Source: (有)スズキ金物店 "左官鏝・道具" website (misyuku-suzuki-kanamonoten.com), "道具の歴史" (History of Tools) section. Author of all four essays: Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭), Representative Director, Suzuki Kanamono Co., Ltd. ((有)スズキ金物店).
Translator's note. This file collects the site's four saw-related essay series, translated in full:
- "On the Period of Appearance of the Edo-me Saw Tooth" (江戸目鋸刃の出現時期について) — 4 pages (Introduction, sections 1–2, Conclusion; dated December 2012). A history of Japanese saw-tooth forms from the Kofun period onward, and an argument that the Edo-me crosscut tooth was invented in the last years of the Edo period, in Edo itself — prompted by "Edo-me-like" saw marks observed at Tōshōdai-ji (唐招提寺).
- "New Discovery: On the Period of Appearance of the Double-Edged Saw" (新発見／両刃鋸の出現時期について) — 3 pages (dated August 2010). A picture discovered in the Shitamachi Museum overturns the accepted theory that the modern double-edged saw appeared around Meiji 30, pushing it back to the Meiji 10s (late 1870s–1880s).
- "On the Birth of the Professional Saw-Sharpener" (鋸目立て専門職の誕生について) — 3 pages (dated September 2010). Traces the saw-sharpening (metate) specialist trade to mid-Edo-period Edo.
- "On the Master Edo Saw-Smith, Nakaya Jinkurō VI" (江戸の鋸鍛冶名工 6代目「中屋甚九郎」について) — 3 pages (dated December 2011). The biography of Fujii Jinkurō (藤井甚九郎), founder of Shinshū saw-making, who in Edo was the sixth-generation Nakaya Jinkurō (中屋甚九郎).
Translation conventions: names are given as English reading (kanji) on first occurrence; dates as Japanese era plus Western year. Saw-tooth type names (Edo-me 江戸目, gagari-me ガガリ目, ibara-me イバラ目, hakoya-me 箱屋目, suba 素歯, etc.) are kept as romanized terms since they are technical vocabulary with no established English equivalents. Ambiguities: (a) in series 1 the author gives the "Wakan Sen'yōshū" (和漢船用集) two different dates — Hōreki 11 (1761) in one passage and Bunsei 10 (1827) in another; both are translated as written (the 1761 date is the work's compilation; the 1827 reference may be to a later printing — the source does not clarify). (b) The smith 中屋平治郎 is spelled 平治郎 in series 1 but 平次郎 (both read Heijirō) in series 4; both spellings are preserved where they occur. (c) "ナゲシ" (nageshi — filing/whetting of the tooth faces) and "アサリ" (asari — tooth set) are technical terms translated descriptively at first occurrence. Original pages carry no illustrations that survive in text form; figure references in the originals (photographs of saws) are noted where the text alludes to them.
(4 pages: Introduction; Section 1; Section 2; Conclusion. Dated an auspicious day, December, Heisei 24 / 2012.)
Among the carpenter's saws in use today is the double-edged saw (ryōba nokogiri 両刃鋸). This double-edged saw is a uniquely Japanese saw that appeared in the early Meiji era: on the neck of the saw where the saw-smith's signature (mei 銘) is cut, the left side is the rip-cut edge and the right side the crosscut edge.
The tooth form of the rip side is called "gagari-me" (ガガリ目); the story handed down is that it came to be called gagari-me because the saw was pulled along the grain with a rasping "gari-gari" sound. This tooth form derives from the teeth of the ōga (大鋸), the large two-man rip saw that was transmitted to Japan from the continent around the middle of the Muromachi period. The tooth form of the crosscut side is called "Edo-me" (江戸目), and it is likewise said to be a tooth form devised in Edo during the Edo period.
If we look at saw-tooth forms in chronological order — from saws excavated from kofun (ancient burial mounds) through the saws that appeared in later ages — the sequence runs: the crosscut "suba" (素歯, plain tooth); the "ancient gagari-me" (古代ガガリ目) for small rip saws; the crosscut "hakoya-me" (箱屋目, "box-maker's tooth"); the "gagari-me" for large rip saws; the "ibara-me" (イバラ目, "briar tooth") for combined rip and crosscut use; and then the crosscut "Edo-me."
The suba, hakoya-me, gagari-me, and ibara-me have been fairly thoroughly investigated and researched, but the Edo-me has as yet received almost no study.
Furthermore, beginning in Heisei 12 (2000) and requiring ten years, the great repair of the Golden Hall (kondō 金堂) of Tōshōdai-ji (唐招提寺) — erected in 759 in the Nara period — was carried out. There is a story that a certain master saw-sharpener (nokome-tate shoku 鋸目立て職) who toured the work, seeing what looked like marks sawn with the "Edo-me" of a double-edged 9-sun saw or a shaku (1-shaku) saw, was astonished at the saw-forming technology and the quality of the tooth-sharpening of the era when the hall was built. If a saw tooth like the Edo-me had existed at the time of the hall's erection, it would rewrite the history of the evolution of saw-tooth forms. This too is something that can be clarified by investigating and researching the Edo-me.
Therefore, under the title "On the Period of Appearance of the Edo-me Saw Tooth," let me relate the results of my investigation and research. In what follows, honorifics are omitted.
First let us survey the history of tooth-form evolution in the Japanese saw, from the Kofun period through the medieval era. For this history I have drawn on the paper by the two curators Akanuma Kaori (赤沼かおり) and Fukui Sachiko (福井幸子) of the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum (竹中大工道具館), "日本近世以前における鋸の使用法" (The Use of Saws in Japan before the Early Modern Period; Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum Research Bulletin No. 9, June, Heisei 9 / 1997), and on Yoshikawa Kinji (吉川金次), "ものと人間の文化史／鋸" (Cultural History of Things and People: The Saw; Shōwa 51 / 1976).
Saws of the Kofun period (300–550) have been excavated in variety from many burial mounds. Saws excavated from 4th-century kofun are double-edged saws of the "short-stake" (tansaku-gata 短柵型) blade form — teeth cut on a rectangular iron plate. Blade width is around 3 cm; while some blades are as long as about 30 cm, lengths of 20 cm or less predominate. Several specimens have been excavated whose teeth are the "suba" (素歯) crosscut form — small isosceles triangles cutting on both push and pull. The other finds are so badly corroded that the tooth form cannot be confirmed. It has been pointed out that these saws were probably used not for woodworking but for fine work on deer antler, shell, and the like.
