History
In the late Edo Period (1603-1868), a travelling craftsman from Sendai in northern Japan introduced the manufacturing of tsuiki (hammer cast) copperware to Tsubame. In 1816 Tamagawa Kakubei founded Gyokusendō in Tsubame in Niigata Prefecture. Tamagawa was one of the few who successfully mastered this difficult process. Supporting the development of tsuiki copperware in Tsubame was the fact that raw materials were easily obtained, as fine coppers were produced in the nearby village of Yahiko.