Sanjo Industry

  "Kanaduchi" and "gennoh"'s are mostly considered to be the same tool, but there are a select few whom consider large "kanaduchi"s to be "gennoh"s. There is one legend for the etymology of the word "gennoh". It is said that a long time ago, in the region of Nasunogahara of Tochigi prefecture, there was a cursed stone and mysterious phenomenons would take place in the area. A monk named Gennoh Osho heard about this cursed stone and was able to split the stone into pieces with a hammer and exorcise the evil spirits. Hence, the name "gennoh" is given to the depict a Japanese hammer. There is also reports of how the character of Gennoh Osho is actually an arrowmaker whom lived in the village of Yahiko which is near Sanjo.

  It is unknown when hammers were introduced and started production in Sanjo. But similar to other metal tools, we can assume that such tools were brought back to Sanjo by Sanjo metal goods merchants from their travels and had local Sanjo blacksmiths copy the tool. But compared with other carpentry tools, specialed hammersmiths were slow in the making, whereas there were many specialised blacksmiths for other tools.

  In 1922, there were less than a handful of hammersmiths and the production of hammers did not gain momentum until the end of the 1920. At the time, the materials used to make hammers were from discarded iron boats, the iron was forged into shape, steel was forged onto the hammer face and finished with a file.

  Over time, hammer making techniques improved and steel "gennoh"s began to appear in the Sanjo market. From hand held hammers, belt-hammers and drop-hammers, and air-hammers were imported into various factories and production for hammers incresed more than ever. According to a recent survey, there are close to 70 kinds of hammers in production at the moment.