Source: (Ltd.) Suzuki Kanamono-ten (有限会社スズキ金物店), "History of Tools" (道具の歴史) section, misyuku-suzuki-kanamonoten.com. All essays by company president Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭).
Translator's note This file contains complete translations of four article series:
- "Early-Shōwa Plane Prices Compared with Carpenters' Daily Wages" (昭和初期の鉋価格と大工手間賃との比較) — 5 pages (introduction, sections 1–3, conclusion), dated November Heisei 22 (2010). Based on a Shōwa 7 (1932) plane catalog issued by the Tokyo tool merchant Katoriya; prices for seven smiths' planes are compared against contemporary carpenter wages.
- "How to Identify Chiyozuru Unju Planes" (千代鶴運壽の判定方法) — 7 pages, dated December Heisei 26 (2014). Forensic criteria for attributing Unju-brand planes forged after the death of Chiyozuru Tarō II.
- "The Plane Forged by a Living National Treasure" (人間国宝の鍛った鉋) — 6 pages, dated August Heisei 21 (2009). Identifies the mystery postwar "Chiyomasa" plane smith as the swordsmith Amata Akitsugu.
- "Genealogy of the Blade-Smith Katō Yoshiaki Family" (刃物鍛冶「加藤良明」家の系譜) — 5 pages, dated December Heisei 22 (2010). Three generations of the Katō Yoshiaki / Katō Kanekuni family of Meguro, Tokyo (relocated to Hokuto, Yamanashi in 2000).
Ambiguities: (a) Name readings not glossed by the author are given in their most widely used forms; 左久弘 is rendered "Hidari Hisahiro" per common trade usage, 石堂秀一 as "Ishidō Hideichi," 真国 as "Sanekuni," 尾島功大 as "Ojima Kōdai," 金山盡富 as "Kanayama Jintomi" — these readings are conventional but not certain. (b) In series 3 the original text reads 官内庁 ("Kannai-chō"), an evident typographical error for 宮内庁 (Imperial Household Agency); translated accordingly. (c) In series 2, page 2, the author's speculation about the box inscription is explicitly conjecture and is translated as such. (d) One page of series 2 (page 6) is served in UTF-8 rather than Shift-JIS on the source site and was re-decoded accordingly; its text is complete. (e) The original pages carry no tables; all prices appear in prose and have been additionally tabulated here for convenience, marked as translator additions.
On the Internet home page of the Katsuhide Hamono-ten (勝秀刃物店) blade shop there is an introduction to a Shōwa 7 (1932) plane catalog issued by the famous Tokyo firm (limited partnership) Katoriya Kōgu-ten (香取屋工具店), which once sold carpentry tools.
In it, mixed among the many plane brands trademark-registered by wholesalers and others, the prices of planes bearing the marks "Chiyozuru Tōshirō" (千代鶴藤四郎), "Unju Tarō" (運壽太郎), "Honmei Ishidō" (本銘石堂, "true-mark Ishidō"), "Hidari Hisahiro" (左久弘), "Honmei Kunihiro" (本銘國弘), and "Shigetomo" (重友) are listed side by side. Through this catalog, the standing of the blade-tool smiths of early-Shōwa Tokyo, as reflected in the planes they forged, can be understood very clearly from the standpoint of price.
It used to be said that a plane cost the equivalent of one day's wage of a fully qualified carpenter. For a long time I had wanted to investigate in detail how the planes forged by Chiyozuru Korehide (千代鶴是秀) and Ishidō Hideichi (石堂秀一) — men celebrated as master carpentry-tool smiths — actually differed in price from other carpentry planes, compared against the carpenter's daily wage of the time.
So, to fulfill this long-held wish, I have now written this piece, entitled "On the Comparison of Early-Shōwa Plane Prices and Carpenters' Daily Wages," based on this priced Katoriya plane catalog. Honorifics are omitted below.
On October 24 of Shōwa 4 (1929), American stock prices suddenly crashed. Yet neither the Japanese government nor the financial world imagined in the least that this would expand into a world depression.
For that reason Japan put the lifting of the gold embargo into effect in January of Shōwa 5 (1930). As a result, not only did an enormous quantity of gold flow overseas, but share prices fell sharply, the prices of rice, raw silk, and other commodities collapsed, imports and exports stagnated, and agricultural and industrial production dropped markedly. Farming villages were impoverished and the cities overflowed with the unemployed. Japan had been swallowed by the raging waves of the world depression.
In December of Shōwa 6 (1931) the government hurriedly implemented the opposite policy, re-embargoing gold exports. It further sought to stimulate the economy and raise production through a financial policy of low-interest lending and public bond issues, but Shōwa 7 and 8 (1932–33) were years of severe depression. On May 15 of Shōwa 7 (1932) the May 15 Incident, carried out by armed young naval officers, occurred; Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi (犬養毅) was assassinated, and society was in turmoil.
Although the economy somehow recovered in Shōwa 9 (1934), signs of vicious inflation were already beginning to appear at that time.
Looking at early-Shōwa prices as introduced on the Internet: in Shōwa 5 (1930), 10 kg of polished white rice cost 2 yen 30 sen, a day-laborer's wage was 1 yen 60 sen, and a block of tofu was 5 sen; the public bathhouse fee in Shōwa 7 (1932) was 7 sen. According to a Shōwa 6 (1931) household-account survey, the average monthly income of an urban working household is said to have been 86 yen. A schoolteacher's starting monthly salary in Shōwa 7 (1932) was 50 yen. Estimating from statistics given in Nakagawa Kiyoshi (中川清), "Gijutsu to toshi shakai" (技術と都市社会, Technology and Urban Society), the monthly income of a quite ordinary commoner around Shōwa 7 was probably some 60 to 70 yen.
