[Vanished Jobs in Daily Life: Between Family History and Local History] The Story of the 'Rau-ya' (Pipe Repairer) Job That Lasted Until the Showa Era

[Vanished Jobs in Daily Life: Between Family History and Local History] The Story of the 'Rau-ya' (Pipe Repairer) Job That Lasted Until the Showa Era

The story of the job known as 'Rau-ya' that survived until the Showa era

Are you familiar with the name of the 'kiseru' (Japanese pipe)?
It is a tool for smoking tobacco that was mainly used during the Edo period. The mouthpiece, the fire bowl, and the bowl head were made of metal, and the part connecting them, called the 'rau,' was mainly made of bamboo. While it seems some were made entirely of metal, generally, the rau part was made of bamboo.

Since it was made of bamboo, it naturally wore out. It required regular replacement and maintenance. The person who specialized in this work was called a 'Rau-ya'.

I knew this much as a matter of general knowledge.
However, I had never before read such a detailed description of the specific work involved.

Yet, I found a truly vivid description in a certain book.

According to it—

'When a kiseru was handed to the Rau-ya, he would look at it, and if he thought cleaning alone was sufficient, he would first pass steam through it. Next, he would insert a thick wire with a spiral tip from the mouthpiece. When the tip reached the bowl head, he would insert a thick piece of twisted paper and rotate the wire. Once the tip of the paper was caught in the spiral, he would pull the wire out while rotating it. The process of cleaning a kiseru involved pulling out the paper covered in thick, sticky tar. And for those he deemed beyond repair, he would remove the bowl head and mouthpiece, clean the inside, and attach a new piece of bamboo.'

I know of no other description that explains this work, which must have been quite common in the Edo period, in such concrete detail.

I checked online just to be sure, but I could hardly find any text that explained the method of cleaning a kiseru in such detail.
Considering that, I think this description is a rather valuable record.

Now, as for where this text can be found, it is included in Shichihei Yamamoto's 'Showa Tokyo Monogatari 1'.

One tends to think of kiseru and Rau-ya as things from the Edo period, but in reality, they existed until the early Showa era.
Shichihei Yamamoto himself writes as follows:

'Even among the generation born in the first decade of the Showa era, almost no one knows about it. We are likely the last generation to know that such a thing as a Rau-ya existed.'

In other words, a daily job from the Edo period was barely preserved within the pages of a Showa-era text.

Reading this description, I was strangely moved.
Much of what we call 'the past' was, until just one or two generations ago, certainly a part of someone's daily life.

It is precisely because of things like this that I believe when researching the past for family history, one needs to delve into as many different fields as possible.
Not just history books, but also essays, memoirs, magazine articles, and old oral histories.
Because you never know where an unexpected clue might be left behind.

I myself feel I must strive to learn more trivia, but
I believe those who intend to research their family history need to gather knowledge even more broadly.

Admittedly, there are many who might say, 'I'm not good at that kind of thing.'
In such cases, please leave it to me.

Since we are on the subject, I will continue a little more about the Rau-ya.

Wikipedia contains the following description regarding the cleaning of kiseru pipes.

"Use a thin object, such as a pipe cleaner or a twisted piece of paper, to pass through the stem and remove the tar. If the entire pipe is made of metal, soaking it in lukewarm water will soften the residue, making it easier to clean."

So, pipes made entirely of metal were cleaned by soaking them in lukewarm water.
It is said that the flavor of the tobacco changes depending on the length of the stem, so perhaps the flavor also changed subtly depending on how it was cleaned.

Furthermore, there is this description regarding the history of the Rau-ya.

"By 1964, there were only four such shops left in Tokyo. In 2007, an exhibition titled 'The History of Shredded Tobacco: Demonstrations and Exhibits / The Story of the Tokyo Rau-ya' was held, where the tools of Mr. Tomeshiro Nakajima, the 'last Rau-ya in Tokyo,' were displayed. Currently, those tools are held in the museum's collection."

1964 was the year of the Tokyo Olympics, right in the midst of the period of rapid economic growth.
Thinking that this family business continued quietly until such a time fills me with a deep sense of emotion.

Both the people who smoke kiseru and the Rau-ya themselves have now almost entirely disappeared.
However, in this way, through these words, that handiwork continues to live on.

It made me realize once again that history is not just made up of years and events,
but is a accumulation of these nameless jobs, movements of the hands, and habits of daily life.
The act of reading a text
might be a way of gently touching someone's life across time.

That is what I found myself thinking about, prompted by the story of the Rau-ya.