Skilled clock maker with 職人

Vocabulary Explanation: Skilled artisan with 職人

Having received a letter requesting help solving a mystery, Kogoro finds himself in a house filled with animal designs everywhere, including the doors, the chairs, and the plates. His attention turns to the clocks covering the walls.

小五郎(こごろう):: 「しかし動物(どうぶつ)もさることながら、時計(とけい)もたくさんありますなー．．．」; “But aside from the animals, there are also a lot of clocks, huh...”
男(おとこ):: 「当(あ)たり前(まえ)ですよ．．．　祖父(そふ)は時計(とけい)職人(しょくにん)だったんですから．．．」; “Of course there are... Grandfather was a clock maker, after all...”

Key Points

1時計(とけい)職人(しょくにん) = “clockmaker” / “clock artisan”

Here 職人(しょくにん) means a skilled craftsperson, not just someone with a job; it emphasizes trained hands-on workmanship.
With 時計(とけい) in front, 時計(とけい)職人(しょくにん) becomes a craftsperson who makes or works on clocks, which is why maker fits in the translation.

2Compound noun pattern: 時計(とけい) + 職人(しょくにん)

There is no particle between the two nouns; 時計(とけい) directly specifies what kind of artisan he was.
This same pattern is very common in Japanese: [thing] + [person/role] = a person who works with that thing.

3だったんですから = explanatory reason

だった is the past form of です / だ, and んです adds an explanatory tone: you see / the reason is that….
から gives the reason, so 祖父(そふ)は時計(とけい)職人(しょくにん)だったんですから means it’s because Grandfather was a clockmaker.
In context, he is explaining why the house has so many clocks.

4当(あ)たり前(まえ)ですよ = “Of course”

This replies directly to Kogoro’s observation about all the clocks and treats it as something completely expected.
The polite ですよ adds a lightly emphatic, matter-of-fact tone: Of course there are.

Skilled clock maker with 職人

Key Points

See Also