Three related essay series by Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭), Representative Director of Suzuki Kanamono-ten Ltd. (有限会社スズキ金物店):
- The Genealogy of Tokyo Sumitsubo (東京墨壷の系図) — 5 pages
- On the Changes in the Kanji Orthography of "Sumitsubo" (「スミツボ」の漢字表記の変遷について) — 5 pages
- The Mystery Master Craftsman of Niigata Sumitsubo, "Ichimonji Masakane" (謎の新潟墨壷の名工「一文字正兼」) — 3 pages
Translator's note. These three series form a connected body of work on the sumitsubo — the carpenter's ink pot / ink line, the tool with which the master carpenter (tōryō 棟梁) snaps layout lines. Series 1 (dated Heisei 20 / May 2008) traces the tool from antiquity through the extinction of the Tokyo carving tradition; series 2 (Heisei 22 / March 2010) investigates why the word was written 墨斗 → 墨坪 → 墨壷 over the centuries; series 3 (Heisei 22 / April 2010) recovers the biography of the forgotten Niigata master Ichimonji Masakane (一文字正兼). Total: 13 web pages, translated in full.
Ambiguities: (1) The reading of the Sanjō pioneer 栗山源資 is not glossed in the source; "Kuriyama Genshi" is used here, but "Gensuke" is possible. (2) Craftsman signature names (壷福 etc.) are read here in their conventional on/kun forms (Tsubofuku, Tsubosen, Tsubosei, Tsubotoyo, Tsubotame, Tsubogen, Tsuboshizu, Tsuboyone, Tsubotatsu, Tsuboshō); the site gives no furigana, so these readings are conventional rather than certain. (3) In the Tokyo genealogy series the master names are written with 壷 (pot), while the Niigata series writes the same lineage figures with 坪 (tsubo, land-measure) — e.g. 壷清 vs 坪清 — a distinction that is itself the subject of series 2; the translation preserves each spelling as it appears. (4) In series 5 (plasterers' sumitsubo) the source text says plastering technique came from craftsmen who 渡米 ("crossed to America") from Baekje in 588 — an evident typo for 渡来 ("came over [to Japan]"); translated accordingly.
In former times, when a house was built, the work began first of all with marking out lines in ink using the sumitsubo, and this ink-marking was always performed by the master carpenter (tōryō 棟梁). Moreover, when large building works were undertaken, rituals were always held before the gods at each milestone of the construction schedule, and one of the objects enshrined before the altar on those occasions was the sumitsubo. Thus, among all carpentry tools, the sumitsubo has from ancient times held an especially important place.
The only carpentry tool ever designated a National Treasure is a sumitsubo. It is the gorgeous "split-tail" (shiriware 尻割れ) type sumitsubo used in Kan'ei 11 (1634) at the chōna-hajime (釿始め — adze-starting, i.e. groundbreaking) ceremony of the main sanctuary of Nikkō Tōshōgū: made of gilded copper plate, with maki-e lacquer decoration of wave and cloud patterns and the hollyhock (aoi) crest. Also famous as especially historic pieces are: the two split-tail sumitsubo preserved in the Shōsōin repository; the split-tail sumitsubo of gilded copper plate with arabesque (karakusa) decoration used at the chōna-hajime ceremony of the Great Buddha Hall of Tōdaiji in Genroku 1 (1688); and the split-tail sumitsubo discovered in Meiji 12 (1879) atop a beam of the Great South Gate (Nandaimon) of Tōdaiji in Nara, thought to date from the Kamakura period to the early Muromachi period.