From 5th-century kofun, short-stake-type saws like those of the 4th century have been excavated, with teeth likewise of the small isosceles-triangle suba form. However, from the Dōyama kofun (同山古墳) in Shizuoka Prefecture, the oldest saw on which nageshi (ナゲシ — the polishing of the cutting portion by applying a file to the saw teeth) can be confirmed has been excavated. Unfortunately corrosion is severe and the tooth form is unknown. This saw's blade is about 17 cm long and about 3.5 cm wide. From the Kingaizan kofun (金鎧山古墳) in Nagano Prefecture, a tang-type saw (nakago-shiki 茎式 — a saw with a tang formed at one end of the blade for attaching a handle) has been excavated. The toothed edge (hamichi 歯道) is 22 cm, the tang 2 cm, the blade width 2.5 cm. It is the oldest saw on which tooth set (asari アサリ — the alternating lateral bend given to the teeth) can be confirmed, on suba teeth. It also has nageshi.
From this we can understand that by the 5th century, file and tooth-dressing technique had advanced another step. Yet from the size of the blades and the small suba tooth form, we may infer that these were still not saws as woodworking tools, but were used for other fine work.
From 6th-century kofun, most of the excavated saws are suba, but two specimens have been excavated — one short-stake type and one tang type — with teeth of the "gagari-me" form. The gagari-me short-stake saw excavated from the Yōmeiji kofun (永明寺古墳) in Saitama Prefecture cuts on both push and pull, but the tang-type saw excavated from the Sonodayama kofun (園田山古墳) in Hyōgo Prefecture is pull-stroke. Both have blade lengths of a little over 18 cm; the width is still narrow like earlier saws; blade thickness is 3 mm; and they are single-edged. This tooth form may fairly be called "ancient gagari-me" (古代ガガリ目).
What tooth forms did the saws of the early historic period — the Asuka period (550–710) and the Nara period (710–794) — have?
From 7th-century kofun, two short-stake-type saws and one tang-type saw have been excavated; these are push-pull suba, tooth set cannot be confirmed, and nageshi can be confirmed on one specimen.
In the 8th century, short-stake saws cease to appear in excavations; all excavated and heirloom (densei 伝世) saws are tang-type, and large saws with overall blade lengths of 50–60 cm appear. For the first time, the "hakoya-me" (箱屋目) form appears, possessing both tooth set and nageshi. These are push-pull saws.
For the classical period — the Heian period (794–1192) — there is a tang-type saw with a blade about 51 cm long and 3.5 cm wide excavated from the Kurihara pit-dwelling site (栗原竪穴住居跡) in Itabashi Ward, Tokyo. It has an inward-curved (concave) toothed edge, a nose-like projection at the tip, and a thickness of 3 mm, and is thought to be a saw for cutting down tree limbs. The teeth are hakoya-me, with tooth set and nageshi confirmed.
One more saw of this era has been discovered: the saw excavated from the Terajo site (寺所遺跡) in Iida City, Nagano Prefecture. Tang-type, with an overall blade length of about 40 cm; the teeth are hakoya-me with tooth set and nageshi confirmable; a push-pull saw.
The era called medieval comprises the Kamakura period (1192–1336), the Nanbokuchō period (1336–1338), the Muromachi period (1338–1573), and the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573–1603). From the Kamakura period at the beginning of this era, crosscut saws for felling trees and leaf-shaped half-cut (konoha-hansetsu-gata 木の葉半切型) saws for cross-cutting logs and lumber began to spread widely. Saws of this type are frequently depicted in paintings showing carpentry work.
However, there were still no large rip saws; to produce square timber and boards, this was the age of splitting logs by driving in wedges (kusabi 楔).
From the Isehara grave pit (伊勢原墓壙) in Kanagawa Prefecture, a 13th-century Kamakura-period site, a leaf-shaped half-cut saw has been excavated whose blade length appears to have been a little over 30 cm. The teeth are the hakoya-me form, with tooth set and nageshi. Also from this era, from the Kusado Sengen-chō site (草戸千軒町遺跡) in Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture, a large leaf-shaped half-cut saw with a blade length of about 60 cm has been excavated. The teeth are hakoya-me, with tooth set and nageshi.
From the Shimogōri site (下郡遺跡) in Ueno City, Mie Prefecture, a 15th-century Muromachi-period site, a leaf-shaped half-cut saw with a blade length of about 60 cm has been excavated. The teeth are "ibara-me" (イバラ目), with tooth set and nageshi. It is fair to say that from this era, saws with the ibara-me tooth form began to appear.
Also, in the Muromachi period, the two-man rip saw called the ōga (大鋸) was transmitted from the continent, and large rip saws bearing the gagari-me appear.
Entering the early modern Edo period, saws of new form appear: the large maebiki-oga (前挽鋸), a one-man rip saw; the daigiri-ōga (台切大鋸), with a handle at each end of the saw, by which two men crosscut great trees; and others. The teeth of the maebiki saw are gagari-me. The teeth of the daigiri-ōga are ibara-me. The "tsurigane-me" (吊鐘目, "temple-bell tooth") for sawing paulownia also appears, but this is a variant tooth form of the hakoya-me, and rather than a new tooth form it is better assigned to the hakoya-me category.
The late Professor Hirasawa Kazuo (平澤一雄) of Tokyo University of Agriculture, in his book "産業文化史／鋸" (Industrial Cultural History: The Saw; Shōwa 55 / 1980), stated regarding the period of the Edo-me's appearance that the Edo-me was probably devised quite early in this Edo period.
According to Professor Hirasawa, on seeing the very fine teeth of the "tsurukake saw" (つるかけ鋸) — an 18th-century Edo-period saw for sawing fragrant wood displayed at the Tokyo National Museum — he judged them "unmistakably Edo-me (the modern crosscut tooth)."
And he states: "It is not clear when this Edo-me arose, but most likely it already existed quite early in the Edo period," and further, "It was probably a new tooth pattern devised in Edo, which was named 'Edo-me' when it was transmitted to the provinces."