As for the daily wage of a fully qualified carpenter in Tokyo, according to "Nedan no fūzokushi" (値段の風俗史, A Social History of Prices) published by the Asahi Shimbun, it was 3 yen 10 sen in Shōwa 3 (1928), 2 yen 80 sen in Shōwa 6 (1931), 2 yen in Shōwa 8 (1933), 1 yen 85 sen in Shōwa 10 (1935), and 2 yen 20 sen in Shōwa 12 (1937).
From the peak of 3 yen 53 sen in the boom year of Taishō 12 (1923), the carpenter's daily wage fell steadily in the depression, only beginning to rise again around Shōwa 12 (1937). In the depths of the great depression of Shōwa 7 (1932), the carpenter's daily wage is put at 2 yen. However, from various inquiries, there are also reports that it was around 1 yen 80 sen. Note that this is strictly the wage of a fully qualified carpenter in Tokyo; the wages of carpenters who were not so qualified must have been considerably lower.
According to Tsutsumi Akira (堤章), "Aizu no hamono kaji" (会津の刃物鍛冶, The Blade Smiths of Aizu), "Shigetomo" was an Aizu blade smith whose real name was Saitō Tsuyoshi (斎藤強); he was the younger brother of the first-generation "Shigetoshi" (重利), and like his brother was a pupil of the first-generation "Shigemasa" (重正). He mainly made geta-makers' blades but forged planes as well. Shigetomo died of illness in September of Shōwa 7 (1932) at the young age of 38.
Shigetomo's planes were priced at 1 yen for sun-6 (寸六, 1.6 sun ≈ 65 mm) and 1 yen 10 sen for sun-8 (寸八, 1.8 sun ≈ 70 mm).
"Kunihiro" (國弘) was a distinguished line of plane smiths continuing from the end of the Edo period, but the second-generation Kunihiro (Tanaka Kuniyoshi, 田中國吉) died in Taishō 7 (1918) at age 69. In Shōwa 7 (1932) it was the third-generation Kunihiro (Tanaka Kōji, 田中弘治) who was forging planes, so the "Honmei Kunihiro" plane was forged by the third generation.
The third-generation Kunihiro suffered the Great Kantō Earthquake in Taishō 13 [sic; the earthquake struck September Taishō 12 / 1923], moved from Botan-chō in the shitamachi to Kamiuma in Setagaya, and continued forging planes there; he died in Shōwa 20 (1945) at age 59. His son then became the fourth-generation Kunihiro and forged planes at the same place, but ceased business after a while. (Note: for details see "The Genealogy of Chiyozuru Korehide, (10): Kunihiro and Yoshihiro, founding fathers of modern carpentry-tool smithing" on this shop's home page.)
The third-generation Kunihiro's planes were 1 yen 50 sen for sun-6, 1 yen 60 sen for sun-8, and 2 yen for 2-sun (２寸 ≈ 78 mm). For a plane smith of such a distinguished house, this is a low valuation. Probably the smith's skill had declined.
According to Tsuchida Ichirō (土田一郎), "Nihon no dentō kōgu" (日本の伝統工具, Traditional Tools of Japan), "Hirosada" was esteemed as a tool smith who forged planes whose cutting matched those of Chiyozuru Korehide or Ishidō Hideichi; he was a master of whom it was said that "when Chiyozuru Korehide first saw a Hirosada plane, the precision of its fire-forging sent a chill down his spine."
This "Hirosada" was Hasegawa Sadaji (長谷川貞次), who came up to Tokyo from Sanjō in Niigata, a tool smith active in Tokyo from the Taishō era into early Shōwa. Hirosada planes were cheap and cut well, and so were very popular.
After Hirosada died, planes were forged under the "Hirosada" mark in Niigata by a different plane smith, and most "Hirosada"-marked planes circulating today appear to be by that other smith. Since Hasegawa Sadaji was still alive in Shōwa 7 (1932), the catalog planes are without doubt genuine Hirosada.
The Hirosada plane was 1 yen 70 sen for sun-6, 1 yen 80 sen for sun-8, and 2 yen 30 sen for 2-sun.
"Hidari Hisahiro," inheritor of the Edo blade-smith tradition, was in Shōwa 7 (1932) in its second generation. The second-generation Hidari Hisahiro's real name was Kashiwagi Masatarō (柏木政太郎); in the Tokyo carpentry-tool trade of the day he was highly regarded as "Hidari Hisahiro of the chisels" and forged excellent blade tools.
In particular, his making of anaya-nomi (穴屋鑿, mortising chisels used by hole-cutting carpenters) permitted no rival among chisel smiths. He also served as chairman of the Tokyo chisel-smiths' association. (Note: for details see "The Genealogy of Tokyo Chisel Smiths, (1): The Edo blade-smith lineage" on this shop's home page.)
Planes forged by the second-generation Hidari Hisahiro were 2 yen 20 sen for sun-6, 2 yen 50 sen for sun-8, and 3 yen 50 sen for 2-sun.
Regrettably, the plane listed in the catalog as "Honmei Ishidō" is not a plane by Ishidō Hideichi (石堂秀一). It is by the tenth-generation Ishidō Terihide (石堂輝秀; Kikuchi Seiichi, 菊池清一).
The ninth-generation Ishidō Hideichi lost his adopted heir "Hidesaku" (秀作) in Taishō 12 (1923) and, dejected, did no smith work at all from Taishō 14 (1925). At the end of Taishō he collapsed from a cerebral hemorrhage, was cared for at the beginning of Shōwa in the household of Chiyozuru Korehide, and left this world in Shōwa 6 (1931) at age 57. Everything passed off as the work of Ishidō Hideichi between his collapse and Kikuchi Seiichi's going independent in Shōwa 4 (1929) was in fact substitute work by his pupil Kikuchi Seiichi.
