Mt. Fuji, inspiration of Japanese craftsmanship

Congratulations,  Fuji-san!! Unesco finally granted World Heritage status to Mt. Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan and one of the most beloved symbols of our country.  

What was impressive is the Unesco statement about the reason for grating.  According to BBC news on June 23,  

"Unesco said Mount Fuji had 'inspired artists and poets and been the object of pilgrimage for centuries'."

There is no double that the rich nature of the Mt. Fuji area, as well as the symbolic and graceful shape has contributed to development of the Japanese culture of creativity in the long history.

Mt. Fuji drove so many artists and literary to create great works that represent our country.  And there are also various kinds of craft works developed in the area, including crystal sculpture, silk fabrics, deer leather craft, etc.  Oni-gawaras, which I picked up in the past article, are also manufactured in this area.

So I totally agree with the Unesco's decision to designate Mt. Fuji as a "cultural" rather than a "natural heritage site.

My personal recommendation of an interesting Mt. Fuji-related product is this "Mt. Fuji glass" (click the left link).  It is a beer glass produced by a handmade glassware company Sugahara Glassworks Inc (English site).

Celadon kiln brought back to life after 120 years - Ojiyama-yaki

I have not been so interested in crockery, ceramics, celadon or this kind of things and am not very familiar with them still now.  But when I first saw a picture of dishes of Ojiyama-yaki (王地山焼), their pale green color fascinated me and then made me head to the only place where this celadon is made - Sasayama-shi in Hyogo prefecture.

Sasayama-shi is an intermountain city, where was once a castle town during Edo period (1603-1868), and the part of the streetscape with old atmosphere is still alive.

At the end stage of Edo period, Mr. Tadayasu Aoyama, the then-governor of this area, constructed a kiln and started the history of its original celadon called Ojiyama-yaki.  Because of the protection of the industry by the governor and the local big merchant, the celadon production then became popular among daimyos (大名) there, and it is said that a number of elegant products were created for a while.  

However, the klin ceased to operate in 1869 when the governmental system changed at the beginning of Meiji period.

In 1988, or after 120 years since then, the current Ojiyama-yaki klin was established near the old factory and the production was started over again!  I visited the new klin with gallery yesterday and saw two young craftsmen who engage in production.

As you may see from the work in the above picture, the pattern on the dish has some kind of Chinese taste.  Actually, I saw many other works displayed in their gallery, and I felt some kind of influence of Chinese culture.  Although the above work is pale-blue celadon, there are also Ojiyama-yaki works of blue and white porcelain type and those with rad painting.

It was a strange feeling to see people - they seem to be around the same age as I am, or still younger - are making the craftworks with history that once died out... But as I talked to one of them and at least I understood they are really proud of and love what they are making and the culture of Ojiyama-yaki itself.

And I got a small dish with delicate flower pattern and very pale, lovely blue-green color.  It is now on my desk and makes me think how amazing the cultural staff, which might have disappeared before arriving here, is just in front of me right now:)

Address info:

Ojiyama Toukijo (王地山陶器所）

431 Kawara-machi, Sasayama-shi, Hyogo

Story behind simple summer dress - Aizu-Momen (cotton cloth) -2

So I introduce an interesting company that made the Aizu-Momen summer dress I talked about on the last post.  Yamma Industry (Japanese: ヤンマ産業） is a small (not sure about its scale but at least it seems so) company located in Kichijoji area in Tokyo that manufactures clothes and other fabric stuff like bags, aprons, etc.  I found on their Facebook page they are making blouses, skirts, dresses, and other kinds of clothes using cotton cloth produced in Ise and Matsuzaka in Mie prefecture, as well as Aizu-Momen.

The most remarkable feature of Yamma is, it is run by a designer and the elderly who live near the company, and all their products are made to order.  Their website explains that when clothes are made, the designer first washes and cuts out the cloth, and then, mainly the old ladies who help the company bring the cut cloth back their home and sew it with their sawing machine to finish the product.  The finished products come back to Yamma, and are sold with 1 to 3-year warranty.

The designer says on the website that not all the elderly who saw the products are professional dressmakers, but she thinks it is not necessary to categorize them into pros and amateurs because the old women are those who have been making and repairing clothes of their children, seriously thinking about how the kids can wear the clothes for long time.  So she says it can be said that they are the professionals of sawing, as mothers of Japan.  Meanwhile, Yamma intricately inspects the products before selling them, and guarantees free repair for some period so the customers feel at ease about the products sewn by them.

I though I like this system for many reasons.  First of all, it creates employment of the elderly, which is simply meaningful in our rapidly aging society.  And I can imagine it might encourage them mentally because those who help the company by the sewing could feel they still have power to contribute the economy and society of this country.  From the viewpoint of the customers, or if I buy some product from them after reading how Yamma is making it, I would feel the warmth of those ladies when touching the clothes even though I won't actually see their face.  I don't know any other shops who provides such warm products.

This is the tag attached to Akko's summer dress.  With the explanation of the product and the company, it says: "This product is made of the cloth that you can use for as much as several hundred years (!) if you take time to take care of it."  These words remind me of what it is like to treasure something.