567 Tools and Products, a Registered Tangible Folk Cultural Property since 2021
Tomono Blacksmith Tools and Products (鞆の鍛冶用具及び製品) are held at 536-1 Tomo-cho, Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture: tools used in forging ship fittings and the things made with them, entered on the register of tangible folk cultural properties on 11 March 2021. They are registered rather than designated.
The quantity is 567 items. The owner is Fukuyama City.
The Agency describes them as tools used for forging ship fittings and other goods, and their products, at Tomo, a port long known as a harbour where ships waited for the tide.
The Tools of Making and the Things Made, Together
Not only the tools survive, but what they made as well.
The name joins smithing tools and products with the word and.
The Agency records that the tools form a complete set, used until the middle of the Showa period to make the anchors and ship nails that were the town's chief products.
The representative products, it continues, are anchors and ship nails. The tools that made them and the anchors and nails themselves are held as one property.
The Rumoi herring-fishing gear gathers tools used in fishing: tools on the side of use.
Here the maker's tools and the maker's goods are held together. The smith's work, from beginning to end, lies within one property.
Ship Nails Named for Where They Go
Nails of one kind bear different names by use.
The Agency records ship nails of many sizes and kinds, such as stitching nails, through nails, covering nails and bent nails, differing by their use in building wooden ships.
Where the nail is driven in a wooden hull decides its shape and size. Each has a name.
The anchors, too, include four-armed anchors and two-armed Chinese-style anchors: they differ by the number of arms.
At Obaraya Harada Shoten, the storehouses are named for what they held, oil and salt.
Here the nails are named for where they are driven. The name shows the use.
Tools Worked by Master and Apprentice Together
Behind the tools, the record sets down a way of working.
The Agency records that among the smiths of Tomo a household apprenticeship system continued from the early modern period into the early Showa years, with master and apprentice forging together, and that this collection gathers many of the hand tools of that time.
In such a system an apprentice learns the craft while working in the master's household.
The tools include bellows to feed air to the forge, anvils, tongs and hammers for gripping and striking the iron, and files and scrapers for finishing, in many sizes for each use.
Moulds for fishing-net sinkers and tines for a kind of hoe are gathered as well, showing, the record says, a range of making beyond ship fittings. The smiths of a harbour town made tools for fishing and fields too.
At Aogaki, the parts of a performance are set by the performers' ages. Here the tools were used within the bond of master and apprentice.
Visiting
The collection is held at 536-1 Tomo-cho, Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture, owned by the city.
The quantity is 567 items, made up of 193 smithing tools and 374 products. Folk properties are counted by item rather than by building.
The national Japan Heritage portal reports that this is the first registered tangible folk cultural property in the prefecture.
The Agency records that products of many kinds made up to the middle of the Showa period are gathered comprehensively: a body of handwork from before mechanisation.
The collection is owned by the city, so display and access follow the owner's arrangements. Check before travelling.
Q&A
- When was it registered?
- On 11 March 2021, as a registered tangible folk cultural property. It is registered rather than designated, and the quantity is 567 items.
- What was made?
- Chiefly anchors and ship nails, with moulds for net sinkers and tines for hoes also among the collection.
- What kinds of ship nails are there?
- Stitching nails, through nails, covering nails, bent nails and others, of many sizes, differing by their use in building wooden ships.
- What tools are included?
- Bellows for the forge, anvils, tongs and hammers, files and scrapers, in many sizes for each use.
- Who used these tools?
- Masters and apprentices forging together under a household apprenticeship system that lasted into the early Showa years.
Basic Information
| Name | Tomono Blacksmith Tools and Products (鞆の鍛冶用具及び製品) |
|---|---|
| Location | 536-1 Tomo-cho, Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered tangible folk cultural property; registered rather than designated; entered as folk material rather than as a building |
| Year Designated | 2021 (11 March), registered |
| Quantity | 567 items: 193 smithing tools and 374 products |
| Dimensions | Sizes vary by item and no overall measurement is recorded. The tools include bellows, anvils, tongs, hammers, files and scrapers; the products include four-armed and two-armed anchors and stitching, through, covering and bent nails. All were made and used up to the middle of the Showa period |
| Owner | Fukuyama City |
| Public Access | Owned by the city; display and access follow the owner's arrangements |
References
- Cultural Heritage Online: the Tomo smithing tools and products
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/517437
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan Heritage portal: the registration
- https://japan-heritage.bunka.go.jp/ja/news/1596/
- Tomonoura Museum of History and Folklore, Fukuyama
- https://tomo-rekimin.org/
Last verified: 2026.09.22