The sumitsubo has a very long history. In the "Yūryaku chapter" of the Nihon Shoki (日本書紀・雄略記, AD 720) appears the verse "Who now will stretch it — the fresh ink line (sumi-nawa)"; in the Shinsen Jikyō (新選字鏡, AD 898) the characters 墨斗 (bokuto, "ink measure"), meaning sumitsubo, are recorded; and traces of ink marking can be seen on the round pillars of the East Precinct (Tōin) of Hōryūji. As for actual surviving examples, the oldest is the split-tail sumitsubo of hinoki cypress excavated from the Sakane site (栄根遺跡) in Kawanishi City, which can be dated to around the 8th century. The sumitsubo of that era was of the so-called split-tail type, in which the tail of the pot forks into two prongs with the thread-wheel mounted between them; Maeba Kōji (前場幸治) states that this was the standard form of sumitsubo used continuously through antiquity and the Middle Ages, and the greatest distinguishing feature of the ancient sumitsubo. As this form of sumitsubo is still used today by Chinese carpenters — which helps us understand its path — it is thought to have passed from China to the Korean peninsula, and then to have been brought to Japan and spread by craftsmen who crossed over from the Korean peninsula.
Maeba further states, inferring from old picture scrolls and from ceremonial sumitsubo dedicated at shrines and temples, that the transition to the one-piece type — that is, the type in which the tail section is hollowed out and the wheel set into it, rather than split — occurred in the 16th century to the beginning of the 17th century, that is, around the start of the Azuchi–Momoyama period.
As for the material of the sumitsubo: in the earliest period hinoki cypress was used, but since the above-mentioned "forgotten" sumitsubo of Tōdaiji was of mulberry wood, and since the Wakan Sansai Zue (和漢三才図会, the illustrated Sino-Japanese encyclopedia of the mid-Edo period) records that "mulberry is held the best, and zelkova (keyaki) next after it," it appears that from a certain period mulberry wood became the mainstream, with zelkova wood used next and continuing in use thereafter. Boxwood (tsuge) seems also to have been used.
As for the pot-line (tsuboito 壷糸), thread twisted from silk was likely employed, because it takes ink well and, not stretching, allows an accurate straight line to be snapped.
The sumitsubo also had a plumb-bob function. An iron ring that could rotate was attached at the center of gravity of the sumitsubo, the pot-line passed through it, and the tool was thus also used as a plumb for checking verticality. It is not known from what period this function was added, but in the Matsuzaki Tenjin Engi (松崎天神縁起), a picture scroll of the late Kamakura period, there is a scene of a master carpenter suspending his sumitsubo to check the vertical. Such suspension rings seem to have ceased to be fitted around the beginning of the Edo period.
Carpenters carved their sumitsubo themselves in the intervals of their work, to their own taste, and used them on the building site.
In the early modern period the split-tail sumitsubo disappears, but as types inheriting this lineage there appeared the Kansai-type sumitsubo — long and narrow with a small ink pond (sumi-ike 墨池), used mainly by carpenters of the Kansai region — and the Kantō type developed in Edo, with an enlarged ink pond; forms thus diversified. Then, from the latter half of the Edo period into the early Meiji period, the type we see today appeared in Edo, larger than earlier ones, and zelkova (keyaki) became the mainstream material. Particularly favored for carving were root sections with densely infolded grain and crotch sections where the trunk forked into branches.
Around the middle of the Meiji period, in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, from among carpenters skilled at sumitsubo carving there appeared men who made it their exclusive trade. With the appearance of these specialists the form of the sumitsubo improved still further; ingenuity was lavished on it, and around the ink pond they came to carve, with elaborate ornament, creatures associated with water — turtles, cranes, dragons, and the like.
By the middle of the Meiji period, specialists in sumitsubo carving had appeared in Tokyo as well. One of them was a man called "Tsubofuku" (壷福). A former carpenter, he is thought to have been carving sumitsubo from around the beginning of the Meiji era.
According to the genealogy of Tokyo sumitsubo written during his lifetime by Omi Shōkichi (小見庄吉), the second-generation "Tsubotoyo" (壷豊), this Tsubofuku had two apprentices, called "Tsubosei" (壷清) and "Tsubosen" (壷仙).
Tsubosei, owing to certain circumstances, went to Sanjō in Niigata before the Great Kantō Earthquake, was taken in by Kuriyama Genshi (栗山源資), the first man to begin sumitsubo manufacture in Niigata, and transmitted to him the decoratively carved sumitsubo of Tokyo. This became the beginning of decorative carved sumitsubo in Sanjō. The Tsubosei line continued to the second generation, but is thought to have gone out of business around the time the Pacific War began.
