What is the meaning of the phrase "下町職人魂"


I'm aware that 下町 means downtown, and 職人魂 means craftsmanship, but what does
it mean when the two are brought together?




職人魂 is simply "soul/pride of a craftsman" or "craftsmanship", but I think
interpreting 下町 as "downtown" is misleading. 下町 refers to the following
concept described in Wikipedia:

> ### [Yamanote and
> Shitamachi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamanote_and_Shitamachi)
>
> Shitamachi is the traditional name for the area of Tokyo including today the
> Adachi, Arakawa, Chiyoda (in part), Chūō, Edogawa, Kōtō, Sumida, and Taitō
> wards, the physically low part of the city along and east of the Sumida
> River.
>
> Generally speaking, the term Yamanote has a connotation of "distant and
> cold, if rich and trendy", whereas "Shitamachi people are deemed honest,
> forthright and reliable".
>
> The inhabitants of Yamanote were thought of as espousing modernising ideals
> for their country, based on Western models. The people of Shitamachi, on the
> other hand, came to be seen as representatives of the old order and
> defenders of traditional cultural forms.
>
> Shitamachi is associated with petty entrepreneurs, restaurant owners,
> **small shop-owners and workshops** , while Yamanote suggests the business
> executive, and the office worker.
>
> After a long period of post-war economic decline, in the 1980s a "Shitamachi
> boom" emerged, with increased interest in and celebration of Shitamachi
> culture and history, in particular during the Edo period. **Shitamachi
> culture is thus depicted as more authentic and traditional** (while Yamanote
> Tokyo is the present and future), and its valorisation has been described as
> a refuge from the rapid modernisation of the economic boom years.

Until relatively recently, 下町 was mainly associated with the good old
lifestyle of people in the past. But after the success of [_Shitamachi
Rocket_](https://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2015/12/21/shitamachi-rocket-
goes-out-a-big-winner/), many people started to celebrate "shitamachi-ism"
even in the context of industrial manufacturing. 下町職人魂 is an opposing concept
of the automated, highly-standardized, mass-production industry which is
sometimes seen as inhumane. A stereotyped 下町職人 works at a smaller workshop and
relies more on things like humanity, traditional apprenticeship, so-called
[_monozukuri_ spirit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monodzukuri), manual work
and individual skills. It is widely believed that some 下町 workers are able to
make best-quality products (even better than those made by large companies)
owing to their sincerity and individual skills.

