This article considers the difference in the timing of importation of Nail-rods and Wire nails in modern Japan. The following points become clear.

Looking at nail making trends in world history, the end of the early modern period was the end of forged nails by nail-rod, and the dawn of Wire nail manufacturing. In addition, after the opening of the country, when Nail-rod was brought to Japan, Japanese iron wholesalers actively moved to purchase Nail-rod. These are the reasons why Nail-rod was widely introduced in Japan ahead of Wire nail.

　The author has examined the fact that Japanese nails and Western nails were used together in the latter half of the Meiji era, and the price transition of Western nails during the Meiji era. For the import and price of Western nails at the end of the early modern period, the import and price of Western nails in 1864 can be confirmed using the European newspaper published in Japan. The earliest imports into the country during this period were "Nail-rod", the material for Japanese nails called nail paddles. Then, from the mid-10's to the mid-20's of the Meiji era, "Yotetsu Wakugi" were manufactured by Nail-rod, and in the early 10's of the Meiji era, this production expanded and the price was reduced. In late 10's of the Meiji era, it was shown that the import of Western nails increased sharply, and the combination period in which both Japanese nails and Western nails were used was reached. In addition, Western nails called “maru kugi” have been confirmed to be imported from the early Meiji era at the latest, and the price fluctuations of Wire Nail imported throughout the Meiji era have already been clarified, but the country of importing Western nails to Japan, the transition of the port of unloading, and various problems related to these are not clear. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to clarify the current state of nail imports in Europe and the United States after middle of the Meiji era by using "Dai-nihon gaikoku boeki nempyo" and "Gaikoku boeki gairan", which indicate the actual state of trade in Japan after this era.

　Based on the statistical data after 1883, the country where Japan initially imported the most iron nails was the United Kingdom, Germany after 1887, and the United States after 1897. Immediately after World War I, imports from Germany ceased, but they revived after 1921, after which imports from the United States and Germany accounted for the majority. Quality was one of the reasons for the change of importing countries, but price reduction was the main factor. However, in terms of imports from the United States, transportation from the west coast served as an advantage for imports to Japan in terms of delivery dates. Yokohama Port accounted for about half of the total unloading of iron nail imports. The changes in the amount of iron nails imported were well correlated with Yokohama Port and Kobe Port. However, it can be considered that the decrease in imports in Kobe after the Taisho era is due to the direct unloading to Osaka Port and the production of iron nails in the Kansai region. From 1902 to 1908, Yasuda Kogyo imported more than half of the iron nails in the Kanto area, which affected the price of iron nails at that time.

This article considered the domestic production and consumption of nails in the prewar period after the middle of the Meiji era. The following points will be clarified.

The consumption of nails in modern times can be calculated by adding the import amount to the domestic production of nails and subtracting the export amount from this. Domestic consumption, which was 107,000 barrels in 1884, has been increasing and decreasing since then, reaching 2.522 million barrels in 1940, the peak of the prewar period. This is 23.6 times the consumption in 1884.

　This article considers the reexported / exported countries of iron nails and the reexported / exported iron nails in the prewar period. The following points will be clarified.

　Reexported iron nails could be confirmed continuously from 1883 to 1911, and then intermittently carried out until 1931, mainly in neighboring countries. The amount of reexports is generally 10,000 barrels or less per year, and re-exported products were slightly more expensive than imported products. Iron nails were exported from at least 1921 throughout the prewar period, and from 1932 to 1939, over 100,000 barrels were exported worldwide.

　This article considered the export of nails from the middle of the Meiji era to the prewar period. The following points have been clarified.

　In the middle of the Meiji era, Japan had already exported nails. The breakdown was the export of Japanese nails, the re-export of nail iron and Western nails, which were the raw materials for Japanese nails.

After 1921, the export of domestic western nails could be confirmed, and after 1932, the export volume of domestic western nails increased sharply and the re-export of western nails stopped.

　This article considers the re-export port and export port of iron nails and the production of exported iron nails from the middle of the Meiji era to before World War II. The following points have been clarified.

　Since 1914, the majority of iron nails have been exported from Osaka Port, and during the period from 1928 to 1938, 87.6% of the total was exported from Osaka. Yasuda's production was only a few percent for export, and Kishimoto's production was about 40%. The rest was carried out by small and medium-sized nail makers in Osaka and Hyogo.

This article examined the changes in the value of Japanese nails from the end of the Edo period to 1879, and compared them with the value of nails in the building specifications in the Dajokan Kobunroku. This article also compared the value of Japanese nails and Western nails. The following points become clear.

The value of Japanese nails declined after 1864 due to the importation of nail-rods. Comparing the value of Japanese nails in 1864 with that of Western nails of the same dimensions, the value of Western nails recorded a minimum of 1/26th in 1927 and 1936.

In “Kugi”, it was noted that there was the nail with multiple actual dimensions for one nominal length of Japanese nail. According to Honto (estimation date) in 1803, the actual size of “hira-kugi” was about 90% of the nominal length. In addition, the actual length of “kashiramaki-kugi rui” was about 80% of the nominal length. Furthermore, the actual length of “kenchiku-you-kugi” was about 30 to 40% of the nominal length. In fact, it is not clear whether such a nominal length was used in “kenchiku-you-kugi”. And it is not clear in the past how nails that actual dimensions were about 90% or 80% were used together with “kenchiku-you-kugi”. The purpose of this article is to clarify how the actual size of Japanese nails, which is different from the nominal length, was distributed and established. The following points are clarified.

The example of adding letters such as “dai” in front of the nominal length of the nail is from ancient times in “Kenchiku-daijiten”, but the actual example is from the end of the 16th century. In the distribution of nails from ancient times, the “ren-kugi” that could be seen from the Heian period to the early Edo period were not seen after the middle Edo period. Until the early Edo period, the “ren-kugi” was used for nails of less than 3 sun, but since the middle of the Edo period, the description by the nominal length has come to be seen even for nails of less than 3 sun. In early modern times in Japan, there were nails with a nominal length of 90%, 80%, and 30 to 40% of the actual length for one nominal length. As you can see, the price of nails is widely distributed, and some price ranges were shown. The nails, which account for 30 to 40% of the actual length, have the same size system as “ren-kugi” used until the early Edo period, and it is considered that the nominal length was addressed to them. As a result, one nominal length has a plurality of actual size nails coexisting, and the actual price has shown a wide range. In addition, even after the middle of the Edo period, the numeral “wa” used in “ren-kugi” was used in part in the distribution of nails. Although “ren-kugi” was also used for nails of more than 3 sun, there were also cases in which one bundle was uniformly set to 100, not based on the idea of “ren-kugi”.

From the above consideration, it became clear that it’s difficult to immediately know the actual dimensions of the nominal length nails described in the literature since the middle of the Edo period. This is because there were at least three types of real-length nails for one nominal length in this era. Therefore, in order to know the actual length with respect to the nominal length, it is necessary to make a comprehensive judgment in consideration of where the nail is used and the price at the same time. By the way, after the Meiji Restoration, Western nails flowed into Japan. Since Western nails were distributed by using the numerical value in which the dimension based on the actual dimension was replaced with shaku-sun, the relationship between the nominal length and the actual dimension in Japanese nails was also corrected.