Tsubosen lived long, into his eighties, and is thought to have died around the end of the Pacific War. This Tsubosen had five apprentices: the first-generation "Tsubotoyo" (壷豊), Hirota (広田), Narita the elder brother (成田・兄), Narita the younger brother (成田・弟), and Katō (加藤). Tsubotoyo, the senior apprentice, continued to the third generation, and Katō continued to the second generation, Masakiyo (正清).
The first-generation Tsubotoyo, Omi Toyokichi (小見豊吉), was born in Meiji 8 (1875) in Kanagawa Prefecture; of farming stock and fond of fine handwork, at the age of 24 he was apprenticed to Tsubosen, then called a master craftsman. Applying himself with the discipline expressed in the saying "three years to somehow shape something that looks like a pot; seven years before you can earn a full craftsman's wage," he became independent, carved under the signature "Tsubotoyo," and came to be called a master of sumitsubo carving. The first generation's son, Omi Shōkichi (小見庄吉), was born in Meiji 37 (1904) in Kameido; from about the age of 11 he worked at sumitsubo carving under his father, in time succeeded him as second-generation Tsubotoyo, and through continued discipline came to be called a master like his father. The turtles carved by the second generation in particular were highly praised as "veritably alive." Later, in Taishō 14 (1925), the second-generation Tsubotoyo moved to Katsushika and trained four apprentices, but after the war all but one gave up the trade. After he collapsed from high blood pressure in Shōwa 38 (1963), at around age 60, his three sons — eldest son Kaichirō (嘉一郎), second son Eiichi (英一), and third son Shōji (庄司) — were engaged in sumitsubo carving; subsequently Kaichirō ran a metal press and sheet-metal working business at the same location, while Eiichi carved sumitsubo as the third-generation Tsubotoyo at Toride in Ibaraki Prefecture. However, he ceased business in the latter half of the Shōwa 40s (early-to-mid 1970s).
Besides these there was also a man called "Tsubotame" (壷為). There is talk that Tsubotame was an apprentice of Tsubotoyo, but for lack of documentation this is not well understood. He seems to have ceased business in the first half of the Shōwa 40s (late 1960s–early 1970s).
Tokyo sumitsubo, being oriented toward the luxury market, were extremely expensive, difficult to obtain, and precious. They had the value of works of art. That, in its way, expressed the spirit and pride of the sumitsubo carvers. At the time there were not a few enthusiasts who collected Tokyo sumitsubo. But the current of the times did not permit the Tokyo sumitsubo to continue.
After the war, cheap machine-made wooden sumitsubo of zelkova from Sanjō in Niigata flooded rapidly into the Tokyo market; furthermore, from around the beginning of the Shōwa 40s (mid-1960s), still cheaper plastic sumitsubo began to be produced in Sanjō, dealing a heavy blow not only to the high-grade Tokyo sumitsubo but even to the inexpensive wooden sumitsubo, and in the Shōwa 40s and 50s (mid-1960s through mid-1980s) wooden sumitsubo rapidly fell out of use.
Then, in Shōwa 59 (1984), Tajima Tool (タジマツール) of Itabashi, Tokyo, brought out the Perfect Sumitsubo, an epoch-making sumitsubo hailed as a revolution in the tool. It was a portable plastic sumitsubo which, by means of a lid, neither leaked ink nor let it dry out, had automatic thread rewinding, and possessed a plumb-bob function — one might call it, so to speak, a modern version of the medieval sumitsubo with its combined plumb function. After this, various imitations appeared, and just as plastic sumitsubo were in their turn taking the blow, the further advance of 2×4 construction and pre-cut lumber processing, and the development of assembly construction methods by the housing manufacturers, meant that the sumitsubo itself came to be scarcely used at all — which is the situation down to the present.
