The Japanese Niwashi - literally 'garden master' - is a new field tool for dressing soil profiles or cleaning down stratigraphic sections comprising sottish or unconsolidated cover-bed deposits. Used for many years by Japanese pedologists, tephrochronologists, and volcanologists, the Niwashi has now become available in New Zealand. We have tried it out on a range of soils and various deposits and found it to be an excellent tool for field work in many situations.