Professor Hirasawa further states that the fine-toothed saws described in the "和漢船用集" (Wakan Sen'yōshū, Collection on Japanese and Chinese Ship Use), written in Hōreki 11 (1761), in the era of the ninth shōgun Tokugawa Ieshige (徳川家重), "probably had this Edo-me-form tooth cut in them. That is, we can surmise that the hikkiri (挽切) that appears there (i.e., in the Wakan Sen'yōshū), and the fine-toothed saw, and the kamoi-kiri (鴨居切), were all saws with the Edo-me tooth form cut in them."
Let us test the above Hirasawa theory by examining building saws from the documentary sources and heirloom saws of the early modern Edo period. In this field there is the research paper of chief researcher Watanabe Akira (渡邊晶) of the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum, "近世の建築用の鋸について―伝世鋸をはじめとした関連資料の調査報告 その５―" (On Building Saws of the Early Modern Period — Report of an Investigation of Heirloom Saws and Related Materials, Part 5; Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum Research Bulletin No. 7, June 1995).
According to this paper, the pictures of saws drawn in "和漢三才図会" (Wakan Sansai Zue, Illustrated Sino-Japanese Encyclopedia), "和漢船用集" (Wakan Sen'yōshū), "訓蒙図彙大成" (Kinmō Zui Taisei), "身体柱立" (Shintai Hashiradate), "道具字引図解" (Dōgu Jibiki Zukai, Illustrated Dictionary of Tools), and Siebold's "NIPPON" (compiled from investigations made during his residence in Japan, 1823–1829) show saw teeth that are obtuse or acute isosceles triangles, or acute or obtuse triangles inclined toward the handle. No saw appears whose top bevels seem to have been dressed with a file. Nor is there any mention of "Edo-me."
The Watanabe paper further contains a detailed examination of the heirloom saws in the collection of Momoyama Tenmangū (桃山天満宮) in Kyoto as physical evidence. These heirloom saws are five saws among the carpenter's tools said to have been dedicated by master carpenter (tōryō 棟梁) Sakata Iwajirō (坂田岩次郎) upon completion of the Momoyama Tenmangū shrine building in Tenpō 12 (1841) — the first half of the era of the 12th shōgun Tokugawa Ieyoshi (徳川家慶), 27 years before the Meiji Restoration. These saws comprise three crosscut saws for finish work (zōsaku-zai 造作材), one rip saw for finish work, and one curve-cutting saw for finish work. The crosscut and curve-cutting saws are ibara-me, and the rip saw is gagari-me. There is no Edo-me.
From the above, no saw made with Edo-me teeth has been found up to around the very end of the Edo period. Doubt therefore arises about Professor Hirasawa's theory that the Edo-me existed quite early in the Edo period and was so named when transmitted to the provinces. And doubt likewise arises, from the Watanabe paper, about the theory that the saws recorded in the "Wakan Sen'yōshū" (Bunsei 10 / 1827, the latter half of the era of the 11th shōgun Tokugawa Ienari (徳川家斉)) "can be surmised to have been saws with the Edo-me tooth form cut in them."
That the teeth of the tsurukake saw Professor Hirasawa saw at the Tokyo National Museum were "unmistakably Edo-me (the modern crosscut tooth)" remains a mystery to me.
So let me now state the results of my own investigation into the period of the Edo-me's appearance.
At present there are two saws whose dates of manufacture can be clearly confirmed as Edo-me saws. One is the saw by Nakaya Kyūsaku (中屋久作), the celebrated master saw-smith of Edo, introduced in a photograph in Matsuo Gusetsu (松尾具屑), "木工古道具の楽しみ方" (How to Enjoy Old Woodworking Tools; Heisei 16 / 2004). It is a square-headed single-edged saw with a blade length of 31.8 cm, and on the tang (komi コミ) is cut "an auspicious day, first month, Meiji 1" (明治元年正月吉日; 1868).
The other is a saw by Nakaya Heijirō (中屋平治郎), master saw-smith of Asakusa in Edo, introduced in a photograph in Hirasawa Kazuo's "産業文化史／鋸" (Industrial Cultural History: The Saw; Shōwa 55 / 1980). It is a square-headed single-edged saw with a blade length of 32 cm and a blade thickness of 0.81 mm at the base of the toothed portion and 0.41 mm at minimum, and on the tang is cut "made in the 5th month, Bunkyū 1" (文久元年５月作). Bunkyū 1 falls in the middle of the era of the 14th shōgun Tokugawa Iemochi (徳川家茂), Western year 1861 — seven years before the Meiji Restoration (1868).
The man said to have been Nakaya Heijirō's master is the celebrated Aizu saw-smith Nakaya Sukezaemon (中屋助左衛門). A square-headed Edo-me single-edged saw bearing the Nakaya Sukezaemon signature is introduced in a photograph in Tsuchida Ichirō (土田一郎), "日本の伝統工具" (Traditional Tools of Japan), but the Nakaya Sukezaemon line continued to the 4th generation (the 4th generation was born in Meiji 13 / 1880), and it is regrettable that neither the generation to which this saw belongs nor its date of manufacture is known.
The Edo-me may be described as a tooth in which the scalene triangle of the ibara-me — whose teeth incline toward the handle — is made into a still more acute scalene triangle. By doing so, the number of teeth per blade length is increased; the tips of the teeth, now slender and acute, are dressed with a file to create top bevels (uwame 上目), producing a tooth form able to withstand the resistance of the pull stroke. With many teeth and a thin blade, the saw pulls lightly and the cut comes out clean. Judged by the size of the saw, the Bunkyū-1 Nakaya Heijirō saw has a blade of remarkable thinness compared with saws up to that time.
Judging from the form of the surviving saws, the Edo-me is an evolved crosscut tooth for the finish lumber (zōsaku-zai) used by carpenters. Since the datable Edo-me saws have blade lengths of 31.8 cm and 32 cm, and since no small Edo-me finish-work saw of the period has yet been discovered, it is possible that the Edo-me was initially devised for the larger crosscut finish-work saws used by carpenters.