Recently, however, one hears that there are not a few people who re-appraise the artistic and craft value of the wooden sumitsubo and wish to display them as antiques rather than use them as tools. Whether the sumitsubo will revive in this direction, no one can say. In Niigata, sumitsubo are still being carved in zelkova wood by a very few makers, such as "Tsubogen" (壷源), "Tsuboshizu" (壷静), and "Tsuboshō" (壷昭). One can only pray that the wooden sumitsubo does not vanish.
So far we have discussed the sumitsubo used by carpenters. The sumitsubo was a necessity not only for carpenters but also for the plasterers (sakan 左官) who coat walls (it is listed among the tools required for the 1st- and 2nd-class plasterer practical examinations), and they have used it since old times. In closing, let me say a little about this plasterer's sumitsubo.
Unlike the carpenter's sumitsubo, the plasterer's type had a mouth for the pot-line extended into a slender snout of around 5 cm, a form making it easy to aim into corners when striking the chiri-zumi (チリ墨 — the ink lines struck on wooden members such as posts and lintels to keep the coating thickness uniform); and since plasterers do not snap long lines, it was a small tool of around 7 sun (about 21 cm) with a small pot-wheel. Because striking black ink lines risked soiling the faces of posts and the like, a white-lead solution was formerly used for plasterers' work, but in the postwar high-growth era black ink was the norm.
According to what I once heard from an aged plasterer, plasterers' sumitsubo carved in zelkova were in use in the Meiji era; what history there may be before that is unknown for lack of present documentation. Since full-fledged plastering technique in Japan is said to date from the craftsmen who came over from Baekje in Sushun 1 (588), I surmise it belongs to the subsequent era in which plastering technique became highly developed.
To describe the postwar evolution of the plasterer's sumitsubo: the plasterer's type, being inexpensive, was made by the same men who carved wooden carpenter's sumitsubo, but in time plastic plasterer's sumitsubo were made, and the wooden plasterer's sumitsubo almost entirely disappeared. Then, when the Perfect Sumitsubo appeared — with its adjustable length and its "crane's neck" (tsuru-kubi つる首) feature allowing the corner to be held — the plastic type in its turn fell largely out of use. And with the rapid change in building methods, today the plasterer's sumitsubo is scarcely used at all.
Written on an auspicious day of May, Heisei 20 (2008).
Suzuki Kanamono-ten Ltd. Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)
When the word "sumitsubo" is written in kanji, the characters 墨壷 are generally used at present. However, around Shōwa 41 (1966), forty-five years ago when I entered Suzuki Kanamono-ten, "sumitsubo" was generally written with the kanji 墨坪, and the use of the kanji 墨壷 was quite rare.
Recently, while researching and writing for our shop's website about Ichimonji Masakane (一文字正兼) — acclaimed as the finest sumitsubo master craftsman in Niigata, who carved the great sumitsubo in our shop's collection — the following points, which I had never before given any thought, suddenly and somehow became great questions to me:
- Why was the tsubo of "sumitsubo" written with 坪 (tsubo, the land-measure character) rather than 壷 (tsubo, "pot")?
- From about when did the kanji 墨坪 come into use?
- From about when, and why, was the character 壷 applied to "sumitsubo"?
Setting Ichimonji Masakane aside to write up later, I gave priority to resolving these questions and investigated variously. It appears that, like me, no one — neither in the hardware trade nor among researchers of carpentry tools — had ever paid attention to this, and I found that the etymology of 墨坪 is surprisingly little known.
I therefore wish to make clear why it was written 墨坪, from when it came into use, and how matters stand with the 墨壷 orthography, in the course of narrating the history of the kanji orthography of "sumitsubo" from antiquity.
For this manuscript I drew on what I was told by the limited company "Tsubogen" (坪源), presently manufacturing sumitsubo in Niigata, and by Tamaki Seisakusho (田巻製作所) of the "Tsuboshizu" (壷静) signature; and I consulted Maeba Kōji's Daiku Konjaku (大工今昔, "Carpentry Past and Present," 1992) and Okimoto Hiroshi's Suminawa to Sumitsubo (墨縄と墨壷, "The Ink Line and the Ink Pot," Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum Research Bulletin No. 14, 2002). Honorifics are omitted below.
