week 1: History

The technique of "Karakuri" is thought to have had possibilities to come since the age of a beginning of interchange with Mainland China and the Korean Peninsula. South-pointing chariot told to have given to the Emperor Tenji it in the seventh century written down in the Chronicle of Japan is Japan and is the record of the work of the oldest mechanism. When people made it after nine years, there is it. South-pointing chariot means " a car directs the south", and the hermit who put it together to a thing of a wheel when a car comes back through the direction, and stands on a car changes a direction, and hands of the hermit image always point to the south. With the thing which comes out to three will, in the case of a fight, it is used for the direction confirmation on the day when fog is dark.

It is the Muromachi era afterwards finished festival car works and that a room mechanism was born. The Western advanced technology was conveyed in those days when European medieval culture was brought by a Portuguese ship. The machanical clock is one. The clock which automatically informs time exactly will be what was invited to with surprise serious then. These have a big influence on a Japanese craftsman technology. However, in those days’ Karakuri was only some noble.In the times of the peace of mind called Edo era, and the mechanism develops development by a humorous idea and maneuver with the best of the Edo craftsman.

When technology of the Karakuri-clock had adopted in a Ningyo-joururi (it means puppet ballad drama), and Oumi Takeda who was machine horologer of genius comes to stage it in each place around Osaka, in a festival car mechanism handled till then by manipulating the wires, spring power and a gear are taken in and change into force and a thing with the activeness. In addition, it was an event to let the consciousness of people greatly undergo a complete change that the doll which automatically worked was born. The float mechanism that was an Oriental technique and the encounter of the Western machine clock brought about a new Japanese technique.

In the times when various technical books had begun to be published, the book called "Karakuri-zui(it means blueprint)" which is written down a principle and a figure of the movement of this mechanism making came to be published. This is the first trial that a craftsman technology initiated in absolute secrecy was available to the public till then. Karakuri causes the interest of many people from the samurai family to a merchant, and, with it, a new works technology is born in each place.

Karakuri-doll is gathered most advanced technologies of Edo. It is made of a spring, mercury, sand for power. And gravity is managed well to control movement. In addition, disassembly and assembly is done again and again freely without using a metal screw and nail. Production needs not only knowledge but also delicate technics, so transmission from father to son was difficult, and a craftsman has been cut off. It is rare that a then thing is left, and the thing that mechanism is not broken even if it almost exist. That is why it is called "the doll of the illusion". (551words)