Sashimono is a traditional Japanese joining technique for wooden cabinetmaking. It also refers to the furniture made with the technique, such as desks, wardrobes, dressers and chests.
Like many other traditional crafts, handmade sashimono has been replaced by Western-style furniture in most Japanese households, as contemporary lifestyles become more and more Westernized. These days, however, they are drawing young people's attention despite the Japanese design and rather high prices.
Cabinetmaking was originally part of the carpenter's trade. In the early Edo Period the Tokugawa Shogunate, aiming to promote industry in Edo, recruited craftsmen in various fields from all over the country and they settled in Kanda and Nihonbashi. Some places there still have names related to their origins, such as Kaji-cho, literally "blacksmiths town" and Kanda Konya-cho, or "dyers town." There also used to be a Daiku-cho (carpenters town), but it does not exist any more.