At present, the sumitsubo is a tool seen characteristically in East Asia — China, the Korean peninsula, Japan. In China, the kanji 墨縄 ("ink cord"), used for line-marking, was in use from before the Common Era, but the characters 墨斗 (bokuto) — the kanji meaning "sumitsubo" — do not appear until the Tang dynasty.
According to the Japanese dictionary, 斗 (to) means a ladle with a handle. From this we understand that 墨斗 means an object in which the pot part holding the ink and the wheel part held in the hand are united in one body.
In Japan, the characters 墨縄 (suminawa) first appear in the "Yūryaku chapter" of the Nihon Shoki, and 墨縄 is also recorded in a Shōsōin document of 755.
In the Shinsen Jikyō (新撰字鏡) of 898 the characters 墨斗 and 墨頭 appear, glossed to be read sumitsumo (須弥頭毛). And it distinguishes these from suminawa (須弥奈波 = 墨縄). According to researcher Okimoto Hiroshi of the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum, regarding the suminawa: "though the function of marking a line is the same as that of the 墨斗, doubt remains as to whether the suminawa was, in form, a tool unified with a pot in which the ink was steeped."
In the Wamyō Ruijushō (倭名類聚抄) of 938, 墨斗 is glossed to be read sumitsubo (須美都保). From this point on — through the Kamakura, Muromachi, and Edo periods and up to a certain point in the Meiji era — while enjoying the honor of being offered before the gods together with the carpenter's square (kanejaku 曲尺) and the adze (chōna 釿) at the chōna-hajime (groundbreaking ceremony), the sumitsubo continued to be written in documents as 墨斗.
And there is a text of Meiji 27 (1894) recording as 墨斗 the "forgotten" sumitsubo discovered atop a beam of the Great South Gate of Tōdaiji, now held by the University Art Museum of Tokyo University of the Arts; so far as my research goes, this appears at present to be the last record in which the 墨斗 orthography was used.
Until the Meiji era, sumitsubo were made by carpenters themselves, each as he pleased, for his own use. From around the end of the Edo period, the form of the sumitsubo shifted from the Chinese-style form of the 墨斗 to the form we see today, with its large round ink pond. This was the transition from the Chinese form of the sumitsubo to a Japanized form.
In time, around the middle of the Meiji era, specialists making sumitsubo emerged from among the carpenters. These men carved on the backs of the sumitsubo they made the character 坪 plus one character of their own name — "Tsubo-so-and-so." Through this practice, the kanji orthography of "sumitsubo" changed from 墨斗 to 墨坪. One may perhaps say that in this period the Japanization of the sumitsubo's form was completed. From mid-Meiji into the Taishō era, sumitsubo craftsmen appeared carving signatures such as "Tsubofuku" (坪福), "Tsubosen" (坪仙), and "Tsubosei" (坪清) in Tokyo, and "Tsubogen" (坪源) in Niigata.
Why, then, did they use the character 坪? For the word tsubo there are two kanji, 坪 and 壷. Properly speaking, one might think that, from the standpoint of actual use, the correct tsubo character for the sumitsubo should be 壷 ("pot"). When I asked "Tsubogen" — the oldest maker in Niigata, making sumitsubo since the middle of the Meiji era — about this, the answer was: "There is no deep meaning; the founder used 坪 because it is not a difficult kanji."
According to the Japanese dictionary, the character 坪, besides expressing the area of land, also carries the meaning of "a small garden." There is a pond; water flows and a water-wheel turns; sometimes carp swim; cranes and turtles play about the pond's edge — truly, the 墨坪 itself seems to express "the space of a Japanese garden." As my personal view, I now think it was truly fitting that our predecessors wrote "sumitsubo" as 墨坪, using the character 坪, whose world of space opens wider than 壷.
