Art of Japanese Hand tools

While I will choose to focus on memes, I will occasionally post about art and some of my passions and day ago day life such as bars, restaurants and so forth as the very spice of life is variety, much like diversifying your income ;-)

Amongst my many curiosities lies one of my passions and businesses in life. Wood working tools, particularly Japanese wood working tools otherwise known as "J-Tools". The tool that I have presented is a Japanese hand plane, otherwise known as a "Kanna". It was forged by what was one of Japan's best smiths that ever lived and existed, Yokoyama Kunio. Yokoyama also happened to forge the sharpest kanna ever made cutting at 2 micron thin which is thinner than paper and absolutely see through! And unlike their most of western counterparts, these tools are genuinely "handmade" and unlike western tools, these are genuinely laminated with very very fine sheets of metal. This smith in particular makes it hard to see the lamination lines (which is a good thing!) because he forges so well and laminates the steel incredibly fine!

However, there is a depressing aspect of it. Yokoyama had retired at age 91/92 due to lung illness. Amongst this, he was amongst the last to forge in the traditional manner of charcoal and water (retains higher carbon content, very expensive and very difficult to perform correctly) which has been given up for gas forges which result in a lower quality and non traditional tool. To make matters worse, he was the last person to traditionally forge 2 incredibly difficult steels correctly: Togo Reigou, & Togo Inukubi. This amounts to his skill, that and creating the sharpest tool that ever existed? There was no heir, so the art in fact died along with him, and comes to show that art and tradition like all things come to an end. With the traditional method falling out of favor due to difficulty, cost, and unwillingness to learn correctly, I wonder when things will come to an end due to the conveniences of power tools which can't replicate the look, the feel and the shimmer/shine these tools leave.

All photos, and items belong to me and are available for sale.