DESIGN

Kokontozai: KASHIYUKA’s Shop of Japanese Arts and Crafts — Confectioners’ Wooden Molds

『カーサブルータス』2024年2月号より

February 7, 2024 | Design | KASHIYUKA’s Shop of Japanese Arts and Crafts | photo_Keisuke Fukamizu hair & make-up_Masako Osuga editor_Masae Wako

Searching all of Japan for handcrafted items that express its heart and soul, our proprietor, KASHIYUKA, presents things that bring a bit of luxury to everyday life. This time she finds herself in Takamatsu city, Kagawa prefecture, where she met the only artisan in Shikoku who hand-carves wooden confectionery molds for making wasanbon dried sweets.

At the Kigata Kōbō Ichihara showroom in Takamatsu city, Kagawa prefecture. It’s the place of origin of wasanbon sugar, used for higashi (the dried form of the Japanese confections known generally as wagashi) and other foods. There are more than 600 confectionary molds, old and new, on display. “Though we rarely see them, these molds themselves are beautiful crafts,” says KASHIYUKA.

Across Japan during its Edo period (1603-1868) small wagashi (traditional sweets) were first made that took the forms of seasonal plants, flowers, and symbols of good fortune. At around the same time, in the area associated with the historical Takamatsu clan on the major island of Shikoku, where the expensive wasanbon sugar they were made of was produced, crafters began carving wooden molds to support the confectioners.

Purchase No. 69【Confectioners’ Wooden Molds】A “behind-the-scenes” player supports of the beauty of traditional Japanese confections.

“Confectioners’ wooden molds are tools to transform two-dimensional wagashi designs into three-dimensional forms. They’re carved out of hardwood and the spaces are filled with wasanbon or red bean paste. When these are removed from the mold, they take the shapes of traditional wagashi. They play the supporting role in wagashi culture,” says Mr. Yoshihiro Ichihara of Kigata Kōbō Ichihara in Takamatsu city, Kanagawa prefecture.

Although wooden confectioner’s molds are known the world over to represent traditional Japanese sweets, there are only a few craftspeople making them in Japan. Mr. Ichihara, whose career spans a half-century, is the only wooden mold maker on Shikoku.