In time, however, sumitsubo craftsmen using the character 壷 also appeared. Who used it first, and when, is not known, but "Tsubotoyo" (壷豊) of Tokyo appears to have used the character 壷 from the first generation. Searching the Internet, the oldest present example using the character 壷 is a great sumitsubo of 2 shaku 4 sun (about 73 cm) made by the first generation in Shōwa 5 (1930), with "壷豊" carved on its back. Most likely the first-generation Tsubotoyo had been carving "壷豊" from the Taishō era, when he became independent of his master "Tsubosen" (坪仙).
In Niigata, among the sumitsubo craftsmen using the character 坪, there is "Tsuboshizu" (壷静), the sole maker to use the character 壷, from its founding in Shōwa 20 (1945). Hirota Yonekichi (廣田米吉), called a master craftsman among the sumitsubo makers of Osaka, also carved "Tsuboyone" (壷米) on the backs of sumitsubo he made around Shōwa 27–28 (1952–53), so he is thought to have used the character 壷 from around the beginning of the Shōwa era.
Amid the general use of 坪 by most sumitsubo craftsmen, for what reasons "Tsubotoyo" and "Tsuboyone" used the character 壷 cannot be known, as they have already ceased business. When I asked "Tsuboshizu" of Niigata, still making sumitsubo today, the reply was: "The 壷 (pot) carries an image of elegance and refinement, as typified by flower vessels. A signature guarantees the product and is one with the product, so dignity of style matters. For that reason we made our signature 'Tsuboshizu' with 壷, not with 坪."
And at present, when one says "sumitsubo," examples using the characters 墨坪 have become few, and the characters 墨壷 have become the general usage.
This time, the question of why "sumitsubo" was written with the kanji 墨坪 arose suddenly in my mind, and after much investigation I have written up its resolution in the course of relating historically how "sumitsubo" has been written in kanji in Japan since antiquity.
What surprised me in the course of research was that people in the trade and researchers of carpentry tools had until now accepted 墨坪 as the kanji for "sumitsubo" as a matter of course, without ever questioning it. Since I knew from my earlier essay "The Genealogy of Tokyo Sumitsubo" that "sumitsubo" had once been written 墨斗, I surmised that the shift in kanji orthography from 墨斗 to 墨坪 might date from the appearance of the sumitsubo-making specialists in mid-Meiji, and investigated accordingly.
On that basis I telephoned and questioned the limited company "Tsubogen" (坪源), which first began sumitsubo manufacture in Niigata in the middle of the Meiji era and which, moreover, uses the character 坪 and still makes sumitsubo today. The result is as set forth in "On the Etymology of 墨坪." I also explained my purpose to Tamaki Seisakusho of the "Tsuboshizu" (壷静) signature — the only maker in Niigata using the character 壷 — and asked why they write with 壷, and was thus able to complete this manuscript.
Now that I have finished writing, I feel there is something deeply meaningful in the fact that the form of the sumitsubo transmitted from China passed through a long age of Japanization from the Chinese form of the 墨斗, and that it was from the middle of the Meiji era — when the Japanization of its form was completed — that the kanji orthography changed from 墨斗 to 墨坪.
I express my heartfelt thanks to the two firms — the limited company "Tsubogen" and Tamaki Seisakusho of the "Tsuboshizu" signature — who, despite my sudden telephone calls, kindly taught me many things in my research into the etymology of 墨坪; and I wish to place this manuscript on our shop's website and leave it as a record for posterity.
Written on an auspicious day of March, Heisei 22 (2010).
Suzuki Kanamono-ten Ltd. Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)
The history of sumitsubo manufacture in Niigata is said to have begun around the middle of the Meiji era, when Kuriyama Genshi (栗山源資), a timber wholesaler of Sanjō City, had the carpenters who frequented his business make sumitsubo in winter, when they were buried in snow and unable to work.
