page_title: Tansu
section_title: Types of hardware
hierarchical_section_title: Tansu / Types of hardware
caption_attribution_description: English: A Sendai-dansu from the Meiji period. Made in Sendai, Japan. Made from Keyaki, zelkova wood and lined with Sugi, cedar wood. Note the elaborate ironwork, handles for carrying on the side, and lockable compartment. Original use would be for storing Kimono, clothing.Attribution: Kraig Donald 日本語: 仙台箪笥（せんだい だんす）　- ケヤキ製で 明治時代に作られた伝統的な高級箪笥
context_page_description: Tansu is the traditional mobile storage cabinetry indigenous to Japan. Tansu was first recorded in the Genroku era of the Edo period. The two characters, tan and su, appear to have initially represented objects with separate functions: the storage of food and the carrying of firewood. Since the radical for bamboo appears in each of these characters, it may be conjectured that wood was not as yet used.
  During the time period in which tansu gradually became a feature of Japanese culture and daily life, 1657–1923, both hard and softwoods were used by tansuyas, often in practical combination for a single chest. Woods commonly used in tansu included keyaki, kuri, ezo matsu, sugi, kiri and hinoki.
  Many collectors focus on finding genuine antique tansu. There are few workshops producing tansu in imitation of the classic antiques due to the high cost of materials and the very low prices of secondhand tansu. Larger chests are sometimes reduced in size, particularly futon chests, step chests and other chests with deep drawers. Some reproduction tansu have been reproduced in Korea using keyaki veneer.
context_section_description: Although decorative to the contemporary eye, conditioned by exposure to the refined furniture traditions of China, Britain and Europe, tansu hardware remained largely functional through the Meiji period. Because the joinery of cases was simple and thus flexible to facilitate structural integrity during movement from place to place, hardware placement at vulnerable points was consistent with the need for reliability. Until the introduction of iron plate pressing from England in the 1880s, all iron for hardware was forged. With the introduction of western technology, tansu hardware can now be easily made more decorative with creative embellishments besides being functional.
  Herikanagu: Edge hardware, lining the edges and corners of a tansu.
  Obikanagu: "Sash hardware" which spans a face of the tansu, such as the top, or the face of a cabinet door.
  Sumikanagu: Drawer or drawer-corner hardware, appearing at the corners of drawer faces. Generally these match their associated edge hardware.
  Mochiokuri: A carrying handle, generally a loop appearing on the side near the top.
  Sao-toshi: A different type of carrying loop, usually sliding, which was designed to hold a pole when used with its mate on the other side.
  Meita: Lock jamb plate
  Sashikomijo: Sliding-door lock
  Bo: Vertical locking bar
  Hikite: Drawer pull
  Zagane: An "escutcheon", or flange, surrounding the contact point of a drawer pull.
  Toshi-zagane: Back plate for a drawer pull
  Choban: Hinge
  Kasugai: Staple affixing hardware to the wood
  Omotejo: A single-action lock using a split spring for activation. For unlocking only.
  Urajo: A double-action lock mechanism of foreign origin dating from the 1860s.
caption: Sendai-dansu for kimono, zelkova wood, note the elaborate ironwork, handles on side for transportation, and lockable compartment
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