Japan's Keys, Locks & Locksmith Craft

About this book

The only English guide that takes the key and the lock themselves as its whole subject. Two hundred entries read Japan's locks and keys the way their makers and keepers do — the thing itself first, then its work, its making and its keeping: the bolt, the latch, the shackle and the cylinder; the forged shrimp lock and the storehouse's iron calligraphy; the blank wall, the cutting machine, the registered key and the security card; the kagiya and jōmaeya, the midnight call-out, the identity check and the 2003 Act that fences unlocking tools; the entrance, the crescent, the mailbox and the moving-day cylinder change; padlocks, wires, chains and the city bicycle's horseshoe; dimple keys, smart locks, biometrics and the battery that is the new rust; and the keeper's census, etiquette and ceremonies of the key.

Every entry follows one uniform four-field structure, so the two-hundredth lock is as easy to interrogate as the first. One contract governs the volume: it describes no opening or bypass technique of any kind, because in Japan that knowledge is a licensed trust. The book asserts no shop's current prices, hours or event dates, and no antique's value or provenance; every entry closes by pointing to the official source for current details. Customs are reported as customs. The buildings the locks guard belong to their own volumes; this is the book of the locks.