu (裕光), eldest son of the second-generation Miyano Tetsunosuke, visited Sukezaemon's workshop, and the story remains that he said in praise: "Mr. Yamaguchi does alone what cannot be done with fewer than four men." For the Miyano Tetsunosuke saws were forged by the father and his three sons together.
But in May of Shōwa 49 (1974) his health failed and he entered hospital; without leaving it he passed away, medicine unavailing, in January of the following year — ending a 65-year life untouched by prizes, a life of hardship, yet lived with pride as a saw smith. There is no one to carry on Yamaguchi Sukezaemon's technique, but the name "Yamaguchi Sukezaemon, master of the dōzuki saw" will surely endure to later generations.
The master Satō Chōichirō, who served two terms as chairman of the Sanjō Saw Association from Shōwa 48 (1973), was — unlike other saw smiths of Sanjō, indeed of Japan — a man of culture with a philosophy of life prior to the making of saws. He would call reading his own indulgence, and the study in his home was lined wall-to-wall with books of philosophy, history, literature, and painting.
Called up in Shōwa 16 (1941), he served in central China; demobilized to Sanjō at the war's end, he resumed saw smithing. But to lower quality and make second-rate goods unmarked, as many other saw smiths did, his pride as a saw smith would not permit; even if they did not sell, he went on making saws of the same high quality as before the war.
At the time it had become the general practice in Sanjō for saw smiths to prefix the Nakaya (中屋) house-name to their marks; but in Shōwa 23 (1948) he registered as his trademark his own name, "Satō Chōichirō." He also delivered his heart-and-soul forged saws to the wholesaler placed one by one in individual sleeves.
He was the first in the saw trade to do such things. Doing so also raised the value of the goods; but for Chōichirō it was because he cherished the saws he had forged.
This master, Satō Chōichirō, was born in Sanjō in October of Taishō 1 (1912), the eldest son of Satō Chōmatsu (佐藤長松). Graduating from higher elementary school in Taishō 15 (1926), he was apprenticed to Satō Shinji (佐藤真治), and his saw-smith training began. In July of Shōwa 5 (1930), on the death by illness of his master, he trained under the third-generation Takahashi Isaburō (高橋伊三郎). Further, in Shōwa 6 (1931) he entered the school of Yoshida Kisaburō (吉田喜三郎) and continued his studies, and in December of Shōwa 9 (1934) opened his own independent business.
In Shōwa 12 (1937), the Sanjō Saw Industrial Association (三条鋸工業組合, about 150 members) was formed, with Takahashi Gihei (高橋儀平) elected president, Nagano Genzō (長野源造) executive director, and Fukazawa Inosuke (深澤伊之助) treasurer; Satō Chōichirō became a councillor. In Shōwa 16 (1941) he became an association director, and in Shōwa 22 (1947) executive director of the Echigo Saw Cooperative Association (越後鋸協同組合). Then from Shōwa 48 (1973) he served two terms as chairman of the Sanjō Saw Association, also serving as a Sanjō election commissioner — active as a senior figure of the Sanjō saw-smith world. His disciples were Watanabe Chūyū (渡辺忠遊) and Kobinata Bun'ichi (小日向文一).
Satō Chōichirō kept in his heart the words, "To stay always the same is to stagnate," and walked through life always facing forward. He also made courageous statements laden with warning, such as: "I have no regrets about ending in one generation," and "Amid uncertainty about the underpinning of future demand, there is no need to make a young man with a great future take over the saw." Considerable years have now passed since Satō Chōichirō joined the ranks of the departed.
This time I have spoken of the three men Ōba, Yamaguchi, and Satō, esteemed as master craftsmen among the Sanjō saw smiths. Until now I did not know these three well, and by writing this piece I came to know them in detail.
In every field, it is said, those called masters or master craftsmen tend to lead lives of poverty and anguish; this may be called the destiny of those granted rare talent. However poor they may be, they never compromise; in anguish they press on toward ever greater heights. Even if unrewarded, their proud hearts will not permit otherwise. And those who supported them were their wives and their families. The three men taken up in this piece were, we may say, precisely such people.
In closing, let me speak a little about Satō Chōichirō's courageous, warning-laden statements.
These statements should by no means be understood as despairing pessimism toward the saw-smith trade. They should be read as the paradoxical statements of a master saw smith and a man of great culture.
As one of the leaders of the saw trade, out of self-reproach for having brought about a state where one "cannot but end in one generation" and "anxiety over the saw's future," they should be interpreted as a message entrusted to the next generation of saw smiths: "So that it does not come to this, do not stay the same forever — change, and change anew." How, one wonders, was this message received by the saw smiths who came after?
An auspicious day, October, Heisei 23 (2011) Suzuki Kanamono Co., Ltd. Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)