At the end of the Edo period in Aizu, the 7th-generation Nakaya Jūzaemon (中屋重左衛門) devised, for the first time in Japan, the method of hardening (quenching) saws in rapeseed oil (see my book "続・日本の大工道具職人" [Japan's Carpentry-Tool Craftsmen, Continued; Heisei 24 / 2012]); compared with the previous water quenching, mud quenching, and sand quenching, this made hardening possible more easily and with thinner blade stock (Yoshikawa Kinji, "ものと人間の文化史／鋸" [Cultural History of Things and People: The Saw; Shōwa 51 / 1976]). However, in Aizu, where forestry flourished, production centered on saws used by woodcutters (kikori-shoku 樵職) and mountain sawyers (somashi 杣師), so the conditions for the birth of the Edo-me were lacking there.
It is known that oil quenching of saws was introduced into Edo — a city of a million people where wooden construction flourished and crosscut saws for finish lumber were heavily used; that a specialized saw-sharpening trade had appeared in Edo around the mid-Edo period (my book "日本の大工道具職人" [Japan's Carpentry-Tool Craftsmen; Heisei 23 / 2011]); and that from the end of the Edo period master craftsmen making files were present in Edo ("東京名工鑑" [Directory of Master Craftsmen of Tokyo], published by the Industry Promotion Section of the Tokyo Prefectural Government, Meiji 12 / 1879).
For the birth of the Edo-me, the essential conditions were: (1) the presence of saw-smiths who had established the oil-quenching method; (2) a flourishing wooden-building trade with many resident carpenters; and (3) high-quality sharpening files and highly skilled professional sharpeners able to use them. Only Edo at the end of the shogunate, unlike the other saw-producing regions, possessed all of these essential conditions; and so, it appears, the Edo-me was born there as the crosscut tooth for the finish-work saws used by carpenters.
I cannot help thinking that perhaps it was Nakaya Heijirō — who received instruction in saw-making from Nakaya Sukezaemon of Aizu and was the pioneer who adopted oil quenching for forging saws in Edo — together with the saw-smiths around him, who devised the Edo-me.
And the new saw tooth devised in Edo spread throughout the country as the tooth of an easy-cutting, clean-cutting crosscut saw, and thus came to be called the "Edo-me." The spread of the double-edged saw, born in Tokyo in the early Meiji era, is also thought to have contributed to this.
The occasion that led me to investigate the Edo-me was this: after publishing my book "続・日本の大工道具職人" (Japan's Carpentry-Tool Craftsmen, Continued) in September of Heisei 24 (2012), I suddenly found myself wondering how the evolution of saw teeth had actually run.
I promptly began reading the related literature and searching the internet, and the desire arose to go to the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum in Kobe to see the ancient saws, modern saws, and foreign saws displayed there; in mid-November I visited the museum for the first time. Through the museum's kindness I was able to examine the displayed saws in detail, and I also purchased all the museum's research bulletins that were in stock.
On returning home and reading through all those research bulletins, I found there already existed research papers on saw teeth from the ancient through medieval periods and on early modern saws. But since there was no research on the Edo-me, the plan occurred to me of elucidating the Edo-me within a narrative of the history of saw-tooth evolution, and I wrote up this manuscript.
As for the "Edo-me-like" saw marks left in the timbers of the Golden Hall of Tōshōdai-ji mentioned in the Introduction: judging from the history of saw-tooth evolution and the period of the Edo-me's birth, we may infer that they date not from the time of construction, nor from the great repair of Genroku 6–7 (1693–1694) in the era of the fifth shōgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (徳川綱吉), but from the great repair of Meiji 31–32 (1898–1899).
In closing this essay, let me briefly describe the subsequent evolution of saw teeth in the modern and contemporary eras. In the Meiji era, large ibara-me saws used by woodcutters and mountain sawyers appeared with top bevels dressed by file ("続・道具曼陀羅" [Tool Mandala, Continued; Shōwa 53 / 1978]); in the latter half of the Meiji era, an improved tooth imitating American saws (the mado-noko 窓ノコ, "window saw") appeared on Tosa forestry saws (Muramatsu Teijirō (村松貞次郎), "鍛冶の旅・わが懐しの鍛冶まんだら" [A Smithing Journey: My Beloved Smith Mandala; Shōwa 60 / 1985]); and in the Shōwa 40s (late 1960s–early 1970s) a tooth for sawing plywood appeared from Niigata and spread for a time as the "veneer saw" — but thereafter, with the marked decline in demand for hand saws, no new saw tooth has been born.
An auspicious day, December, Heisei 24 (2012) Suzuki Kanamono Co., Ltd. (有限会社スズキ金物店) Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)
(3 pages: Introduction; Section 1; Conclusion. Dated an auspicious day, August, Heisei 22 / 2010.)
In early July, on an outing with my wife to Ueno in Tokyo, we stopped in at the Taitō Ward Shitamachi Museum (下町風俗資料館) on the shore of Shinobazu Pond. This museum was opened in Shōwa 55 (1980) to transmit the good old shitamachi (downtown) culture to later generations.
The reason we stopped in was that I thought there might perhaps be some materials relating to carpentry-tool smiths. When I asked a curator about this, I was told there were no such materials; so we toured the first- and second-floor exhibition rooms, and just as we began descending the stairs, I saw directly before me, on the wall of the stair landing — which I had not noticed on the way up — sixteen large painted pictures of topknotted (chonmage 丁髷) craftsmen.
When I looked at those pictures again carefully on the landing, my wife, standing beside me, casually said, pointing at one craftsman picture: "There's a double-edged saw next to that saw-sharpener." The moment I heard those words I was startled. The accepted theory is that the double-edged saw appeared around Meiji 30 (1897) — so "why is there a double-edged saw beside a topknotted sharpener?" I was astonished.
Thinking this might be a new discovery, I asked the curator again about the origin of this picture. The answer: "This picture has been here since the opening thirty years ago; it depicts shitamachi craftsmen of the late Edo period through early Meiji; no one now knows the details of the opening period, so please telephone tomorrow."
I telephoned the next day and was taught that the source of the picture was the "新撰百工図" (Shinsen Hyakkō Zu, Newly Selected Pictures of the Hundred Crafts), published in the magazine "風俗画報" (Fūzoku Gahō, Pictorial of Manners and Customs), first issued in Meiji 22 (1889); and that this "Hyakkō Zu" is reproduced in "江戸東京職業図典" (Edo-Tōkyō Shokugyō Zuten, Illustrated Dictionary of Edo-Tokyo Occupations), published in Heisei 15 (2003).