By Shōwa 7 (1932), Kikuchi Seiichi had been granted the Terihide mark and gone independent in Shōwa 4 (1929), soon becoming the tenth-generation "Ishidō Terihide," and was forging planes. He was then 37 years old. (Note: for details see "The Genealogy of Chiyozuru Korehide, (4): The ninth-generation Ishidō Hideichi and his three pupils" on this shop's home page.)
The "Honmei Ishidō" plane was 2 yen 90 sen for sun-6, 3 yen for sun-8, and 3 yen 50 sen for 2-sun.
Planes bearing the "Unju Tarō" mark were forged by Chiyozuru Tarō II (千代鶴２世太郎). Born in Meiji 40 (1907) as the eldest son of Chiyozuru Korehide, Tarō was 27 years old in Shōwa 7 (1932).
"Unju" (運壽) was a venerable hereditary mark of the distinguished Ishidō family of swordsmiths, relatives of Chiyozuru Korehide. Since the ninth-generation Ishidō Hideichi then lay ill in the Chiyozuru household, it is said that the mark was passed to Tarō partly to make plain to the carpentry-tool world his standing as kin of the master Ishidō house. Tarō began forging "Unju"-marked planes in Shōwa 5 (1930) and won a high reputation for his genius-level skill.
But after this an unexpected sorrow was to visit the Chiyozuru house. Tarō, tormented by the conflict between his study of sculpture and the smith's trade, disappeared into the crater of Mount Mihara on Izu Ōshima in January of Shōwa 8 (1933) — the year after his name appeared in the Katoriya catalog. (Note: for details see "The Genealogy of Chiyozuru Korehide, (7): The second-generation Chiyozuru Tarō" on this shop's home page.)
The "Unju Tarō" planes forged by Chiyozuru Tarō II were 5 yen for sun-6, 5 yen 50 sen for sun-8, and 7 yen for 2-sun — prices markedly higher than the other tool smiths', from which one can gauge the esteem in which Tarō was then held as a tool smith.
The "Chiyozuru Tōshirō" mark is, as everyone knows, that of planes forged by "Chiyozuru Korehide" (千代鶴是秀); apart from special commissions, he was at that time putting planes into the world under the two marks "Tōshirō" (藤四郎) and "Korehide" (是秀). Korehide remained as unprolific as ever. At this time he was 59 years old.
Around Shōwa 7 (1932) he was also forging planes together with "Chiyozuru Tarō" and looking forward with pleasure to his son's growth. (Note: for details see "The Genealogy of Chiyozuru Korehide," "Chiyozuru Korehide / The Genealogy of the Katō Family," and "Chiyozuru Korehide and Calligraphy" on this shop's home page.)
In this period the "Chiyozuru Tōshirō" mark cost 8 yen 50 sen for sun-6, 9 yen for sun-8, and 10 yen for 2-sun. Though not listed in this catalog, planes under his other mark, "Korehide," are said to have cost more than 10 yen for a sun-8 at the time.
Since this was an era when the daily wage of a carpenter reckoned fully qualified was about 2 yen — or 1 yen 80 sen — these were very expensive prices, hard indeed to afford. That is why, from early on, planes bearing the Chiyozuru mark were regarded by carpenters with envious eyes, and it was said that "a Chiyozuru is a god-shelf tool — something you display on the kamidana."
| Mark | Smith | sun-6 (65 mm) | sun-8 (70 mm) | 2-sun (78 mm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shigetomo (重友) | Saitō Tsuyoshi (斎藤強) | 1.00 | 1.10 | — |
| Honmei Kunihiro (本銘國弘) | Kunihiro III (Tanaka Kōji 田中弘治) | 1.50 | 1.60 | 2.00 |
| Hirosada (廣貞) | Hasegawa Sadaji (長谷川貞次) | 1.70 | 1.80 | 2.30 |
| Hidari Hisahiro (左久弘) | Hisahiro II (Kashiwagi Masatarō 柏木政太郎) | 2.20 | 2.50 | 3.50 |
| Honmei Ishidō (本銘石堂) | Ishidō Terihide X (Kikuchi Seiichi 菊池清一) | 2.90 | 3.00 | 3.50 |
| Unju Tarō (運壽太郎) | Chiyozuru Tarō II | 5.00 | 5.50 | 7.00 |
| Chiyozuru Tōshirō (千代鶴藤四郎) | Chiyozuru Korehide | 8.50 | 9.00 | 10.00 |
Reference: Tokyo qualified carpenter's daily wage in Shōwa 7 (1932): about 2.00 yen (some reports ~1.80).
This time, based on the priced Shōwa 7 (1932) Katoriya plane catalog, I have described and compared the standing of the plane smiths of the day from the standpoint of price differences, with reference to prices connected with ordinary early-Shōwa life: the average monthly income of ordinary urban workers, the monthly income of quite ordinary commoners, day-laborers' wages, and the carpenter's daily wage.
The catalog also lists planes of other marks besides those treated in this essay, but as it cannot be known who forged them, I omitted them.
In recent years planes and chisels bear, as a matter of course, the mark of the tool smith who forged them; but in the Tokyo of former days, when carpentry tools sold well, only a small handful of famous tool smiths could put their own mark on their work, and most tool smiths forged under marks registered by the wholesalers. Under his own smith-mark, a smith could get no wholesaler to buy, and no work came his way.
The early Shōwa period was the golden age of carpentry tools, and this tendency must have been all the stronger. Tool smiths used to call the wholesaler "o-tana" (お棚, "the shelf"). The origin of the word is said to derive from the practice whereby a wholesaler who had planes and chisels made under its registered marks would leave the raw materials on the smith's shelf (tana).
Consequently, even with a well-known old mark, if it was a wholesaler's mark it was often forged by various different tool smiths, and determining which smith made a given piece is very difficult.
