Craftsmanship - a fascintating snippet stumbled upon

Shokunin

Shokunin is a Japanese word for "artisan" or "craftsman", which also implies a pride in one's own work. In the words of shokunin Tashio Odate:

Shokunin means not only having technical skill, but also implies an attitude and social consciousness... a social obligation to work his best for the general welfare of the people, [an] obligation both material and spiritual.^[3]

Traditionally, shokunin honoured their tools of trade at New Year's - the sharpened and taken-care of tools would be placed in a tokonoma (a container or box still found in Japanese houses and shops), and two rice cakes and a tangerine (on top of rice paper) were placed on top of each toolbox, to honour the tools and express gratitude for performing their task.^[3]

^{I think I might have to have one of those ceremonies in the shed next New Year. Maybe two cans of beer and a ripe mango will substitute for rice cakes and a tangerine?}

Forget the mango just replace it with another beer !

Ian.

I really like the shokunin idea- think many of us abide by it.

I've been to known pray (after a fashion) before tricky workshop jobs, although this is somewhat outnumbered by blaspheming after completion!

Edited By Matthew Reed on 02/07/2017 15:11:02

LOL yes I know the feeling on that last one!

Yes I think maybe model engineering is one of the last holdouts of the "shokunin" idea, in the West at least. When I first read the piece it immediately made me think of those flawlessly exotic Honda Four motorbikes that hit the market in the late 1960s, compared with their oil-leaking, wheezing, clattering competition. There is a reason Honda got to where it is today and I think shokunin is probably no small part of it.

To bad we don't see much of it locally in the 21st century, outside the esoteric enclaves such as model engineering and similar hobby pursuits. It seems to be long gone in the workplace.

Well given Hopper's praise for Honda (of old), it is a pity they cannot produce a half decent F1 engine now.

Ah, well, perhaps "shokunin" has today gone the same way in the east as it has in the west?

Who gives a monkey about F1 engines. Honda come top of the list for production car reliability with an engine failure rate in 2013 of 1 in 365. Audi failed miserably in the same year with a failure rate of 1 in 27 and the likes of Mercedes and BMW didn't do too much better.

I was not talking about ordinary cars and certainly was not thinking about the so called premium ranges.