Blacksmithing

At No. 1 Lo Ren Street, Hoan Kiem Ward, Hanoi today stands the Lo Ren communal house. In the early 19th century, this area was the land of Tan Khai village, Thuan My canton, Tho Xuong district; further back, in the 16th century, it was an expanded part of the old quarter of Thang Long under the Le dynasty. The Lo Ren communal house was built by villagers who practiced blacksmithing to worship the patron of iron forging.

According to legend, in the Hung Vuong era, in the Red River Delta there was a man of the Lo family named Cao Son, intelligent and handsome, skilled in martial arts and fond of handicrafts. Knowing that the Thuc people were skilled in iron forging, he found his way there to learn the secret techniques of that craft; on returning home he further improved them so that the craft was not inferior to theirs, and then taught everyone. The country of Nam had the blacksmithing craft because of him, so after he died, blacksmiths honored him as their founding master.

In the history of Thang Long's development, the growth of the “36 streets and guilds” played an important role in economic development. As in the book Kien Van Tieu Luc, Le Quy Don wrote: "When the Ly dynasty first established the capital at Thang Long, people from the four directions flocked there, gathered, and traded..." Specific historical developments show that after the reforms of King Le Thanh Tong (1460–1497), in the 16th and 17th centuries the country's economy made great and sustainable progress, especially the commodity economy. Particularly notable was the additional formation and development of handicraft villages. At that time, Thang Long had become an attractive center, causing many large migrations that brought artisans from craft villages to practice their trades in the streets and guilds of Ke Cho. Along with some indigenous handicrafts of Thang Long, such as weaving in Nghi Tam, papermaking in Yen Hoa and Yen Thai... many handicrafts from surrounding areas also moved in, creating the “thirty-six streets and guilds.” Most artisans of the various trades who came to Thang Long concentrated in the eastern area of the capital, for example: the peach-dyeing trade from Dan Loan, Hai Duong; embroidery from Quat Dong, Thuong Tin; goldsmithing from Dinh Cong, Thanh Tri and from Dong Xam, Thai Binh; leather and shoes from Truc Lam, Van Lam, Hai Duong; woodturning from Nhi Khe; and iron forging from Hoe Thi, Tu Liem and Da Hoi, Dong Anh...

The iron-forging trade that moved into Thang Long consisted of two main groups; a fairly large group came to settle in the Tan Khai–Tan Lap area, while the other group went to the area near the South Gate, later Sinh Tu Street. Many years later, as blacksmithing prospered and expanded, some smiths went to Kim Ma, Hang Bot, O Cau Den... A number of blacksmiths from Hoe Thi came to Tan Khai–Tan Lap to settle and practice their trade; later some smiths from other villages such as Da Si and Da Hoi also came here, giving the Tan Khai–Tan Lap area a typical image of forge bellows and main products displayed in large numbers in front of houses. Thus, in the early 19th century, Hang Bua Street appeared. By the late 19th century, the French expanded the streets, so iron materials were very common, and along the whole street every house had a forge bellows puffing away. From that came the name Lo Ren Street. At its most developed, blacksmiths from Nam Dinh and Thanh Hoa also came to settle on Lo Ren Street; nearly a hundred forge bellows were in operation, more than half of them forges of people of Hoe Thi origin. And then, like many other craft villages and guild wards, the people of the forging ward together built a common communal house to worship the patron of the trade and the first founders who brought the blacksmithing trade to Thang Long to settle.

Previously, the products of blacksmiths on Lo Ren and in some other places included ploughshares, harrows, hoes, sickles, harvesting knives, edge-cutting knives, scissors... meeting the needs of the capital's residents and people from the provinces who came to Hanoi to buy. Gradually, as social demand developed for many iron goods, blacksmiths always adapted and continuously improved designs, quality, and techniques. In the early 20th century, Lo Ren blacksmiths in Hanoi produced bolts to order for the construction of the Hanoi–Yunnan and Hanoi–Saigon railways. Then all ironwork for the construction of offices and large public cultural works, such as ornamental iron doors, fences, gates, hinges... was made by Hanoi blacksmiths. And many tool products made by Hanoi blacksmiths were very beautiful and durable, such as drills, pliers, hammers, punches, chisels... During the period of the August Revolution of 1945, Blacksmiths' Guild was established at the Lo Ren communal house. During the resistance war against the French colonialists, the forge bellows still kept fires, the smiths still made essential tools for people's daily life, and also forged items serving the resistance, including rudimentary weapons such as bayonets and swords to supply the army and guerrillas. By 1954, at the Lo Ren communal house there was a solemn ceremony to establish Blacksmiths' Federation. All activities of the workers Blacksmiths' Federation were organized at the communal house.

After the liberation of the capital and up to today, products of Hanoi's handicraft blacksmithing have always met the market demand in Hanoi and some neighboring areas. In the pace of modern technical development, many households on Lo Ren Street today still preserve the traditional craft. On a section of Lo Ren Street only 128 meters long, a small street, there are as many as 20 house numbers that are forge bellows of people originally from Hoe Thi! That is a truly special craft-village character of Thang Long that has lasted for hundreds of years and remains today. And it is not only an economic and technical value; it is also the historical and cultural values of Thang Long–Hanoi.