Masons at Nakiri (Nakiri, Daio-cho, Shima City)
　
A big fundamental reconstruction of Nakiri Fishery Harbor was conducted once. That created many maisons in Nakiri, who attained a high level skill through the construction. They went to work all over Japan. Finally the masons at Nakiri became well known in Japan. (65-year-old woman, Daio-cho)

The Stone is Andesite from Yonago Beach

Yokichi Hayashi, the first mason at Nakiri, was said to be Father of masons at Nakiri. He worked on the stonewalls of Daiji-ji Temple. Daiji-ji Temple suffered from a fire in 1857. The stone wall was built when they reconstructed the main building of the temple in 1860. So, more than 140 years have passed since this stonewall was built.

Those stones are andesite and came from Yonago beach close to Nakiri. The abundance of stone materials might have helped produce masons at Nakiri.


Unique soft appearance

Each stone was laid with no space between them and the surface of all the stones were made round.

The round surface gives the unique soft appearance to the whole.

In the photo, one stone projects forward from the wall. What do you think it is? This stone makes people feel an artificial sense of fun. It might aim to create a kind of broken harmony on the much too "perfectly harmonized" wall.




Granites in "feathers of an arrow" pattern at Nakiri Fishery Harbor

The masons at Nakiri also worked for the quay of Nakiri Fishery Harbor. They did it during the fundamental reconstruction of the harbor from 1918 to 1928. The material was changed to granite and the stacking pattern of stones was also changed to the "feathers of an arrow" pattern. This stacking pattern is practical and still applicable to the present day.

Masons at Nakiri had been increasing after Yokichi started working as a mason. In Meiji-era, there were only about 30 masons. However, not only for the fundamental reconstruction of the harbor but also for building new harbors and river works all over Japan, the number of masons at Nakiri rapidly increased and it is said that there were 300-500 masons at the beginning of Showa-era.
Working places for masons also were spread all over Japan and they worked in more than 30 prefectures at their peak.

However, they were decreasing little by little from Showa 50's with changing times. Now, there are no young successors. (RM : "History of Daio-cho")