Later I went to my local library, borrowed this book, and by investigating the "Shinsen Hyakkō Zu" and the related literature was able to learn the details. I therefore present this under the title "New Discovery: On the Period of Appearance of the Double-Edged Saw," intending it as material for re-examining the accepted theory.
This essay draws on Tsuchida Mitsufumi (槌田満文), ed., "江戸東京職業図典" (Illustrated Dictionary of Edo-Tokyo Occupations; 2003); Nakamachi Yasuko (中町泰子), "諸職風俗図像と新撰百工図" (Genre Images of the Various Trades and the Shinsen Hyakkō Zu; 2005); Yoshikawa Kinji (吉川金次), "鋸" (The Saw; 1976); Tsuchida Ichirō (土田一郎), "日本の伝統工具" (Traditional Tools of Japan; 1989); and Hirasawa Kazuo (平澤一雄), "鋸" (The Saw; 1980), among others.
From kofun of around the 4th and 5th centuries, double-edged saws have been excavated consisting of a rectangular piece of metal about 2–3 cm wide, about 15–20 cm long, and about 0.2 cm thick, with saw teeth on both sides and squared wooden handles attached at both ends. It is suggested these were used mainly for cutting deer antler, animal bone, and the like. From a 7th-century kofun, a double-edged saw has also been excavated 2.5 cm wide, 22 cm long, and 0.45 cm thick, with coarse teeth dressed on one side and fine teeth on the other, and a wooden handle serving as a grip attached at one end only. It is suggested this was used for cutting wood as well.
These double-edged saws are what we should call ancient double-edged saws; partly because they were awkward to use they eventually disappeared, and afterward single-edged saws of various forms appeared for cutting trees, lumber, and so on. Small, outward-curved, long slender double-edged saws for ninja use were also made.
The double-edged saw treated in this essay is not the ancient double-edged saw but the double-edged saw as we see it today: the large modern double-edged saw used mainly by carpenters for finish work (zōsaku 造作) and joint-cutting (kizami きざみ).
As for the period of this double-edged saw's appearance, Yoshikawa Kinji, drawing on the accounts of aged carpenters and other sources, indicates that "it seems possible to narrow it to the Meiji 30s (1897–1906)." Tsuchida Ichirō likewise states that it "appeared in the Meiji 30s."
Further, since there is a written mention of a double-edged saw among the saws exhibited at the First National Industrial Exhibition (第１回内国勧業博覧会) of Meiji 10 (1877), some infer the time of appearance from that. But because no figure or photograph exists, it cannot be known whether this was a modern double-edged saw; and there is also the theory — Yoshikawa Kinji's — that judging from the recorded number of teeth it was an azebiki saw (畦挽き鋸), so the matter is not settled.
Since the discovery of the "Saw Sharpening" (鋸の目立) picture showing a double-edged saw in the new source "Shinsen Hyakkō Zu" may overturn the accepted theory, let me describe it in detail below.
The "Shinsen Hyakkō Zu" was serialized in the magazine "Fūzoku Gahō" — first published February 10, Meiji 22 (1889) — over 82 installments from issue No. 40 (April 10, Meiji 25 / 1892) to issue No. 245 (February 15, Meiji 35 / 1902). It was selected from the several hundred craftsman pictures in which Ogata Gekkō (尾形月耕) depicted the working ways of craftsmen carried on since Edo times. The commentaries on the pictures were written by Takeda Suika (武田酔霞), Yamada Shigetami (山田重民), and others.
Ogata Gekkō (1859–1920) taught himself painting; he did maki-e lacquer decoration on rickshaws, underglaze designs for ceramics, and illustrations for the "絵入朝野新聞" (Eiri Chōya Shinbun) and other papers. He became famous in Meiji 21 (1888) for illustrating the novels of Futabatei Shimei (二葉亭四迷) and Yamada Bimyō (山田美妙); in Meiji 24 (1891) he took part in the founding of Okakura Tenshin's (岡倉天心) Japan Youth Painting Association, and from the following year the serialization of the "Shinsen Hyakkō Zu" began in the Fūzoku Gahō.
Concerning this "Hyakkō Zu," the paper by Nakamachi Yasuko, COE researcher at Kanagawa University, "諸職風俗図像と新撰百工図" (Genre Images of the Various Trades and the Shinsen Hyakkō Zu), points out that "we cannot accurately grasp when each of these images was drawn; we can only suppose that they were drawn at some point in the interval from some time before the serialization began in Meiji 25 until its end in Meiji 35," and further that "there is also the accompanying problem of where the sites he visited actually were."
However, Tsuchida Mitsufumi — formerly professor at Musashino Women's University, trustee of the Museum of Modern Japanese Literature, and member of the steering committee of the Edo-Tokyo Museum — on the basis of remarks Ogata Gekkō made to the proprietor of Tōyōdō, states in the "Illustrated Dictionary of Edo-Tokyo Occupations" that "Gekkō did his interviewing and sketching of shitamachi craftsmen in the Meiji 10s (1877–1886), and the craftsmen's ways of working are considered to have been almost the same as in the Edo period." The dating and the documentary realism of the images can therefore be relied upon, and they may be called historical materials that let us know the times.
This picture was published in issue No. 154 of December 10, Meiji 30 (1897). It depicts a saw-sharpener, seemingly middle-aged and wearing a topknot, in what is probably his shop-workplace, a hand towel on his head, sitting cross-legged and sharpening a saw. From his heavy clothing, it appears to be the cold season.
At the back of the shop there is a large daigiri saw (台切鋸) of the kind with which two men slice thick logs into rounds; saws of this form were much used around the early Meiji period. On the shelves at the back, numerous large and small single-edged saws without handles — presumably stock for sale — are stored, and in the slightly opened top drawer of the five-drawer box at his right hand, sharpening files are presumably kept.
At his upper left four or five handled single-edged saws are placed, and at lower right lies the double-edged saw in question, without a handle. One can see that the head (top end) of the double-edged saw is not square but gently V-shaped, and from this we learn that double-edged saws of this period had this form.
Until now the prevailing theory has been that the pair of square-headed single-edged saws — one rip, one crosscut — developed in the late Edo period in pursuit of convenience fused into one to develop into the modern double-edged saw; but since the double-edged saw in this picture has a gently V-shaped head, the accepted account needs re-examination.
