Sanjo Industry

  In the spring of 1892, 18 year old Iwasaki Matazoh accompanied his father to Aomori for a peddling trip. After business was completed, Matazoh heard of a master scissor blacksmith in Kisakata town of Akita prefecture and paid a visit. The scissors crafted by the master blacksmith had the words "Morimichi" inscribed in it and Matazoh from them to be delightfully magnificent. Matazoh purchased as many as possible and asked a local Sanjo blacksmith "Higuchi Shirohei" to reproduce the same product. Matazoh carefully described the Kisakata towns blacksmiths situation, his smith forging, how the form of the scissor was made, the amount of material used, how the blade was sharpened, how the spring was created, how mixed metals were forged together, how the U-bend was made to Higuchi Shirohei in hope to recreate the nigiri-basami. Matazoh also took part with the assistance in recreation the nigiri-basami

  The two spent their time concentrating on producing very sharp nigiri-basamis, and along the way Shirohei worked out his own method of creating the scissors U-bend at the waist of the scissor. In time, Sanjo was finally able to produce similar "Morimichi" scissors. Sanjo's "Morimichi" style scissors were highly regarded for a number of years, and by 1897 different local blacksmiths produced newly-devised Japanese scissors and called it "Morimichi" scissors. Since then, various styles of scissors have been introduced to Sanjo from Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo prefecture. Eventhough Sanjo's traditional Japanese scissor manufacturing history is still quite young, Sanjo's scissors are now considered to be very competitive with the rest. Due to the hardships of Sanjo's scissor making pioneering blacksmiths, there are now a number of master scissor blacksmiths in Sanjo.

*Note: The records of "Morimichi" scissors in Iwasaki Matazoh's inventory, are most likely trial pieces made by a pioneering blacksmith. (Sanjo City Museum)