DESIGN
Kokontozai: KASHIYUKA’s Shop of Japanese Arts and Crafts —Gifu Chochin
『カーサ ブルータス』2025年3月号より
| Design | KASHIYUKA’s Shop of Japanese Arts and Crafts | photo_Keisuke Fukamizu hair & make-up_Masako Osuga editor_Masae Wako translation_ Mika Yoshida & David G. Imber
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 we visited the Ozeki workshop in Gifu Prefecture, which produces the elegant Gifu Chochin based upon traditional techniques for making the lantern that illuminates the ancestral remembrance festival of O-bon.
The Gifu chochin (lantern) boasts a history dating back over 300 years. With Ms. Matsumoto Hideyo, a certified crafter of the hibukuro , the illuminated portion of the lamp (literally, the “bag of fire”). “The suppleness of the bamboo ribs and the delicacy of the paper…” opines our shopkeeper, KASHIYUKA, “…in the qualities of these natural materials there’s a tension that gives the lantern its gentle beauty.”
We strive to bring the splendor of the natural world into our everyday life. This motive gave birth to the Gifu chochin. Images of birds, flowers, the moon, and more adorn the hibukuro, which is generally made of washi paper and bamboo from the Mino region. Its moonlike light is widely adored. Ozeki has been making Gifu chochin since 1884.
Purchase No. 82【Gifu Chochin】A soft light that projects an elegant image.
I was shown the traditional crafters’ techniques, which included the papering of the form, basic printing and fine graphic illustration. First, thin strips of torn bamboo are wrapped tightly around a form, upon which washi is stretched.
“I use small amounts of glue and thread to combine bamboo slivers of 4 meters each into a unit 60 meters long,” says Ms. Matsumoto Hideyo, the artisan specializing in this. To watch her hand movements as she swiftly connects the bamboo strips without even knotting the thread is beautiful. I’m impressed with the fact that the joints are nearly imperceptible, looking like the natural unevenness of bamboo. Even the tiny irregularities that can be seen and felt through the paper add to the item’s charm.
“I use small amounts of glue and thread to combine bamboo slivers of 4 meters each into a unit 60 meters long,” says Ms. Matsumoto Hideyo, the artisan specializing in this. To watch her hand movements as she swiftly connects the bamboo strips without even knotting the thread is beautiful. I’m impressed with the fact that the joints are nearly imperceptible, looking like the natural unevenness of bamboo. Even the tiny irregularities that can be seen and felt through the paper add to the item’s charm.
Loading...
Loading...