Why the gentle V shape? Details are not now known, but presumably this form was for some reason easier to use. Yet the fact that there is only one at this sharpener's shop should be taken to mean either that this double-edged saw was then in its earliest period of appearance, or that it had not yet spread widely into general use.
In any case, following Tsuchida Mitsufumi's account, if this "Saw Sharpening" picture was drawn in the Meiji 10s (as the topknot and the daigiri saw would themselves seem to prove), then it overturns the hitherto accepted dating of the modern double-edged saw's appearance from the Meiji 30s back to the Meiji 10s; the V-headed double-edged saw can be called a transitional form on the way to the square-headed double-edged saw; and as a new pictorial source it must be called precious.
This time, quite unexpectedly, I discovered at the Shitamachi Museum the "Saw Sharpening" picture with its double-edged saw, investigated the origin and source of the picture in detail, and was able to publish this as "New Discovery: On the Period of Appearance of the Double-Edged Saw."
In my "東京鋸鍛冶の資料／東京名工鑑" (Materials on Tokyo Saw-Smiths: The Tokyo Meikōkan) I wrote that the time of the double-edged saw's appearance was the early Meiji period in Tokyo, when wooden construction flourished; and I feel that the present material corroborates that.
As I have written before, the accepted theories concerning carpentry tools still rest in many cases on old hearsay. If such accounts are certain, there is no problem; but we must proceed on the basis of solid materials.
If readers judge that this essay meets that standard, and if they will deepen the discussion of this question further on the foundation of this essay, that is my dearest wish and profound joy. I will post this manuscript in our shop's "History of Tools" column and preserve it for later generations as basic material on carpentry tools.
An auspicious day, August, Heisei 22 (2010) Suzuki Kanamono Co., Ltd. (有限会社スズキ金物店) Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)
(3 pages: Introduction; Section 1; Conclusion. Dated an auspicious day, September, Heisei 22 / 2010.)
Around Shōwa 41 (1966), when I entered (有)スズキ金物店 (Suzuki Kanamono), the shop my father managed, electric woodworking tools had already spread widely, yet Tokyo still had a great many saw-sharpening shops, and there existed the "Tokyo Saw Commerce and Industry Association" (東京鋸商工業組合) established by those people. In those days it was said that if you possessed saw-sharpening skill, you could eat for a lifetime.
Thereafter, however, with the development of Japan's socio-economy — the rise in saw prices and sharpening fees, pre-cut lumber and changes in construction methods, the appearance of cheap replaceable-blade saws — the traditional saw gradually fell out of use; the aging of the sharpeners and the difficulty of finding successors were added to this; and eventually the number of sharpeners declined sharply, not only in Tokyo but nationwide. The "Tokyo Saw Commerce and Industry Association," long an empty name, finally dissolved around Heisei 20 (2008).
I had long been interested in the question: when were these saw-sharpening shops — the so-called "professional sharpeners" (metate senmon-shoku 目立て専門職) — born?
Having previously discovered the "Saw Sharpening" (鋸の目立) picture published in the "Shinsen Hyakkō Zu" (新撰百工図), which enabled me to publish "New Discovery: On the Period of Appearance of the Double-Edged Saw" overturning the received theory, I resolved on this occasion to investigate also the period of appearance of the professional saw-sharpener — a subject researchers have hardly discussed. Searching the internet, I discovered an unexpected and precious new pictorial source and gathered related materials, and on that basis I present "On the Birth of the Professional Saw-Sharpener."
This essay draws on the Tokyo National Museum's Cultural Heritage Online, Tsuchida Mitsufumi (槌田満文), "江戸東京職業図典" (Illustrated Dictionary of Edo-Tokyo Occupations; 2003), and Yoshikawa Kinji (吉川金次), "鋸" (The Saw; 1976), among others.
From the "Saw Sharpening" picture in the "Shinsen Hyakkō Zu" contained in the "Illustrated Dictionary of Edo-Tokyo Occupations," we know that professional saw-sharpeners with their own shops already existed in the Meiji 10s (1877–1886). How far back, then, can the time of their birth be traced?
Saw, file, and sharpening form a single complex. From Japanese antiquity, we may suppose, saw-smiths applied their forging and hardening techniques to make their own files as well, sharpening the teeth themselves to finish their products. Iron saws have been excavated from 4th-century kofun. Files have been excavated from the Zuian kofun (隋庵古墳) in Okayama Prefecture, of about the 5th century, and from the Higashiyama site (東山遺跡) in Miyagi Prefecture, of the Nara period, among others. The Heian-period "倭名類聚抄" (Wamyō Ruijushō; 928) writes "file" with the characters 鑢子 and 夜須利 (yasuri), explaining it as "that whereby the saw's teeth are made sharp."
As for when specialist smiths arose for the making of files, this is not yet well understood; but according to Kariyama Nobuyuki (苅山信行), chief researcher at the Western Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Technology Center, in the Genroku years (1688–1704) of the Edo period, nail-makers (wakugi craftsmen) in Tsubame, Niigata, inherited the technique from saw-smiths and began producing tooth-files for saw sharpening — the beginning of what became famous as the Echigo file (越後鑢). (From the "Ryokuchitai" column, Chūgoku Shinbun, 3.10.3.)
When the saw first appeared, its users, when the blade grew dull, presumably had it sharpened at the saw-smith's. As time passed, the craftsmen who used saws — woodcutters (kikori-shoku 樵職), gardeners (ueki-shoku 植木職), sawyers (kobiki-shoku 木挽職), carpenters (daiku-shoku 大工職) — came to buy files and sharpen their own saws at the work site.
From just past the middle of the Edo period there is the "近世職人尽絵巻" (Kinsei Shokunin-zukushi Emaki, Picture Scroll of Craftsmen of the Recent Age), painted by Kuwagata Keisai (鍬形恵斎; the text gives 尾形恵斎 — see translator's note below). This scroll was painted over Bunka 1 to 3 (1804–1806), and among its pictures, mixed in with sawyers ripping lumber with the ōga (大鋸), is a painting of a sawyer sharpening an ōga — which proves the point above. (Translator's note: the original text prints the artist's surname as 尾形恵斎 [Ogata Keisai]; the painter of the Kinsei Shokunin-zukushi Emaki is generally known as Kuwagata Keisai 鍬形蕙斎. The name is translated as printed.)