At any rate, I believe we have been able to learn, from the price side, the standing of the well-known tool smiths in the early-Shōwa carpentry-tool world. Only, the ninth-generation Ishidō Hideichi — called, together with Chiyozuru Korehide, one of the twin summits of carpentry-tool smithing — had already died and does not appear in this Katoriya catalog, so his concrete valuation in price terms cannot be known. We can only judge from the fact that, while Ishidō Hideichi was active, he was rated roughly the equal of Chiyozuru Korehide.
An auspicious day, November, Heisei 22 (2010) Suzuki Kanamono-ten, Ltd. Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)
Planes bearing the Chiyozuru Unju (千代鶴運壽) mark were forged first by the second-generation Chiyozuru Tarō (２代目千代鶴太郎), and after the second generation's tragic death, for a short period, by his father Chiyozuru Korehide (千代鶴是秀). Thereafter, down to about the latter half of the Shōwa era, they continued to be forged by many plane smiths. On these plane smiths, see the detailed account in chapter 2, section 4, "On Chiyozuru Unju planes," of my book "Zoku: Nihon no daiku dōgu shokunin" (続・日本の大工道具職人, Japanese Carpentry-Tool Craftsmen, Continued).
At present there are many introductions to Chiyozuru Unju planes on the Internet, but confusion is evident in the attribution of the smiths who forged them.
In my possession are Chiyozuru Unju-marked planes forged by several different plane smiths. So this time — though the full picture has not yet been clarified — I will describe the identification methods for some of the plane smiths who, from my own investigations, are known to have forged Chiyozuru Unju planes, and thereby offer a foothold for clarifying the whole picture in the future. Honorifics are omitted below.
In my possession is a Chiyozuru Unju plane whose blade is housed in a paulownia box with an ink inscription on the lid. Shortly after the end of the Pacific War, the president of a certain wholesale house in Kanda came to our shop to sell items that had belonged to a long-established carpentry-tool shop that had gone out of business, and my father bought this plane then.
Along with the Unju plane, the items acquired at that time included a 4-sun Yoshihiro (義廣) plane stamped with a rice-paddy (田圃) stamp, and a finishing whetstone inscribed "Exhibited at the Meiji 27 [1894] Industrial Exposition — Awarded the Prize of Excellence — Selected by the Katō Mine" (明治二十七年勧業博覧会出品 優等賞授与 加藤鉱山撰出).
The workmanship of this Unju plane is superb, and it appears to have been forged by a plane smith of considerable skill. From the thinness of the blade and the thinness of the forge-welded steel it appears to be a prewar forging, but at present the maker remains unknown.
The characters inked on the lid are in a very accomplished hand and are hard to read, but the inscription reads: "Chōunsai Tsunatoshi — great-grandson — Chiyozuru Unju plane — 1 sun 8 bu" (長運斎綱俊 曾孫 千代鶴運壽鉋 一寸八分). Chōunsai Tsunatoshi (長運斎綱俊) was the celebrated swordsmith of the later Edo period who forged swords in the Bizen tradition — the first-generation Chōunsai Katō Tsunatoshi (Katō Hachirō, 加藤八郎), retained swordsmith to the Uesugi house of the Yonezawa domain.
Seen from the second-generation Chiyozuru Tarō (Katō Shintarō, 加藤新太郎), who forged the Unju planes, Tsunatoshi was his great-grandfather, and Shintarō is his great-grandson. Incidentally, to the second-generation Chōunsai Tsunatoshi (Katō Sukeichirō, 加藤助一郎), Shintarō was a grandson. On these family relationships of the Katō house, see chapter 1, section 1, "The Genealogy of Chiyozuru Korehide," in my book "Nihon no daiku dōgu shokunin" (日本の大工道具職人, Japanese Carpentry-Tool Craftsmen).
Why, then, does the box inscription say "great-grandson"? A question remains here. This box was not inscribed by Chiyozuru Korehide — one can tell as much from the calligraphy. My conjecture is that it may possibly be by Katō Yoshijirō (加藤義治郎), second son of the second-generation Chōunsai Tsunatoshi and second elder brother of Chiyozuru Korehide.
Yoshijirō trained for a time as a swordsmith under his father, but being an exceptionally accomplished calligrapher he gave up sword-smithing, took an interest in political activity, and wrote the signboards for speech meetings of Jiyūtō (Liberal Party) leaders such as Itagaki Taisuke (板垣退助), and made fair copies of regulations and rules.
I have also heard that this Yoshijirō, at one period in later years, did the box inscriptions at Wakui Shōten (湧井商店), the firm that held the registered trademark of the Chiyozuru Unju mark. My father told me the inscribed Unju plane was acquired shortly after the end of the Pacific War. Since, viewed from the first-generation Chōunsai Tsunatoshi — the grandfather Yoshijirō revered — Shintarō, who forged the Chiyozuru Unju planes, was a great-grandson, one's imagination extends to the possibility that the words "Chōunsai Tsunatoshi — great-grandson" were written by Yoshijirō himself.
Chiyozuru Korehide called his son Shintarō "Chiyozuru Tarō the Second" (２世千代鶴太郎), not "great-grandson of Chōunsai Tsunatoshi." Korehide bore deep reverence toward the master under whom he trained and by whom he was strongly influenced spiritually: the seventh-generation Unjusai Ishidō Korekazu (運壽斎石堂是一), one of the foremost swordsmiths of the closing Edo period.
According to what I was told by the late second-generation Masayoshi (正芳; Yuzawa Akio, 湯沢昭男), who knew the Tokyo plane smiths extremely well, this Chiyozuru Unju plane is the work of Yamaguchi Yoshitarō (山口由太郎). Little is known of this plane smith's career, but he appears in the Shōwa 42 (1967) membership roster of the Tokyo Plane Manufacturers' Cooperative Association; at the time he forged many wholesaler-mark planes at the Yamaguchi Plane Works (山口鉋製作所) in Okino-chō, Adachi-ku, Tokyo. His own personal mark was "Kaneharu" (兼晴). From what period he forged Chiyozuru Unju planes is unknown.
