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).

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.

  

Story behind simple summer dress - Aizu-Momen (cotton cloth) -1

My friend Akko showed me her bland-new summer dress.  It is simple and beautiful, and has its unique story that I thought I need to share.

She is from Fukushima prefecture - I guess some of you outside Japan may remember as the name of the place where there was sad disaster in 2011.  When I heard her dress is made of Aizu-Momen, or cotton cloth that has been traditionally made in Aizu area in Fukushima, I was glad to know this local industry keeps on going after the earthquake!

Aizu-Momen has 400 years of its history.  According to the website of Harayama Orimono Kojo (原山織物工場), this history started when the then governor recommended cultivation of cotton for the purpose of industrial development.   Aizu-Momen has excellent moisture retention, air permeability, and water absorption, and I guess this is why daily wear made of Aizu-Momen has been loved there for so many years.  You can see the elaborate surface of
exquisitely dyed cloth.

And now, people today still loves it and are trying to making lovely products with it, and Akko's dress is one of those things.  The website of Entete shows other examples, including formal dress, pendants, toy bears, etc., as well as how Aizu-Momen is manufactured by traditional manufacturing process.

There is another interesting story behind this dress, and it is about its manufacturer Yamma Industry.  This company, located in Tokyo, has its own, very unique system of making their product.  I will write about it on the next post.

Book cover made of fusuma cloth

Camellia is one of my favorite flower and is often used as a motif in Japanese traditional patterns.  This is why I fell in love with this book cover at first sight.

But what is more interesting is the material.  This book cover is made of cloth that was originally for fusuma, or slidable partitions used in Japanese traditional houses.  (The pictures on the fusuma article in Wikipedia will help you understand what it is like.)

You can find this kind of products at Network Gallery Nawrap (in Japanese, ねっとわーくぎゃらりー・ならっぷ）, which is an antenna shop run by Maruyama Sen'i Corporation in Nara prefecture.  According to Nawrap's website (Japanese only), the company was established as former Maruyama Shouten in 1930 and had been specialized in manufacture of mosquito net.  But it ceased mosquito net production due to decrease in demand of it and started, as new company Maruyama Sen'i Sangyo（丸山繊維株式会社）, to make lawn, or finely woven cloth for use in farms to cover and protect crops, and other kinds of cloth.

And now, the company says it set up the Nawrap shop because the people in the company have been more and more eager to create various new products with Nara mosquito net by using the manufacturing techniques it developed in their history, so ordinary people can feel the comfortable and gentle touch of Nara's traditional mosquito net in their daily life.

 I asked Narap about the fusuma cloth product by email, and then Mr. Maruyama, the president of the company, replied that the company does not engage in manufacture of fusuma cloth, but in Nara, fusuma cloth has been manufactured since the late 1960s.  (I really appreciate his kind response to my email!)  That's why the company can produce goods using fusuma cloth like this, as well as mosquito net.

Kurashiki-hanpu (canvas) bag

Recently I've been using a big white canvas bag, which of course is made in Japan :) Nice spring - summer color, isn't it?

More specifically, this bag is made of "Kurashiki-hanpu", which means hanpu, or canvas cloth, made in Kurashiki-shi, Okayama prefecture.  There are some places famous for the manufacture of canvas in Japan, and Kurashiki is the largest production area where about 70% of domestic canvas product is manufacutured, according to the website of Kurashiki Local Resources Museum (the website is written in Japanese only).  The site says canvas has been manufactured in Kurashiki since the last years of Edo-period - around 1860!

Canvas was originally used for making sails, but now it is often used in bags like this one.  When I bought it, the salesperson at the shop smiled and told me, "I love this because it is really durable and has its unique flavor. I am sure you will love it more as you use it longer." I am looking forward to seeing how it changes with time.