The modern saw is thin and very hard from quenching, so sharpening and setting the teeth are extremely difficult and require a professional sharpener. But the old saws made of tamahagane (玉鋼) were mildly quenched, so although they had the defects that (1) the teeth dulled quickly, (2) they were weak against knots and nails, and (3) they wore down quickly on oak and other hardwoods, they had the corresponding advantages that (1) sharpening was easy, (2) even an amateur could adjust the tooth set, and (3) on knot-free sugi and hinoki the cutting action was light. So the craftsmen who used saws could, it seems, sharpen them themselves with comparative ease.
When, then, was the professional sharpener born? I believe it came about as follows: as the demand for and use of saws grew, the demand for sharpening also grew, and from among the saw-smiths there emerged people who made sharpening their sole trade, going out to the work sites where saws were used, or setting up shops.
In the "Kinsei Shokunin-zukushi Emaki" there is one more painting: a craftsman sharpening saws at a street stall beside a bookshop in the town of Edo. The "Kinsei Shokunin-zukushi Emaki" is publicly viewable on the Tokyo National Museum's Cultural Heritage Online; access it on the internet and look at the painting and it is quite clear. (Because of copyright, it is regrettable that the photograph cannot be posted on this page.)
The craftsman shown from behind, apparently an old man, is — when you enlarge the image and look closely at his hands — clearly engaged in sharpening: a professional saw-sharpener. Next to him the hilt of a sword is visible, but it is a pity that one cannot tell what goods are set out at the stall. I searched the internet for other craftsman pictures besides this scroll, but found no other depiction of a person sharpening saws.
Therefore, as the present conclusion, we may state the birth period of the professional saw-sharpener, with some latitude: "around the middle of the Edo period, in Edo — then a city of a million people — where wooden building flourished with the rebuilding that followed repeated great fires."
Having unexpectedly discovered at the Shitamachi Museum the "Saw Sharpening" picture with its double-edged saw, and having previously written "New Discovery: On the Period of Appearance of the Double-Edged Saw," that occasion led me this time to publish "On the Birth of the Professional Saw-Sharpener."
Concerning the birth period of the professional sharpener — hardly discussed until now — I believe this essay has achieved considerable clarification through the discovery of the sharpening craftsman painted in the new source, the "Kinsei Shokunin-zukushi Emaki," and through the gathering of other materials.
Today the sharpening shops — the so-called professional saw-sharpeners — have utterly declined, and even in Tokyo only a handful of people remain. This too is the current of the times and cannot be helped. In any case, if those who read this essay will deepen the discussion of this question further, that is my dearest wish and profound joy.
This essay too I will post in our shop's "History of Tools" column and preserve for later generations as basic material on carpentry tools.
An auspicious day, September, Heisei 22 (2010) Suzuki Kanamono Co., Ltd. (有限会社スズキ金物店) Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)
(3 pages: Introduction; Section 1; Conclusion. Dated an auspicious day, December, Heisei 23 / 2011.)
Among the saw-smiths of Edo, the following names are known: the 12th-generation Nakaya Kyūsaku (中屋久作), renowned as a master; his pupils Tengu Genzaemon (天狗源左衛門) of Kanda and Nakaya Ihei (中屋伊兵衛) of Yotsuya; Futamiya Jinpachi (二見屋甚八; died Tenmei 3, 1783), said to have come to Edo from Futamigaura in Kishū in the era of the eighth shōgun Tokugawa Yoshimune (徳川吉宗; 1716–1757), and his line; Nakaya Heijirō (中屋平次郎) of Asakusa Abekawa-chō, of the Aizu saw-smith lineage, a master of the late Edo period; and the master Fujii Jinkurō (藤井甚九郎), who in the middle of the Edo period was invited from Edo to Suwa in Shinshū and is handed down as the founding ancestor of Shinshū saw-making.
I had previously tried to research and write up what sort of saw-smith Fujii Jinkurō, the reputed founder of the Shinshū saw, had been; but I could not find materials, and so matters stood until now.
Then quite recently, while reading through "江戸期諏訪の民俗" (Folkways of Suwa in the Edo Period) posted on the website of the pension Kurumayama Kōgen Rare Memory (車山高原レア・メモリー), which I had accessed by chance, I discovered, in the part titled "諏訪鋸" (The Suwa Saw), a detailed account of none other than Fujii Jinkurō's career — his career both while he lived in Edo and after he moved to Suwa. It was exactly the career of Fujii Jinkurō I had wanted to know.
It was also written there that while he lived in Edo, his signature was that of the 6th-generation Nakaya Jinkurō (中屋甚九郎).
Wishing to know more, I telephoned "Kurumayama Kōgen Rare Memory" the next day and asked the proprietor, Iijima Takashige (飯島隆茂), about the references used in writing "The Suwa Saw"; he kindly taught me various things. I promptly searched the internet for one of those references and obtained it: "諏訪市史 中巻 近世" (History of Suwa City, Middle Volume: Early Modern), published in Shōwa 63 (1988) by the Suwa City History Compilation Committee.
So, drawing on "History of Suwa City, Middle Volume: Early Modern"; "The Suwa Saw" within "Folkways of Suwa in the Edo Period" on the Kurumayama Kōgen Rare Memory website; Hirasawa Kazuo (平澤一雄), "産業文化史／鋸" (Industrial Cultural History: The Saw; Shōwa 55 / 1980); Futabasha's "大江戸散歩ＭＡＰ" (Great Edo Walking Map; Heisei 21 / 2009); and my own "日本の大工道具職人" (Japan's Carpentry-Tool Craftsmen; Heisei 23 / 2011), let me speak under the title "On the Master Edo Saw-Smith, Nakaya Jinkurō VI."
Fujii Jinkurō (藤井甚九郎), called the founding ancestor of the Shinshū saw, was in Edo also the 6th-generation Nakaya Jinkurō (中屋甚九郎). His ancestor, the first Jinkurō, opened a saw-making business under the shop name (yagō 屋号) Nakaya (中屋) in Ginza 2-chōme in Edo around the Shōhō years (1644–1647), the final years of the era of the third shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光) — this was the family's beginning as saw-smiths.
