Intervening centuries fall away when one contemplates the pathos of little Hoko-san’s devotion or senses the romantic elegance of giving a raincape to your intended. Perhaps this small collection will help stem the destructive tides of change progress seems to bring in its wake, and thus help maintain the integrity of function and use that these many unique items are imbued with.
Tokyo, 1983
| 1 | HOKKAIDO |
| AINU TEBORI-BACHI | |
Hokkaido is Japan’s youngest region, being settled by the Japanese only a century ago. To find what may truly be classified as folk art there, one has to go beyond that time period and seek work from the Ainu culture. The Ainu had long lived in this area and although much of their tradition has been both suppressed and altered since the Meiji era, they continue to create original works although not in great quantity. Several villages, where the majority of the residents are blood-related Ainu, (full Ainu being a rarity these days) have school-factories for woodcarving. Many of the designs are commercially inspired like letter-holders with a bearded countenance and a long-haired lass in traditional garb, while sculpture seldom seems to vary from a bear firmly gumming a salmon.
The problem is that both of these styles are made by a host of factories and in some cases even imported from South Korea where hand labor is considerably cheaper, thereby gaining another market edge on souvenirs. Where Ainu carvers have the distinct upper hand is in the making of exquisitely finished bowls and assorted food equipment. Items they have traditionally hand made for their own use are now being made in limited quantity for the buying public. The difference in quality between the average and most easily found souvenir carving and a bowl, perhaps like the one shown in the sketch, is like night and day. Pride in craftsmanship imbued in such a finegrained wooden bowl shines subtlely through. The soft, velvety finish inside and out, as well as the intricately patterned design on its winglike handles, demonstrates the maker’s love of craft and the care with which he fashions a product worthy of respect and deserving of use.
Outside of food products like smoked salmon and any of a number of unusal flowering plants peculiar to the wilds of this northermost island, the only sensible souvenir is Ainu-associated folk art. The best and consequently more costly is hand-carved work that is functional but not overly decorated. Carved patterning serves only to enhance each object and not to dominate it. Spoons, serving bowls in a range of sizes and thick slabs of hardwood made into traditional chopping blocks, each with border edge patterning and a shallow indented keeping well carved into the flat cutting surface are available intermittently. Most such production is made for use within the community.
| 2 | AOMORI |
| YAWATA-UMA | |
Honshu’s northernmost prefecture, Aomori, has many fine examples of folk art throughout its mountainous region. Most have their origins in the hard life climatic extremes created seasonally.
Historically, YAWATA-UMA are related to feudal castle life at Nejo, a suburb of Hachinohe on the Pacific coast. Nejo samurai customs included yearly demonstrations of martial prowess in “Yabusame” contests: bow and arrow shooting at a stationary target from a galloping horse. Yabusame events were regularly held on the grounds of Yawata Jingu, a Shinto shrine dedicated to Hachiman, the god of war. These memorable occasions eventually evolved into a set festival for all area residents. Nowadays it is regularly held on Aug. 15. Scores of stalls in and around the shrine offer visitors these miniature horse mementoes recalling the samurai and their mounts of yesteryear.
The horse became a popular symbol and souvenir of the area about the time of the Meiji restoration when an itinerant woodworker settled in Tenguzawa, just to the south of Hachinohe. As supplemental income to what he earned by producing lacquerware, he fashioned a number of small chargers using only an ax and chisel. His roughly formed horses were decoratively painted and sold at the yearly Yawata Jingu festival. Popularity spurred productivity and soon many local residents were using snowbound winter days to advantage by fashioning similar Yawata-uma. Inset horse hair manes and tails add to the charm of the toys as much as does the brocadelike painted decoration which resembles the armour samurai mounts used to wear.
Yawata-uma come in a variety of sizes — from the truly minature (as big as your thumbnail) to child size. They come in two basic colors — red and black. A good guess as to why goes back to the original occupation of the first producer. Being primarily a lacquer artisan, his trade typically used these two colors almost exclusively. A nice holdover from the past.
| 3 | IWATE |
| ONI-ARARE-GAMA | |
Iwate-ken is part of what is logically called “snow country.” Straddling lattitude 40 N, Iwate includes Honshu’s furthest east cape. It is also the home for Nambu tetsubin, iron kettles that are but one of several regional folk art specialities to derive their name from the feudal clan that maintained a castle in Morioka when the prefecture was known as the Nambu district. Iron ware is made in several localities about Japan but Iwate’s are the most renowned.
Iron wares have a relatively short life in comparison to many other metals but the availability of iron ore and an abundant supply of fuel made it a natural material for folk art craftsmen. Forging and casting are the two main modes of ironware production with casting used for Nambu tetsubin. This involves making a sand mold into which will ultimately flow the liquid metal. Creating this mold is time-consuming and an art in itself, the quality of the finished product dependent on the quality of the mold. Fineness of finish is determined by the inner surface of the sand mold.
Using dampened sand, the ironworker creates a negative of what he hopes to cast. Often a wooden copy of the pot to be made is forced into the prepared sand and carefully removed. The portion of the cast that creates the inner body is made in a similar but reverse manner. After it has been dried the sand mold attains a remarkable stability despite its fragile component. When the two parts are fitted together, the space between echoes the pot to be cast. To be filled with molten iron and then cooled, the completed mold is halfway to a completed vessel.
Everything from bulky hibachi to fist-size teapots are made of iron. The ONI-ARARE-GAMA shown, literally meaning “hail-stone,” is used to heat water and gains its name from the bumpy knobs all over its outer surface. Patterns vary from pictorial scenes to simple but effectively pleasing decorations that barely suggest tuffs of grasses along a meandering stream.
Iwate is one place to find tetsubin in abundance and Morioka, the prefectural seat, is where one can find the widest selection of traditionally made wares. Although anonymity of the maker is a passing feature of this craft, the mingei flavor of testsubin is indelible and will last as long as Nambu wares are made.
| 4 | AKITA |
| IWAI-GERA | |
Among the many Tohoku folk crafts are a number of items using natural fibers. Everything from snow boots and bundling baskets to winnows and rain-capes are created from a variety of native flora. Most common are straw creations because this plant fiber is abundantly found as a byproduct of two staple Japanese crops: barley/wheat and rice.
Raincapes, MINO in Japanese, are found in almost every prefecture, although no two areas seem to share the same style or production techniques. Differences range from material variety through embellishment patterning to outright function. Assorted flora: rice and barley straw, sedge or water reed, join the coarse but durable crisscross hempen palm fiber as mino making materials. Bark of the Japanese lime (bodaiju) and cypress (itohiba) trees are also used but mention of flora was not meant to be misleading. Perhaps the term stretches