The characteristics of the Chiyozuru Unju planes forged by this smith: the blade is thick, and the face of the blade where the mark is struck is almost flat. If the thickness is not relieved at this part, the plane becomes heavy. A further characteristic lies in the form of the kaō (花押, cipher-signature) to the left of the stamp reading "Registered Trademark Chiyozuru Unju" (登録商標 千代鶴運壽), and in the rounding of the plane head.
This Chiyozuru Unju plane is the work of Ojima Kōdai (尾島功大). Of this plane smith's career, too, little is known, but according to the Shōwa 42 (1967) roster of the Tokyo Plane Manufacturers' Cooperative Association he forged many wholesaler-mark planes at the Kimei Plane-Blade Works (輝明鉋刃製作所) in Kita-Shikahama-chō, Adachi-ku, Tokyo. His own personal mark was "Shōun" (松雲).
According to what I was told by the president of a certain wholesale house, he appears to have been the man who forged Chiyozuru Unju planes before Tanaka Shōgo (田中昭吾), the last to forge them.
The characteristics of the Chiyozuru Unju planes forged by this smith: like Yamaguchi Yoshitarō's, the blade is thick, but the blade face where the mark is struck carries a shallow pattern of vertical striations, and the thickness there is slightly relieved — that is, thickness has been removed. Further, no kaō is struck, and the rounding of the plane head, compared with Yamaguchi Yoshitarō's work, is a gentler curve.
This Chiyozuru Unju plane is the work of Tanaka Shōgo (田中昭吾). He is well known as a master plane smith of Yoita (与板), Niigata, and various accounts of his career are given on the Internet.
The characteristics of the Chiyozuru Unju planes forged by Tanaka Shōgo lie in the form of the kaō to the left of the "Registered Trademark Chiyozuru Unju" stamp and in the deep vertical-striation pattern on the blade face where the mark is struck. Comparison with the vertical striations of Ojima Kōdai's work makes this clear. The kaō too, when examined closely, clearly differs from that on Yamaguchi Yoshitarō's work.
Also, while the rounding of the plane head is nearly the same as Ojima Kōdai's, the relieving of thickness on the marked blade face is somewhat deeper than Ojima's, and the blade is somewhat thinner than Ojima's.
On the Internet, Unju planes by the second-generation Chiyozuru Tarō and Unju planes identifiable as the work of other plane smiths are introduced; they are as follows.
At "Takumi no Ippin" (匠の逸品, Masterpieces of the Craftsman) of Power Tool Center Fuji Shop, an Unju plane made in Shōwa 24 (1949) by the third-generation Chiyozuru Nobukuni (３代目千代鶴延国) is introduced. On this plane, "Chiyozuru" (千代鶴) is struck inside a vertical oval beside the Unju mark.
At Pro Shop Hokuto (プロショップホクト) are introduced: an Unju plane by Kanayama Jintomi (金山盡富, died Shōwa 35 / 1960) with the character 千 (sen) struck to the left of the Unju mark; a "Minamoto Unju" (源運壽) plane by Kanayama Tetsuo (金山鉄夫); and, by the Yoita plane smith Oguma Torasaburō (小熊寅三郎), planes with the mark "㐂運壽" (Ki-Unju) and Unju planes with "Korehide" (是秀) struck inside a vertical oval to the left of the Unju mark.
Oguma Torasaburō was not a man commissioned by Wakui Shōten, holder of the Chiyozuru Unju registered trademark, to forge Unju planes. This is evident from the fact that on Oguma's Ki-Unju and Unju planes he struck a "Korehide" mark-stamp intended to suggest that Chiyozuru Korehide had forged them.
At present, the Chiyozuru Unju-marked planes most widely in circulation are those by Yamaguchi Yoshitarō, Ojima Kōdai, and Tanaka Shōgo; but since confusion has arisen in attributing the smiths who forged them, I have this time described the identification methods for these makers, and the other Unju-plane makers introduced on the Internet.
Also, since it is said that the characters written on the lids of the paulownia boxes holding Unju plane blades are hard to make out, I deciphered the characters written on the lid of the paulownia box holding the Unju plane blade in my own collection, so that it may serve as a reference in understanding the box inscriptions of other Unju planes.
Chiyozuru Unju planes have been forged, beginning with the second-generation Chiyozuru Tarō, by many plane smiths down to the present; but those whose maker can be clearly established are limited to the plane smiths introduced above, and of the other plane smiths almost nothing is known — that is the present state of things. Even asking those connected with the trade, the generations have already changed and nothing can be learned.
By publishing this essay I hope to advance the discovery of the other, as yet unknown, makers who forged Chiyozuru Unju planes and of their works, and the clarification of the full picture — the periods during which each maker forged.
An auspicious day, December, Heisei 26 (2014) Suzuki Kanamono-ten, Ltd. Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)
In part of the hardware trade dealing in carpentry tools, a story had long been handed down: "For a short period just after the end of the war, a young swordsmith forged planes to make a living; they cut marvellously well; and afterwards the young swordsmith won prize after prize for his Japanese swords and became a famous smith." These planes were sold as planes of the "Chiyomasa" (千代正) mark at the carpentry-tool and blade wholesaler Morihei Co., Ltd. ((株)森平) of Asakusabashi, Taitō-ku, Tokyo.
However, as to who this "Chiyomasa" was and where he came from; from whom he learned the technique of forging planes (for even a swordsmith cannot easily forge a plane); and until when he forged planes — none of this was known, and for many years he was known as "the mystery plane smith."
Then a certain swordsmith who had become a Living National Treasure (人間国宝) looked back, in Heisei 16 (2004), over his sixty-odd years of life as a swordsmith and published a book — which I happened upon by chance at my local library — and through it this "mystery plane smith" was unexpectedly revealed in detail. Drawing on that book, I shall now clarify the mysteries listed above.
