Holiday Review #19: NEIGHBORHOOD CRAFTSMEN - STORIES FROM KANDA'S GOKURA-CHOU

 Now this is more of what I was looking for!  This is the sort of hyper-focused historical story that you could only ever get from manga (even if it's almost certain to never top the sales charts).

NEIGHBORHOOD CRAFTSMEN: STORIES FROM KANDA'S GOKURA-CHOU (Kanda Gokura-cho Shokunin-Banashi), by Akihito Sakaue.  First published in 2020 and first published in North America in 2025.

PLOT:

Centuries ago, back when Tokyo was still Edo, everyday craftspeople worked diligently on their wares.  It didn't matter if it was something as humble as a wooden tub or a plaster wall or as prestigious as a samurai's sword - they all understood the properties of the materials they worked with and the value of their skills, and their role in the everyday functions of the city.

STORY:

If you are the kind of person who loved it whenever Kaoru Mori draws a giant, elaborate spread of someone performing some everyday chore or making some beautiful handiwork, you will love Neighborhood Craftsmen.  It's basically a short story anthology, it's just that the stories in question are just as much about the process as they are about the people performing them.

The one thing that unites them is the fact that they all take place within the Kanda area of Edo, in the fictional neighborhood of Gokura-chou.  Most of the professions featured are quite humble: a cooper, a dyer, a tatami weaver, a team of plasterers.  The only one with any sort of real prestige is the swordsmith, and even then most of the prestige goes to their samurai clients instead of them.  Something I found interesting was that most of the craftsmen featured here are actually women.  Furthermore, in most cases these craftsmen are actually craftswomen and in most cases nobody blinks an eye at them holding these roles.  The closest thing to an exception is "The Plasterer," a three-part story of the forewoman of a team of plasterers who deals with some misogyny from an insolent member.  Even then, it's only a minor part of a larger story.

Most of these chapters focus on the actual production of the craftspeople's wares, couching it within a smaller, self-contained narrative.  For example, the tatami-maker is tasked with repairing and replacing mats at a busy brothel while avoiding notice by both staff and customers.  The cooper dishes out blunt advice to her customers as she builds and repairs new buckets for her seemingly endless stream of customers.  The swordsmith grapples with the guilt of knowing one of her swords was used by a samurai to murder a child.  Sometimes there is explanatory narration of their processes, but often it plays out in contemplative silence as you watch them work.  I think I prefer the latter, as it keeps the reader's focus more on the craftsperson and the attention they put even into the mundane details of their work, but your mood may vary.

I think I also prefer when the stories are shorter.  The brevity of the early chapters keeps the pace brisk and the focus on the craft itself.  "The Plasterers" is definitely the most ambitious of the lot with multiple subplots going on between the forewoman, the various members of her team, a ronin plasterer with inventive new methods and a pace of his own, all of going on as they try to complete a merchant's multi-story storehouse on time and to their client's satisfaction.  It just feels like the actual craft gets a little lost in all the human drama going on around it, even if the human drama itself is well-written.  I suspect this is only an issue for me, though.

ART:

Such a realistic subject matter necessitates a realistic art style and Akihito Sakaue is more than up to the task.  The character designs lean heavily towards naturalistic looks and movement, with the only concession otherwise being the slightly larger, wider eyes on the women.  Great care and research has clearly been put into all the historical details: the clothing, the hairstyle, the technology, the buildings, and so on.  There's also a lot of effort put into hatching to simulate naturalistic lighting and to further sell these characters as (literally) three-dimensional people.  The paneling and presentation is incredibly basic, but that's OK because it works well with the methodical pace and paneling of the craft and the low-key drama going on around it.

RATING:

Neighborhood Craftsmen might be something of a niche product onto itself, but at a time when the notion of real people making real crafts feels more scarce than ever it's nice to read a work that reminds us of the hard work and personalities that go into helping our everyday worlds function, then and now.

This manga is published by Yen Press.  This series is ongoing in Japan with 1 volume available.  1 volume has been released and is currently in print.

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