Edfrank Custom Jewelers

Edfrank Custom Jewelers is a small, short-lived jewelry business founded in San Francisco by Frank Frink and Ed McCarthy after they leave the W-M Corporation, a factory that produces forgeries of historic American artifacts. The venture represents a fragile attempt at authentic, original American craftsmanship in a world dominated by Japanese collectors and the market for fake antiques. Though the business struggles to gain a foothold and ultimately fails to achieve commercial success, its handwrought pieces—particularly the silver triangle purchased by Nobusuke Tagomi—become the vehicle for a profound aesthetic and spiritual revelation, suggesting a new kind of value that transcends the counterfeit historicity of the era.

Founding and Early Struggles

After being fired from the W-M Corporation for speaking out of turn, Frank Frink, a skilled metalworker who had specialized in forging Colt .44 revolvers and other Civil War-era artifacts, is urged by shop foreman Ed McCarthy to go into business for himself. McCarthy argues that Frink has lost faith in his own creative abilities, and that the only way to reclaim it is to make original, contemporary jewelry rather than copies. Frink, a Jew living under Japanese rule in the Pacific States of America, is initially skeptical, but after consulting the I Ching and receiving the favorable hexagram Peace (T'ai), he agrees. The two men secure a two-thousand-dollar payment from Wyndam-Matson—effectively blackmail money—and use it to set up a basement workshop. They name their venture Edfrank Custom Jewelers, a combination of their first names, and begin producing a line of handwrought pieces in brass, copper, silver, and hot-forged black iron. The business is legally established with permits from the Pacific States of America, but the partners quickly spend over half their capital on tools, materials, and supplies, leaving them with only two hundred and fifty dollars in the bank.

The Consignment Setback

Ed McCarthy, wearing a new suit and carrying a wicker hamper of samples, makes the first sales call at American Artistic Handcrafts Inc., the city's most prestigious art-object store. The owner, Robert Childan, initially dismisses the jewelry, but after a long and awkward presentation, he agrees to take several pieces—but only on consignment, meaning he pays nothing upfront and assumes no liability for theft or damage. McCarthy, exhausted and outmaneuvered, accepts the terms. When he returns to the truck, Frank Frink is devastated; they had explicitly agreed not to accept consignment. The setback leaves them with no immediate income and a growing pile of unsold inventory. They visit five more retail shops, but none make a purchase. Frink, increasingly discouraged, begins to believe the venture is doomed, and the two partners nearly dissolve their partnership over the failure.

The Revelation of Wu

Despite the business's commercial failure, the jewelry finds an unexpected champion in Paul Kasoura, a cultured young Japanese businessman. When Robert Childan, hoping to ingratiate himself with the Kasouras, presents one of the Edfrank pieces as a gift, Paul initially dismisses it as formless and laughable. But after several days of contemplation, he experiences a profound shift in perception. He tells Childan that the piece has no historicity and no conventional artistic merit, yet it possesses something he calls "wu"—a Chinese term for a kind of spiritual or cosmic rightness. Paul explains that the object is balanced, at rest, and in harmony with the Tao; it is not a relic of the past but a living thing in the present. He declares that the piece points to an entirely new category of value, neither art nor religion, and that the hands of the artificer have infused it with wu. This revelation forces Childan to confront his own prejudices and ultimately to defend the dignity of American craftsmanship, even as Paul's business associates propose mass-producing the designs as cheap good-luck charms for the poor.

The Silver Triangle and Tagomi's Vision

The most significant encounter with Edfrank jewelry occurs when Nobusuke Tagomi, a high-ranking Japanese Trade Mission official, visits Childan's store in a state of profound spiritual crisis. After killing two SD agents in self-defense, Tagomi is haunted by guilt and unable to find meaning in the world. Childan, now a convert to the jewelry's value, urges him to buy a piece. Tagomi reluctantly purchases a small silver triangle ornamented with hollow drops, a piece that is black beneath and bright and light-filled above. Later, sitting alone in Portsmouth Square, Tagomi subjects the object to a desperate, almost ritualistic examination. He tries to hear it, smell it, taste it, and finally sees it as a microcosm: a body of yin and a soul of yang, metal and fire unified. In a moment of intense concentration, the silver triangle seems to disgorge its spirit as blinding white light, and Tagomi experiences a vision of the clear light of the Bardo Thodol, the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Though the vision is interrupted by a policeman, the encounter marks the beginning of Tagomi's recovery, and he later credits the object with helping him find his way back to the world.

Narrative Role and Significance

Edfrank Custom Jewelers functions as a counterpoint to the novel's dominant economy of forgery and historicity. While the W-M Corporation and other factories churn out fake antiques for Japanese collectors who value objects only for their supposed connection to the past, Edfrank's pieces are unapologetically contemporary, handmade, and original. They have no historicity in the conventional sense, yet they possess a different kind of authenticity—one that is not about provenance but about presence. The business itself fails, but its products succeed in transforming the lives of those who encounter them: Childan finds the courage to defend American artistry, and Tagomi finds a path back from despair. The Edfrank silver triangle, in particular, becomes a symbol of the possibility of genuine creation in a world of copies, and of the spiritual value that can inhere in even the humblest object when it is made with wu.