Honorifics are omitted in what follows.
In August of Shōwa 20 (1945), with Japan's defeat, the occupying General Headquarters (GHQ) deemed the Japanese sword a weapon: not only was the production of Japanese swords prohibited, but — excepting sword blades of historical or artistic value — by one account as many as 2,500,000 swords and blades were destroyed in Japan alone.
Sword production resumed as an institution only eight years later, with the enforcement in September of Shōwa 28 (1953) of the Regulations for Approval of the Manufacture of Art Swords. For the Japanese sword this interval was truly an era of misfortune; for the swordsmiths, an era of hardship.
In this period, one young swordsmith struck the mark "Chiyomasa" (千代正) and forged planes. The young swordsmith was in his early twenties. The planes cut well and their reputation was high; they traded at several times the price of an ordinary plane.
This young swordsmith was the man who, after resuming the production of Japanese swords, would go on — amid numerous prizes — to receive the highest honor, the Masamune Prize (正宗賞), three times; to make a sacred treasure tachi for the Ise Shrine shikinen sengū (periodic rebuilding) and the dohyō-iri tachi for the new yokozuna Kitanoumi; to become chairman of the board of the Zen-Nihon Tōshōkai (All-Japan Swordsmith Association) in Heisei 2 (1990); and in Heisei 9 (1997) to be designated a Holder of Important Intangible Cultural Property — that is, a Living National Treasure: Amata Akitsugu (天田昭次).
Amata Akitsugu (real name: Amata Seiichi, 天田誠一) was born in Shōwa 2 (1927) in Honda-mura, Kita-Kanbara-gun, Niigata Prefecture (now Shibata City), the eldest son of Amata Sadayoshi (天田貞吉; born Meiji 33 / 1900, died Shōwa 12 / 1937), who worked there as a blade smith and later became a sword smith. In Shōwa 15 (1940) Akitsugu went up to Tokyo and entered the Nihontō Tanren Denshūjo (日本刀鍛練伝習所, Japanese Sword Forging Institute; director: Kurihara Hikosaburō Akihide, 栗原彦三郎昭秀).
But with the prohibition of sword production at the defeat, he was stunned at the loss of a swordsmith's future, and in Shōwa 21 (1946) he returned home. Back home, Amata was taught how to make farm tools, for his livelihood, by Imai Sadaroku (今井貞六), a pupil of his father who had turned from swords to farm-tool smithing immediately after the war; for a while he worked as a farm-tool smith. Then Nagashima Munenori (長島宗則; born Meiji 42 / 1909) — a swordsmith who after the war made carpentry tools and other blades and was called a master blade smith — urged him to take up plane-making; Amata commuted to Nagashima's workshop in Niigata City and was taught all the essential points of plane-making. Nagashima, who thus became young Amata's teacher in plane-making, was a man who had received the mark "Akimaro" (昭麿) from the swordsmith Kurihara Hikosaburō Akihide — Amata's own teacher in sword-smithing.
Further, in order to have his steel examined with microscope and hardness tester — as Iwasaki Kōsuke (岩崎航介), a first-term student of the Nihontō Tanren Denshūjo, constantly advocated — he commuted to the Sanjō Metalworking Testing Institute (三条金工試験所) and had every plane he forged tested. Blades that had passed through this process were placed one by one in paulownia boxes, and he delivered some fifteen to twenty at a time to the wholesaler.
Around Shōwa 25 (1950), when his plane-making had begun to find its stride, he encountered the work of Chiyozuru Korehide, and wishing very much to meet him once and hear him speak, he consulted Iwasaki Kōsuke. Iwasaki asked the sculptor Asakura Fumio (朝倉文夫) to introduce Amata to Korehide, and Amata visited Korehide's house in Nakameguro, bringing planes with him. At this time Korehide was 75 and Amata 23.
When Amata said, "I would like you to teach me about planes," Korehide brought out a small box and had Amata open it. Inside was a plane shaving more than ten meters long, taken with a 3-sun-wide finishing plane, and Korehide explained: "This was drawn one-handed by a carpenter who works at the Imperial Household Agency." At these words Amata received so intense a shock that everything he had planned in advance to ask vanished completely from his head.
From Korehide he heard nothing at all of the technical side of plane-making, but Amata perceived that Korehide was admonishing him: "Make your tools by putting yourself in the place of the one who uses them."
In May of Shōwa 27 (1952), the Ministry of International Trade and Industry authorized the production of 300 Japanese swords, for the purpose of presenting swords, with gratitude, to the high officials at home and abroad who had contributed to the conclusion of the San Francisco Peace Treaty (concluded September Shōwa 26 / 1951; in force April Shōwa 27 / 1952). Amata, who had left sword-making and was living entirely by plane-making, was also called upon, and undertook to make two tachi. In the same year he also served as assistant to the swordsmith Miyairi Shōhei (宮入昭平) in the making of sacred-treasure tachi for the Ise Shrine shikinen sengū; and so Amata gradually came to devote himself to Japanese-sword production and drifted away from plane-making.
Amata's plane-making lasted only a few years, around Shōwa 25 (1950); but within the history of plane-making it remains a brilliant episode — the planes of the "Chiyomasa" mark forged in his youth by a future Living National Treasure. As Amata himself has said of Chiyozuru Korehide, whom he met only once, and of Nagashima Munenori, who transmitted plane-making to him — "they taught me the importance of the fundamental stance toward one's work" — plane-making exerted a great influence on the Amata of later years.
I had heard, quite some time ago, that a swordsmith who was a Living National Treasure had made planes for a time after the war; but who he was, under what circumstances, from whom he learned plane-making, and until when he made them — almost nothing was known.
