An Attempt To Clarify Some Commonly Used Terms ...

[docliss]

The term shiiremono is clearly defined in Tsuba: an Aesthetic Study as follows: '"ready-made article."  When applied to tsuba this term applies to ready-made or mass produced work of the late Edō age, but may also be applied to mass production pieces of earlier ages.  Much SHIIREMONO was made to be sold to foreigners.'

 

But the terms iebori and machibori are much more confusing.  My own interpretation of these two words has always been '(lit. "family  carving" or "house carving"): sword-fittings makers   under the patronage of the shōgunate or of a daimyō'; and '(lit. "street carvers" or "town carvers"): sword-fittings makers who worked from studios in the towns, and were thus unprotected from normal trade pressures' respectively.

 

Nihon Tō Kōza confuses the issue by a completely different definition of the latter two terms, although he appears to agree with the first.  Thus iebori become '... refers to Gotō artisans and their works'; and machibori  '... kinkō other than members of the Gotō lines'.

 

Clearly, machibori can also be shiiremono, and vice versa.  But what are the correct interpretations of these three, commonly used terms?

 

John L.

[Guido]

Shiiremono are mass produced pieces of all ages - most often used for swords made during the Sengoku Jidai.

 

Iebori is indeed used for mainline Gotō work; sometimes Hirata and Yoshioka Inaba no Suke are included in iebori since they also worked directly for the shōgun.

 

Machibori are kinkō other than iebori during the Edo period.

[cabowen]

仕入れ物 shiiremono is defined as "goods from stock" or as "出来合いの品; 既製品"- "ready made goods".

 

Perhaps there should be a distinction made between items from stock/ready made items, and those which are "mass produced".  As far as swordsmiths are concerned, and I see no reason why it would differ for kinko, smiths often have blades available which were not made to fill a specific order or blades on hand from cancelled orders, kageuchi, etc.- inventory, if you will. These are generally not second class blades, simply "off the rack", so to speak. It isn't fitting to call these works "mass produced" with the obvious inference that they are inferior.

[Ford Hallam]

It makes even less sense to refer to kinko work as 'mass produced' given that we know essentially nothing at all about Edo period workshop practice. And what, in the context of Edo period technology, does it mean anyway?

[cabowen]

As far as swords are concerned, "mass produced" generally refers to work done in an assembly line like style with one or more people doing one step, another group of people doing the next, and so on, such that any one item is in fact the work of many. Additionally, the quality of materials is usually lower and there are also usually short cuts taken to speed the process and lessen the skill involved.