12 Japanese Craft The woods of Gifu Prefecture


Felling yew trees on Mt Kurai to make ceremonial shaku, ceremonial sceptres © Takayama City


Nestled in the heavily wooded region in central Japan, Hida district in Gifu Prefecture has been producing master carpenters for centuries. Te city of Takayama has maintained a vibrant woodworking tradition for over 1,300 years, developing in that time an international reputation for its highly skilled carpenters. First recorded in the 8th century, the woodworking skills of these craftspeople were provided to the imperial capital in place of taxation, such was the importance placed upon the carpentry techniques originating in Hida. Te current exhibition at Japan House, in London, looks at this long heritage with exhibits ranging from a 17th- century Buddhist carved figure to interactive examples of joinery typical of Japan today, as well as modern chair design with international


influences. Related


objects on view are examples of Hida-shunkei (lacquerware), kumiko and chidori-goshi latticework, shaku (ceremonial sceptre) and netsuke. Te forests of the region are made


up of a mixture of broadleaf trees, conifers with hinoki


(cypress) and


sugi (Japanese cedar, Cryptomeria japonica) being the most common. Tere are also over 350 varieties of broadleaf trees, including beech, oak, walnut, cherry, chestnut, birch and the Japanese broadleaf magnolia. Te area was originally one of


Japan’s 66 provinces, occupying the northern part of present-day Gifu Prefecture and was featured as one of the famous views created by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) in the series Famous Places in the Sixty-odd


Provinces (Rokujuyoshu meisho zue) published in 1853. Japan’s oldest collection of poems,


the Man’yoshu (Collection of Ten Tousand Leaves), compiled during the 7th and 8th centuries, includes a poem praising the precision of the ink-line makers made by Hida’s master


carpenters. Te


WATCH Kengo Kuma


talking about using chidori in his design for a museum


THE CARPENTER’S LINE master


carpenters from the region were also sent to work under the Ritsuryo system, during the Nara (710-194) and Heian (794-1185) periods, in the offices of the Shurishiki, who were tasked with the construction and restoration of residential palace buildings, or to the Mokuyryo, who were tasked with harvesting trees, preparing lumber, and constructing buildings. In practice, they probably also produced a wide variety of objects from ritual implements to tables, chairs, and other furniture to be used by the court. Expert carpenters from Hida are


Bodhhisatva by the itinerant monk Enku, mid/late 17th century. Courtesy Takayama Museum of History and Art


ASIAN ART | NOVEMBER 2022 |


known as Hida no Takumi (Masters of Hida). Te first known usage of the term can be traced back to the Yoro Ritsuryo Code, a legal document from the 18th century, when the government established a tax code requiring peasants to pay a rice tax on their fields, a resource tax paid in silk or other materials, and a labour tax. However, the ancient Hida Province, during the Heian and Kamakura periods, was exempt from both the material and standard labour tax in exchange for sending carpenters to the imperial capital in Nara, where they were required to work more than 330 days a year and were not allowed to return home until they had satisfied their quota. During the 8th century, the government oversaw the construction of a succession of capital cities which


#AsianArtPaper | asianartnewspaper | Hida Ichinomiya Minashi Shrine, Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture


included a large number of temples and shrines that required specialised carpenters. Over a span of 500 years, it is believed that more than 40,000 master carpenters from Hida participated in the construction of important buildings such as the temples of Yakushi-ki and Todai-ji, and Heijo Palace. In Japan, religious statues were


often made out of wood, a readily available material. Enku (1632-1695) was a Buddhist priest from Mino province (now in present-day Gifu Prefecture) known for the wooden Buddhist images he carved during his extensive travels. He entered the priesthood at the age of 32 and


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travelled the country, where he visited small towns and hamlets without temples or statues and carved for people Buddhist images from whatever wood he could. His early


statues were carved using classical


many as 5,000 of Enku’s statues can be


found in regions


painstakingly techniques,


however, during the 30 years of his travels, Enku increasingly prioritised speed and quantity, cutting blocks of wood into unostentatious statues with unfinished ends and knots. He is thought to have produced as many as 120,000 statues over the course of his life. Despite their rough-hewn appearance, the statues, with their simple, gentle smiles, have been cherished for generations. Today as


Asian Art Newspaper


Japan. Carpenters and other craftspeople


were a favourite subject matter for the artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760- 1849), whose prints


are a good


reference for carpenters’ tools used at the time. In 1808, an illustrated book about a master carpenter from Hida, written by


Ishikawa Masamochi


(pen-name Rokujuen) and illustrated by Hokusai, was published under the title Hida no takumi monogatori (the Tale of a Hida Craftsman). By the 19th century, the technique


of ichii ittobori – the use of chisels to produce wood sculptures that


throughout


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