In time, before the Great Kantō Earthquake, "Tsubosei" (坪清) came from Tokyo to Sanjō, was taken into the care of Kuriyama Genshi, and transmitted the decoratively carved sumitsubo of Tokyo. Tsubosei's sumitsubo have been praised thus: "magnificently carved crane and turtle, and a body across which clouds trail as if fitted to the sumitsubo's form — truly brimming with refined functional beauty."
The sumitsubo craftsmen of Sanjō absorbed this technique of Tsubosei, and, each adding his own refinements, there formed three schools, the so-called "Kuriyama school" (栗山流), "Takenouchi school" (竹之内流), and "Kuribayashi school" (栗林流). There were also craftsmen of offshoots of these. The Kuriyama school is "Tsubogen" (坪源), of timber-merchant origin. The Takenouchi school is "Tsubotatsu" (坪辰), of sawyer (kobiki 木挽) origin. The Kuribayashi school was of plasterer origin, but ceased business in Shōwa 50 (1975) and its line ended.
At the peak of wooden sumitsubo production, fully 80 percent or more of the nation's output was made in Sanjō, and there was even a period when a sumitsubo makers' trade association existed; but today wooden sumitsubo are scarcely used in construction, and only a bare few firms remain in Sanjō.
Within this history of Niigata sumitsubo there was a "mystery master craftsman" who, despite being acclaimed the finest in Niigata as a specialist maker of great sumitsubo (ōsumitsubo 大墨壷), was never written up by anyone and was known only to a few. That master craftsman was "Ichimonji Masakane" (一文字正兼).
Suzuki Kanamono-ten possesses a crane-and-turtle carved great sumitsubo by Ichimonji Masakane, a full 1 shaku 6 sun 5 bu (50 cm), which I had carved to order through a carpentry-tool wholesaler of Sanjō, Niigata, about forty years ago, when I was in my late twenties. Having investigated this mysterious master carver "Ichimonji Masakane" and come to know him in detail, I wish to introduce the great sumitsubo in our collection in photographs, tell of Ichimonji Masakane, and leave this as a record for posterity.
I have drawn on what I was taught by the Sanjō carpentry-tool wholesaler Yoshimura Hisayuki Shōten Co. (株式会社吉村久幸商店) and by Tamaki Isamu (田巻勇), the first-generation "Tsuboshizu" (壷静); on the website of Tsubogen Ltd.; and on the Echigo Sanjō craftsmen's biography Tsuboshizu Monogatari (壷静物語, "The Tale of Tsuboshizu"). Honorifics are omitted below.
Ichimonji Masakane was born in Taishō 13 (1924) in Niigata Prefecture. Owing to family circumstances he was adopted in infancy into the Obara family of Sanjō City, becoming Obara Kanekichi (小原兼吉). After graduating from Yokkamachi Elementary School in Sanjō, he entered the Okazaki Sumitsubo Seisakusho (岡崎墨壷製作所), where his elder brother was apprenticed in sumitsubo making, as a trainee apprentice. Among his classmates was Tamaki Isamu (田巻勇), later the first-generation "Tsuboshizu." Tamaki Isamu too had daily peered in at the sumitsubo carving of the nearby Okazaki works and had harbored since childhood something like a longing for sumitsubo making, so he became a trainee apprentice together with him.
Two or three months later, Kanekichi's elder brother, who had been apprenticed earlier, completed his indenture, and as the brother was to set up independently as a sumitsubo craftsman, Kanekichi left the works with him to help in his brother's work.
At nineteen he volunteered for military service. He was demobilized after the war in Shōwa 22 (1947), and applied himself all the more to the discipline of sumitsubo making. He married, and at around 25 or 26 became independent of the Obara family and began sumitsubo manufacture.
