Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(50)
Sake
-brewing.
In the 1660s a craftsman more often than not ran an independent business, working
to orders from his clients and occupying what time he had to spare in making articles for
stock, against a possible purchaser. It was very seldom that he made a fortune, or even
amassed any capital to enable him to develop his business.
In the castle-towns, prices were strictly controlled—swords were paid for according to
length, not for their quality or their decoration—and, in any case, by all accounts, debts
were not easy to collect when warriors owed them. Money payments could be only part
of the reward for labor. The wandering craftsman who set up his workshop in a village
would have most of the materials provided for him from local resources, and the board and
lodging he received would go a long way towards paying for his work.
Perhaps the most affluent craftsmen were those who worked for the Shogun and the
daimyō,
and those connected with the building trade, the “five crafts” of the carpenter,
plasterer, stonemason (
51
)
,
sawyer, and roofer. The sawyer cut the timbers the carpenter
needed, the plasterer covered the solid walls, the roofer used thatch, shingles, or tiles, the
stonemason was concerned with the platform on which the building stood, or the stones on
which pillars were erected, and also with stone lanterns and basins and burial monuments.
The carpenter was in charge of the whole building operation, and performed the same sort
of function as the building contractor in Britain: his services were in constant demand in
towns (where population tended always to increase), even when there were no natural dis-
asters, but especially after a fire or earthquake, when wide areas had to be reconstructed.
Such disasters afforded opportunities for young craftsmen just out of apprenticeship; they
hadonlytodemonstratetheirskilltobetakenonatagoodwage.Fortunesweresometimes
founded at these times of crisis by selling a local supply of wood at highly inflated prices,
or by cornering the market.
