The Sickle Maker

6 Dec 2007 Category: Craftwork, Japan, Tradition

The Sickle Maker

In the olden days, everyone used a sickle to cut grass. However, it is an unfamiliar object for most people these days. For farmers, the sickle was an essential item. Each sickle had its own feel and way of cutting. The Furuma area of Nagano is home to a unique method of metalsmithing. Let’s take a look at a blacksmith who retains the old “samurai spirit” in his work.

Interviewed by Takafumi Suzuki
Translated by Claire Tanaka

Bladesmithing for fifty-five years

Why did you become a blacksmith?

I’ve been doing this since I graduated Junior High School, since I was fifteen. My father was a blacksmith, so I just followed in his footsteps. I was born in Furuma, and I work in Furuma. It’s going on about 55 years now. At first, I couldn’t do it too well. My father, and I’m not saying this because he was my old man, but as a craftsman. I say it as a fellow blacksmith. He was so good. And fast. As for me, the first ones I made, they all got scrapped. I finally got so I could hammer well after about three years.

What is the most difficult part about making a sickle?

First of all, there are a lot of little steps. There are a bunch of processes you have to go through. That’s why I think I’ve been able to continue to do this work for so long without getting tired of it. It’s hard to remember everything. You have to do it for a long time before you’re able to do everything well. I think that’s what made me feel like, “Let’s give it a try!”

Sickle blades that effortlessly pull in the grass

What are the origins of the Nagano blade-smithing tradition?

During the Battle of Kawanakajima, Uesugi Kenshin passed through Furuma. At that time, a blacksmith who was traveling with the campaign settled here. Now there’s a popular TV drama all about that period called “Furin Kazan”. It all happened 450 years ago now. That’s how Furuma got to be known as a blade-smithing town.

What are the special features of the Furuma-gama sickle?

These days there are also soba-cutting knives and cleavers which are made by old-fashioned blade-smithing techniques. The Furuma-gama that I make is also known as a Shinshu-gama. It’s heavy but it cuts well. When you cut the grass, it feels like the grass is being pulled towards you. Other sickles just pull the grass out of the ground. I imagine that it took people a long time to come up with the current design. But they are expensive compared to other sickles. As for a special feature, the blade part is quite thin, and it’s perfectly straight, like a string has been strung across it.

A huge selection of tools, each with its own slightly different use

How is the Furuma-gama different from sickles made in other areas?

The fact that one craftsman does everything from start to finish to make one blade, that’s what’s different from sickles made in other regions. Ground steel, adding the fine steel, shaping, polishing, finishing, there are so many steps. If I didn’t like it, I couldn’t do it. It’s all done by hand, too. The way we do the forging is different than in other regions. Here, we only hammer when it’s red-hot. By doing that, the quality of the steel is totally different. It gets stronger. Making the shape of the sickle by this method is the most difficult part. But if you go to other regions, they pound the steel into a plate, then they cut out the shape they want with a press. I suppose it’s a lot easier to get the shape you want by that method. But some people say only a Shinshu-gama will do. If there was no demand for my method I wouldn’t do it. But there are people out there who want it, so I guess I can’t quit now.

What time do you usually start work every day?

I usually start at about 5am. I work until about noon and then take a three hour nap. Then I work until about 8pm. I can take my time these days, but back in the old days you had to be good, and you had to be fast. There was no time to complain. All you could do was work. Even on my days off, I can’t relax if I’m not working, so I end up going to work anyway.

Bladesmithing techniques from 450 years ago live on in the Furuma-gama

Wow, from five in the morning! It must be really tough in the winter.

Winters are really cold here. It goes to about fifteen below zero. The workshop gets buried in snow. You think you want to take a little peek out the window and you can’t. It’s all blocked up with snow. Every, every year, the snow builds up and it’s hard to maintain the roads. So, you have to leave an hour earlier in the morning in winter. You’ve got to clean up the snow and clear the way so your car can get out. Then the workshop is really cold too. You’d think that since it’s a forge that it’d be warm, but it’s not. The furnace puts out so much carbon dioxide, the air in here is really bad, and it’s really hard to put up with having the windows closed. But in winter, the windows are all blocked up, the air is bad, it’s cold, and customers that I’ve asked to come in can’t stand it and go home before too long. My body is used to it now, so I can handle the fumes.