Kanekichi had a short-tempered side, but his hands were extremely deft and he carved sumitsubo with great skill; he was moreover a hard worker, quick at his job, and grew into a craftsman of such ability that he produced double the numbers of other men. At first he made sumitsubo of the Genji type (源氏型, with rounded tail) and the Wakaba type (若葉型, with pointed tail), but at the request of local wholesalers he came to carve crane-and-turtle carved sumitsubo, and by the splendor of his carving raised his name as a sumitsubo craftsman of fine skill. In time he took the name "Ichimonji Masakane" (一文字正兼), and came also to carve, on commission, decoratively carved great sumitsubo of 1 shaku 5 sun (about 45 cm) and above. And he came to be acclaimed the finest master of sumitsubo carving in Niigata. Ichimonji Masakane had one daughter and one son.
Later his grown son began training in sumitsubo making under his father, and progressed to the point of being able to carve crane-and-turtle sumitsubo; but regrettably he left his father's side and went in search of other work.
In the latter half of his life, Ichimonji Masakane carved mainly to order, exclusively decoratively carved great sumitsubo of 1 shaku 5 sun to 2 shaku (45–60 cm), producing two or three works a month. His dragon-and-tiger carved great sumitsubo were especially famous. There survives the anecdote that while carving the fangs of the tiger on a 1 shaku 5 sun dragon-and-tiger great sumitsubo, he clenched his jaw so hard that a back tooth chipped.
Ichimonji Masakane was the first to carve the crane's wing feathers swelling out in three-dimensional relief, where sumitsubo carvers before him had carved them flat. He was also the man who carved the master pattern for the plastic sumitsubo that came onto the market under the name "Genji Tsurukame Sumitsubo" (源氏鶴亀墨壷). While holding strong convictions, Ichimonji Masakane also constantly took on new challenges.
However, after the start of the Heisei era his health failed and he was hospitalized; after a continued fight with illness he closed his life of some seventy years around Heisei 10 (c. 1998), mourned as the finest sumitsubo master of Niigata.
I resolved to write about the Niigata sumitsubo master "Ichimonji Masakane" because our shop possesses one of his crane-and-turtle carved great sumitsubo — and because, although he was acclaimed the finest sumitsubo master in Niigata, when I searched the Internet and books on carpentry tools I found him nowhere spoken of: I learned he had become a master craftsman of mystery.
Feeling that I must by all means write up "Ichimonji Masakane" and make his name widely known to the world, I promptly made inquiries of Yoshimura Hisayuki Shōten Co., which had dealt with Ichimonji Masakane, and began preparations for writing; but, as recorded in "On the Changes in the Kanji Orthography of Sumitsubo," my interest was drawn to the etymology of 墨坪, and this project was postponed.
This, however, led to an unexpected development. When I sent the completed orthography manuscript to Tamaki Seisakusho of the "Tsuboshizu" signature, whom I had consulted about the kanji for sumitsubo, I received a courteous letter of thanks from Tamaki Isamu, the first-generation "Tsuboshizu," in which he told me that he and Kanekichi had been elementary-school classmates; that, moreover, they had entered the same sumitsubo works as trainee apprentices; that Kanekichi had left together with his brother when the brother's indenture ended; and that he had died some ten-odd years earlier. By this, the birth year, place of training, and other things hitherto unknown became clear all at once.
I then once more questioned Yoshimura Hisayuki Shōten Co. in further detail, and was able to complete this manuscript. In that process I also came to know of the tragedy that the son, who had long nursed Ichimonji Masakane alone, took his own life the day before Ichimonji Masakane died; and so this time, with the meaning also of a memorial service for the two of them, I place this manuscript on our shop's website together with photographs of the sumitsubo in our collection, to leave as a record for posterity.
I express my deep thanks to Yoshimura Hisayuki Shōten Co. and to Tamaki Isamu, the first-generation "Tsuboshizu," who taught me so much about Ichimonji Masakane.
An auspicious day of April, Heisei 22 (2010).
Suzuki Kanamono-ten Ltd. Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)
Source pages (Shift-JIS originals archived): sumituborekisi1–4.html, sumituborekisi5new.html; sumitubonokanjihyoukinohensen1–5.html; nazononiigatasumitubonomeikou1–3.html — misyuku-suzuki-kanamonoten.com. Copyright (C) 2006 Suzuki Kanamono. Translation for research purposes.