Recently, however, when I went to my local library to borrow a book, I stopped by the Japanese-sword shelves to look up an Ichimonji-school swordsmith, and idly taking a book from the shelf I saw in its table of contents the words "My one and only meeting with Chiyozuru Korehide" — so without checking the contents closely I borrowed it along with the others. That book was "Tetsu to Nihontō" (鉄と日本刀, Iron and the Japanese Sword; publisher: Keiyūsha 慶友社), written by the swordsmith Amata Akitsugu, who had become a Living National Treasure.
When I got home and read the book carefully, I was astonished. Amata was "the Living National Treasure who had forged planes." Since he wrote that he had delivered planes under the "Chiyomasa" mark to a wholesaler in Asakusabashi, I thought it must be Morihei Co., Ltd., telephoned to confirm, and found there was no mistake.
I also checked how much had been written on the Internet about "Chiyomasa"-marked planes: there was just a single item, and only a few lines at that — it was almost entirely unknown.
Judging this worth carrying in the "History of Tools" section of our shop's home page, I promptly wrote this manuscript, "The Plane Forged by a Living National Treasure," drawing on Amata's "Tetsu to Nihontō."
It is a great pleasure to have been able to clarify a plane smith who had until now been a mystery, to set it out in detail on our home page, and so to leave a record for later generations.
An auspicious day, August, Heisei 21 (2009) Suzuki Kanamono-ten, Ltd. Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)
At present, at the foot of Yatsugatake on the Yamanashi side, in Takane-chō, Hokuto City, there is a swordsmith who forges Japanese swords, knives, kiridashi kogatana (切り出し小刀, marking/utility knives), kitchen knives, and other forged blades: Katō Kiyoshi (加藤清志), whose swordsmith mark is "Katō Kanekuni" (加藤兼国). Counting from his grandfather's generation — his grandfather was also a swordsmith — Mr. Katō is the third generation. Except on Japanese swords and blades forged from tamahagane, Mr. Katō does not cut his swordsmith mark "Katō Kanekuni" into his works, but rather the mark "Yoshiaki" (良明), which has come down from his grandfather's generation.
In the Shōwa 50s (late 1970s–early 1980s), when Mr. Katō's forge was in Himonya, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, he and I were active together in the "Jōnan Nanokakai Youth Division" (城南七日会青年部), of which I was then director, and we became close friends. The "Jōnan Nanokakai" was the trade-fair association of the Jōnan branch of the Tokyo Saw Dealers' Association (東京鋸商工組合), organized from hardware retail shops in Setagaya, Shibuya, Meguro, Ōta, and Shinagawa wards.
Among the youth division's events, we asked Mr. Katō to lecture on steel; and together with Mr. Katō and others we visited the Ishidō Terihide Plane Works (石堂輝秀鉋製作所) in Ebisu and heard many things from Mr. Terihide, who was then still living.
In Heisei 12 (2000) Mr. Katō moved his forge from Himonya, Meguro-ku, to Takane-chō, Hokuto City; as a swordsmith formally certified by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, he has fused the philosophy of the Japanese sword with the Western knife, and in this field he is today an internationally very famous master.
In Shōwa 55 (1980) I had Mr. Katō's father, Mr. Katō Masahira (加藤真平; the author glosses the reading "Masahira"), forge for me a polished kiridashi cut with the inscription "Shōwa kōshin year [1980], second month — made by Suishinshi Fujiwara Yoshiaki of Musashi Province" (昭和庚申年二月日 武蔵国水心子藤原良明作), and an ayu-shaped kiridashi cut "Shōwa kōshin year, third month — made by Fujiwara Yoshiaki" (昭和庚申年三月日 藤原良明作).
Recently, kiridashi works of the "Yoshiaki" mark forged by the second-generation Mr. Katō Masahira have come to be widely recognized and highly valued among carpentry-tool enthusiasts, and to be introduced on the Internet. I would therefore like to present photographs of the kiridashi in our shop's collection, and set out the genealogy of the distinguished blade-smith family "Katō Yoshiaki" across its three generations. This is at the same time the genealogy of the distinguished swordsmith family "Katō Kanekuni."
This manuscript draws on what I heard in detail from Mr. Katō Kiyoshi, on "Zoku Dōgu Mandara" (続道具曼陀羅, Tool Mandala, Continued; Shōwa 53 / 1978), and on home pages concerning swords. Honorifics are omitted below.
The Katō family was of samurai stock until the Edo period, and became sword smiths in the Meiji era. The first-generation "Katō Yoshiaki," whose real name was Katō Ginzō (加藤銀蔵), was born in Tokyo in Meiji 11 (1878). He trained under the second-generation Horii Taneaki (堀井胤明), who carried on the kotō Bizen tradition, received the mark "Yoshiaki" (良明), went independent, and forged swords at Himonya in Meguro, Tokyo. The Horii family under whom the first-generation Yoshiaki trained was a distinguished swordsmith lineage from Ōmi — Taikei Naotane (大慶直胤) — Horii Tanekichi (堀井胤吉) — Horii Taneaki (堀井胤明) — Horii Toshihide (堀井俊秀) — which served for generations as swordsmiths by appointment to the Imperial Household Ministry.
The first-generation Yoshiaki's two elder brothers also trained under Horii Taneaki. The eldest brother took the smith name "Katō Sanekuni" (加藤真国; Katō Heizō, 加藤平蔵) and forged swords at Nakameguro; among his pupils was the army-commissioned swordsmith Tomita Sukehiro (富田祐弘). "Sanekuni" later became a trowel smith and grew famous as "the Kanesada of Nakameguro" (中目黒の兼定). The second brother bore the smith name "Katō Sukekuni" (加藤祐国), lived near Yūtenji in Meguro, and on forged blades other than Japanese swords cut the mark "Masamori" (正盛).
The first-generation Yoshiaki (Katō Ginzō) used the mark "Katō Kanekuni" (加藤兼国) when forging Japanese swords, but on all other forged blades he cut the mark "Yoshiaki." He died in Shōwa 20 (1945) at age 68.