How many forges are there in Furuma now?

The number of forges around here has really fallen. Now there are about twenty or so, I suppose. People doing it around this area. In the old days, there were about 200 forges. It was like the whole neighborhood was nothing but blacksmiths. Furuma was a really well-to-do town back then. That road there, it used to have a lot of shops along it. People used to come all the way from Nagano City to do their shopping here.


Loud clanging rings through the workshop

Mr. Yamazaki works in solitude

What is the reason for the decline in the number of forges?

The biggest reason is the government’s policy to reduce cultivated land that was introduced back in the mid-1960s. The number of farmers really dropped because of that. So the need for scythes also dropped. Everyone changed what they did for a living. Why didn’t I change my job too? This is the only thing I know how to do. Now, this is a pretty hard business to be in, I suppose. Lately, steel has gotten more expensive too. China is buying it all up. The steel manufacturers, they’d rather sell a massive quantity of poor-quality steel for a high price than sell a tiny bit of the good stuff to people like me. At my peak, I made 30 blades per day. Now it’s less than half that.

It seems like quite a tough situation. Do you have any hopes and wishes at this point?

My wish would be that a lot of people who want to learn the trade would come talk to the distributors. Nowadays we have herbicides and lawnmowers, but the Furuma-gama cuts well, and there is no decline in numbers of people who want to buy them.

Mr. Yamazaki’s workshop. His life’s work is contained here

Shinshu-blade-co-op
Tomino, Shinano-machi, Kamiminochigun,

Yamazaki Toshitaka
Born in Furuma, Nagano Prefecture in 1937. Graduated Furuma Junior High. Blacksmith since third grade of Junior High. Hobby: Gardening.

13 Comments

  1. If only we could have Yamazaki Toshitaka here in Scotland! We’ve been searching for a durable, well-crafted sickle to cut our grass because anything else just doesn’t work. But few people use them these days so you can’t get them anywhere. Perhaps a trip to Japan is in order…

    Posted by: Rachel DuBois on January 7th, 2008 at 5:02 am

  2. your sicle design is fully used in davao mindanao phil.and i used to forge manualy since we immigrate from cebu and farmer enjoy using it now we can make by thousand pcs. a month using the medium carbon steel from different leafspring of japanese car we tempered scientificaly.

    Posted by: demetrio s. saban on July 25th, 2009 at 5:00 pm

  3. These are some serious looking knives!

    Posted by: Xacto Cutting Knives on April 28th, 2010 at 5:06 am

  4. Turbine Eoliche

    Posted by: energie rinnovabili on June 17th, 2011 at 2:59 pm

  5. Nice Website! You should promote it from the messaging console at QuickSendSMS.com. Easy to use, nice and quick and you can text friends about it for free.

    Posted by: QuickSendSMS on June 17th, 2011 at 3:15 pm

  6. Here we go now with that talk about doing the right work-out, the right way. Does it really matter?

    Posted by: weightlifting routines on June 20th, 2011 at 12:54 am

  7. The importance of breathing, without it……

    Posted by: health and harmony on June 22nd, 2011 at 2:56 am

  8. Thanks for the information about this topic.

    Posted by: Contact Strategy Marketing on July 7th, 2011 at 6:51 am

  9. süper site

    Posted by: goruntulu sohbet on July 25th, 2011 at 11:53 pm

  10. Hi, I like your website. I’m currently looking for golf supplies in the UK & USA.

    Posted by: golf supplies on August 24th, 2011 at 5:00 am

  11. Very Nice! makes me remind the coloured performance of the early pink floyd!

    Posted by: christian louboutin on November 10th, 2011 at 10:44 am

  12. Good Article …. Excellent !!!! visit automotive :-bd

    Posted by: Information Automotive on November 12th, 2011 at 3:30 am

  13. Безплатни обяви в Facebook, сайт за обяви вестник за обяви добави обяви, София, Пловдив, Варна.

    Posted by: Безплатни обяви on January 13th, 2012 at 6:34 pm

  • Share and Enjoy:
  • del.icio.us
  • Fark
  • NewsVine
  • RawSugar
  • Reddit
  • YahooMyWeb
  • digg
Previously on PingMag MAKE