Traditional craft
Banshu Miki Uchihamono
播州三木打刃物
Forged saws, chisels, planes and knives from Miki in Hyogo, a town whose carpentry tools grew from rebuilding after a siege.
Key facts
- Officially recognised
- 8 April 1996
- Type
- Metalwork
- Region
- Kansai
- Official name in Japanese
- 播州三木打刃物
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 三木市
Tools for builders
Miki makes saws, nomi chisels, kanna planes and small kogatana knives. Japanese iron forging has been handed down here since the Edo period, and new techniques in the Meiji era added many more kinds of blade. Some makers now forge special chisels for carving Buddhist statues and ranma transoms. It is made in Miki in Hyogo.
Welded, clayed, straightened
- For chisels, planes and knives, iron and carbon steel are heated in the forge and hammered together.
- The blade is shaped by reheating, coating with clay and hammering.
- For saws and trowels, straightening out every warp is where Miki craftsmen show their greatest skill.
Rebuilt after a siege
At the end of the Azuchi-Momoyama period, Miki Castle fell to Hashiba Hideyoshi and the town was destroyed. To rebuild it, Hideyoshi exempted the townspeople from taxes, and carpenters came from many places to rebuild the shrines, temples and houses. Their needs drove the growth of Miki's carpentry tools. Local tradition traces smithing here back some 1,500 years.
Good to know
- If you carve wood, ask about chisels made for carving work.
- Pack blades and saws in checked luggage, never in your carry-on.
Questions travellers ask
Why is Miki a tool town?
Carpenters gathered to rebuild Miki after its castle fell to Hideyoshi, and tool making grew to serve them.
What does Miki make?
Saws, chisels, planes and small knives.
Where it comes from
More crafts from the same area
Local foods from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
- Ako: the town that made Japan's finest salt
- Awaji: the first island in Japan's creation myth
- Inaba and Tajima: landscapes made by the Sea of Japan wind
- Itami and Nada: the birthplace of Japan's clear sake
- Kitamaebune: the merchant ships that made Japan's port towns rich
- Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage: Japan's 1,300-year journey of the heart
- Tamba-Sasayama: a castle town in a folk song
- The Kanmon Strait: retro ports on both shores
- The Silver Carriage Road: 73 km to Hyogo's mines
- The Six Ancient Kilns: pottery born and raised in Japan
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.