The second-generation "Katō Yoshiaki," real name Katō Masahira (加藤真平), was born in Taishō 4 (1915) as the third son of the first-generation Yoshiaki. His two elder brothers did not succeed their father; they did not become swordsmiths but took other paths. It was the third son, Katō Masahira, who succeeded. Masahira studied under Horii Taneaki, under his father "Katō Kanekuni," and under his uncle "Katō Sanekuni," and received numerous prizes. On sword-related home pages on the Internet there is introduced, as a hozon tōken (certified "sword worthy of preservation") of the Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai (Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords), a Japanese sword forged in Shōwa 17 (1942) inscribed "Forged by Kanekuni and Masahira" (兼国真平鍛造之) — a joint work of father and son.
As second-generation "Yoshiaki," Masahira used as swordsmith names his real name "Katō Masahira" and "Katō Chōzaemon Masahira" (加藤長左衛門真平); when forging kitchen knives, kiridashi, hatchets, and other blades in materials other than tamahagane, he cut not his formal name "Masahira" but the mark "Yoshiaki." And the finer the work, the more characters the mark contained — ranging from simply "Yoshiaki" (良明) up to "Suishinshi Fujiwara Yoshiaki of Musashi Province" (武蔵国水心子藤原良明).
Among the second-generation Yoshiaki's works there is a creative kogatana modeled on bamboo, considered especially outstanding. Muramatsu Teijirō (村松貞次郎), professor at the University of Tokyo, praised it in "Zoku Dōgu Mandara": it is "the product of a tool smith's craft and ease of spirit," "somehow aristocratic," and further: "This is indeed light and elegant — truly to the literati taste. Is it the current of a distinguished house, or should one call it the high pride of the swordsmith?"
The second-generation Yoshiaki retired in Heisei 12 (2000) and lived out his natural span, dying in Heisei 20 (2008) at age 92.
The third-generation "Katō Yoshiaki" is the second generation's eldest son, Katō Kiyoshi (加藤清志). Born in Shōwa 19 (1944), he is now 66. He trained under his father and bears as his formal name the swordsmith mark of his grandfather, the first-generation Yoshiaki: "Kanekuni" (兼国). He entered sword training at age 20, and while forging Japanese swords as a swordsmith alongside his father at Himonya, he also forged kitchen knives, kiridashi kogatana, hatchets, yari-ganna (槍鉋, spear planes), and other forged blades. From time to time he also forged blades commissioned by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Like his father, the third-generation Yoshiaki cuts, on works not of tamahagane, not his formal swordsmith mark "Kanekuni" but the blade-smith mark "Yoshiaki"; and the finer the work, the more characters the mark contains.
In Shōwa 52 (1977) the third-generation Yoshiaki was introduced to Damascus steel (note 1) by his acquaintance Inoue Takeshi (井上武), which awakened his interest in the world of the Western knife, and he set about making them. This was because Damascus steel, produced by forge-welding and folding, resembled the production process of the Japanese sword forged from refined tamahagane. At the same time he took up the making of custom knives by the stock-and-removal method (note 2).
(Note 1) This steel was made at Wootz in India, and because it was used at Damascus in Syria for swords and the like, it came to be called Damascus steel in the West. It is a steel with a wood-grain-like pattern conveying a mysterious sense of life, and possesses great toughness. No two grain patterns are ever the same.
(Note 2) A method of carving a knife out of thick steel plate to finish its form; most custom-knife makers produce by this method.
And while receiving numerous prizes, including awards of excellence, for his forging of Japanese swords, he opened up a new field — fusing the spirit of the Japanese sword, cultivated in Japan since antiquity, with the Western knife — produced many excellent works, and became an internationally famous master of the Western knife.
In Heisei 12 (2000) he moved the Katō forge from Himonya, Meguro-ku, to Takane-chō, Hokuto City, Yamanashi Prefecture; at present he forges Japanese swords, Western knives, and all kinds of forged blades as the third-generation swordsmith of the "Katō Kanekuni" mark and the third-generation blade smith of the "Katō Yoshiaki" mark.
The occasion for this essay was seeing, introduced on the Internet, a kiridashi kogatana by the second-generation "Katō Yoshiaki," Mr. Katō Masahira. Since our shop owns kiridashi kogatana forged by this second generation, I resolved to write about the blade smith of the second-generation "Yoshiaki" mark, Mr. Katō Masahira; after reading "Zoku [Daiku] Dōgu Mandara" and researching on the Internet, I telephoned Mr. Katō Kiyoshi at his home in Takane-chō and asked him about many things.
As stated in the introduction, Mr. Katō Kiyoshi and I had been active together in the Jōnan Nanokakai Youth Division and were on close terms, so he spoke with me most willingly. But when I had gathered the materials and actually began to write, I realized that no satisfactory account could be given of Mr. Katō Masahira as blade smith alone without writing at the same time about the "Katō Kanekuni" family as swordsmiths, and the original conception expanded.
So after researching the swordsmith "Katō Kanekuni" on the Internet, I telephoned Mr. Katō Kiyoshi once more and was able to hear in detail the genealogy of the Katō family as swordsmiths across three generations. I express my deep gratitude for Mr. Katō Kiyoshi's kindness on both occasions.
Thus I was able to complete this manuscript under the title "Genealogy of the Blade-Smith Katō Yoshiaki Family," setting it out together with the history of the swordsmith "Katō Kanekuni" family.
Since carpentry-tool smiths and the blade smith "Yoshiaki" meet in the kiridashi kogatana as a class of work, I shall carry this manuscript in the "History of Tools" section of our shop's home page and preserve it as a record.
An auspicious day, December, Heisei 22 (2010) Suzuki Kanamono-ten, Ltd. Representative Director, Suzuki Toshiaki (鈴木俊昭)