As for the Fujii family of Edo saw-smiths using the Nakaya shop name: since the founding house of the Nakaya name was the saw-smith Nakaya family that appeared in Fushimi, Kyoto, in the middle of the Muromachi period, the Edo Fujii line was probably either a saw-smith line descended from the Fushimi house's pupils, or a saw-smith line of the Aizu saw tradition — which flourished after Gamō Ujisato (蒲生氏郷), on his transfer to Aizu in the Azuchi-Momoyama period, brought Nakaya-name saw-smiths there from Fushimi in Kyoto. The Fushimi Nakaya family and the Aizu saw-smiths were both especially skilled at making tree-felling saws. Moreover, adjacent to Ginza 2-chōme in Edo lay Kobiki-chō (木挽町) 1-chōme and 2-chōme, where many sawyers (kobiki-shoku) lived.
In the Hōei years (1704–1710) — spanning the last years of the fifth shōgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (徳川綱吉) and the first half of the era of the sixth shōgun Tokugawa Ienobu (徳川家宣) — the 3rd-generation Jinkurō moved to Kyōbashi in Edo, and the family carried on the saw-smith business there down to the 5th-generation Hikobei (彦兵衛). In the Kyōbashi district there were places named Ōga-machi (大鋸町, "Great-Saw Town"), Daiku-machi (大工町, "Carpenter Town"), and Kaji-machi (鍛冶町, "Smith Town") — a district where many carpenters and smiths lived.
In the time of the 6th-generation Nakaya Jinkurō, Itō Gon'emon (伊藤権右衛門), a carpenter-official (banshō 番匠) at the Edo residence of the Takashima domain (高島藩), wishing to spread Nakaya Jinkurō's excellent saw-making technique to his home region of Suwa, proposed this to the domain; and in Bunka 2 (1805), around the middle of the era of the 11th shōgun Tokugawa Ienari (徳川家斉), the 6th-generation Nakaya Jinkurō was formally invited to Suwa by the Takashima domain.
The 6th-generation Nakaya Jinkurō handed the headship of the family to his younger brother Hikobei (彦兵衛), reverted to his true surname Fujii (藤井), and — now Fujii Jinkurō rather than the 6th-generation Nakaya — came to live in Shimizu-chō in Suwa, where, while producing mainly large forestry saws (sanrin-yō ōga 山林用大鋸), he trained many pupils and transmitted advanced saw-forging technique. Treated generously by the Takashima domain, he was also appointed superintendent of the saw-smith trade (鋸鍛冶職取締役).
The material Jinkurō and his pupils used for making saws was tamahagane (玉鋼) produced at Yasugi in Izumo Province. The quality grades of the time ran in five ranks — Tsukasa (司), Sen (選), Takara (宝), Rai (来), Yama (山); since the first grade, Tsukasa, was used by swordsmiths, they used the second grade, Sen, and the third grade, Takara.
When a pupil finished his training and became independent, Jinkurō would bestow on him the character "Jin" (甚) or "Kyū/Ku" (九) as part of his name, lend him funds for setting up, and give him thorough guidance in both technique and business. Through these pupils, excellent saw-forging technique spread through the Suwa, Okaya, and Chino regions and beyond.
Among the first pupils to learn Fujii Jinkurō's saw-making technique, the following are known: Miyasaka Jinzaburō (宮坂甚三郎) of Takeshi (now Suwa City); Seki Jingoemon (関甚五右衛門) of Ōkuma village (now Suwa City); Seki Jinshichi (関甚七) of Shimosuwa Tomono-machi (now Shimosuwa Town); Shimizu Jinbei (清水甚兵衛) of Kamihama (now Okaya City); Kobayashi Jinpachi (小林甚八) of Kurisawa village (now Chino City); Kasai Jingorō (河西甚五郎) of Yamada Shinden (now Chino City); Osada Jinshirō (長田甚四郎) of Anayama Shinden (now Chino City); Miyashita Kyūbei (宮下九兵衛) of Minami-Ōshio village (now Chino City); Ono Kurōbei (小野九郎兵衛) of Kamifuruta village (now Chino City); and Kyūemon (九右衛門) of Annaka-machi in Jōshū (Gunma Prefecture).
Jinkurō fell ill in Tenpō 14 (1843), around the middle of the era of the 12th shōgun Tokugawa Ieyoshi (徳川家慶), and died in the 7th month of that year, mourned by his pupils. Thereafter his son, the 2nd-generation Fujii Jinkurō, carried on his father's purpose; in the Kaei years (1848–1853) master and pupils together founded a Kanayama-kō (金山講, a smiths' fraternal association), and as they discussed the fruits of one another's forging technique and strove in study, the fame of the Shinshū saw rose still higher, and men came to apprentice themselves even from the provinces of Kai, Echigo, Kōzuke, and Hida.
Of the later Fujii Jinkurō house, it is known — through the late Professor Hirasawa Kazuo of Tokyo University of Agriculture's research on the Nakaya Kumagorō family — that the 4th generation trained in the Meiji era under the 2nd-generation Nakaya Kumagorō (中屋熊五郎), the master smith of Kiryū in Gunma Prefecture.
This time, from a website accessed by chance, I learned of and obtained historical materials on Fujii Jinkurō, founder of the Shinshū saw, for whom I had long searched. On that basis I was able to write up, as "On the Master Edo Saw-Smith, Nakaya Jinkurō VI," an account of the Edo-period saw-smith Fujii Jinkurō, still not well known among people concerned with carpentry tools — and so achieve one of the aims of my research on carpentry-tool smiths.
I was able to learn: that Fujii Jinkurō, founder of the Shinshū saw, was in Edo the 6th-generation Nakaya Jinkurō; that the first Nakaya Jinkurō opened his saw-smithy in the final years of Tokugawa Iemitsu's era; the addresses where the family lived; that he became superintendent of the saw-smith trade for the Takashima domain; the home villages and smith-names of his first pupils; that he died in Tenpō 14 (1843); and that his son carried on his father's purpose and devoted himself to the development of the Shinshū saw. With this I could complete the account. It is regrettable, however, that the "History of Suwa City" does not indicate its sources for the passages describing Fujii Jinkurō's career.
Finally, I express my heartfelt thanks to Iijima Takashige (飯島隆茂) of the pension Kurumayama Kōgen Rare Memory, who, despite my sudden telephone call, kindly shared his sources.
An auspicious day, December, Heisei 23 (2011) Suzuki Kanamono Co., Ltd. (有限会社スズキ金物店) Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)