Japanese Craft 13


Hida Province: Basket Ferry (Hida, kagowatashi) by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) from the series Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces (Rokujuyoshu meisho zue), 1853, colour woodblock print, oban


The Takayama Festival is held twice a year in spring and autumn


The GC Prostho Museum Research Centre designed by


Kengo Kuma & Associates © Daici Ano


No 1 Chair by Hida Sangyo, 1920s, beechwood, modelled on a Thonet bentwood chair, the first product created by the wood furniture company established in Hida in 1920


emphasise the grain and hue of Japanese yew – had been refined. Yew is characterised by its attractive grain and colour, which matures into a rich brown with a distinct lustre. Carvers use the natural variations in the wood – the light-hued outer sapwood (shirata) and the reddish inner heartwood (akata). Tis carving technique was perfected by master carpenters Matsuda Sikenaga (1799-1871), who studied under Hirata Suketomo (1809-1847), the renowned netsuke sculpture from Takayama. Sukenaga is also known for his netsuke carving of the basket ferry over the river between Hida and Etchu Provinces, subject matter also chosen by Hiroshige for his series Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces. Shaku (ceremonial


sceptres) are


also made using long, thin, pieces of yew. Held in the right hand, they form an integral part of formal life in the Heian period (794-1185) and are still occasionally used today. Tey are cut from the heartwood of the yew and left to dry for a year. Mount Kurai, in Hida, is home to an ancient forest of yew and at its base lies the Hida Ichinomiya Minashi Shrine, the region’s foremost shrine dedicated to Minashi no Kami (the


Shaku (2019), ceremonial sceptre, yew wood, produced by Hida Ichinomiya Shrine. Courtesy of the Takayama Museum of History and Art


ceremony at Ise Jingu (Shinto shrine) in Mie Prefecture. Te shaku displayed in the exhibition was made with several others, one of which was chosen and presented by Minashi Shrine to the Imperial Household Agency in 2019 for use at the Daijosai Investiture


Service and other


ceremonies accompanying the enthronement of the current emperor, Naruhito (b 1960), and the commencement of the Reiwa era. Te technique of


kumiko


Basket ferry, netsuke, carved by Matsuda Sukenaga, 1830, Japanese boxwood (Buxus microphylla). Courtesy of Tsuda Chokoku


deity of the river’s source). Shaku from Mount Kurai have been cherished for over 1,000 years due to the quality of the forest’s wood and the highly skilled Hida craftsmanship that produces a perfectly straight grain. It is still customary to present yew shaku from Mount Kurai


to


commemorate momentous occasions such as the enthronement of the Emperor, or the Shikinen Sengu


latticework, which uses strips of wood to produce decorative geometric patterns without glue or nails has been popular in the Hida region (and throughout Japan) since ancient times. Te patterns are made by creating a lattice frame (jigumi) into which smaller pieces of wood are fitted.


Straight, tight-grained


conifers, such as Japanese cedar, hinoki (cypress) and hiba arborvitae (Tujopsis dolabrata) are the most commonly used woods. Te lattice is created using grooves and joinery (straight and angle joints) as opposed to using glue or nails. Tis process is a careful repetition of fine, 1/100 mm adjustments. If part of the design is off by even 0.1 mm, it will affect the entire lattice, ruining the pattern. Jumping into our modern world,


in 2010, the Hida-based furniture company, Nissin Furniture Crafters, produced a kumiko lattice ‘flower transom’ (hana-ranma)


for the


Illustration from The Tale of a Hida Craftsman by Rokuhuen, illustrations by Katsushika Hokusai, six volumes early 19th century, Edo period. Courtesy Takayama Museum of History and Art


restoration of Nagoya Castle’s Honmaru Palace in Aichi Prefecture. Te origins of kumiko dates back to the mid-7th century during the rise in temple construction. Horyu-ji in Nara is the world’s oldest wooden structure and the temple’s main hall (kondo), and five-storey pagoda, still have their original kumiko latticework railings, which serve both practical and decorative purposes. Beginning in the 8th century, prototypes of modern shoji (screens) began to replace textile partitions in aristocratic residences. In the 10th century, kumiko partition decorations evolved further with the rise in popularity of the tea ceremony and the art of flower arranging.


by Hida Sangyo, a furniture company


founded


For centuries, Hida has been at the centre of woodworking excellence


Another woodworking speciality


practised in Hida is chidori-goshi (plover lattice), which uses a sophisticated and complicated technique


to produce decorative


latticework. When Ryoshu-ji temple was built in Mumaya in Shokawa (present-day


Shokawacho,


Takayama) in the late 15th to early 16th centuries, leftover wood was used to construct a hall dedicated to the Bodhisattva Jizo. Te door of the unfinished Jizo Hall still displays a famous


example of chidori-goshi


decoration. Wooden pieces are joined so that they appear to have been woven together, like threads. Tis pattern is created by cutting corresponding notches two-thirds of the way through the upper face and underside of overlapping boards to produce a complicated series of lap joints. Chidori has also been used in contemporary architecture, interior design, and furniture production. Te GC Prostho Museum Research Centre, in Aichi, was designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates in 2010, using a chidori structure that was built by today’s Hida craftsmen. Japanese lifestyles underwent


dramatic changes during the early decades of the Showa period (1926- 1989). It is possible to trace the shifting


times through


furniture and advertisements from the period. Te influence of iconic


bentwood Tonet


everyday the


chair


(designed in 1850s in Vienna) also filtered through to furniture design in Hida. Te creation of No 1 Chair


established the firm’s in


1920, reputation,


which continues today. Examples of the company’s No 1 and No 7 Chairs can be found in the exhibition. Changes in living styles continued throughout the decade and the first stacking chair, made in a bentwood design, was launched in 1932. At the time, it was more typical for families in domestic settings to sit on tatami mats at low floor tables, however, in restaurants, the chair enjoyed immediate success. Various popular designs were produced over the next decades, including the Cascada chair in 1961, the C66 chair in the 1950s, all included in the exhibition. Te extraordinary skills of Hida


craftspeople that over centuries have built the famous shrines and temples still seen in the ancient capitals of Nara and Kyoto today, also live on in the region’s festivals. It is the culmination of several of these craft techniques that can be seen in the creation of yatai, the large, ornate festival floats that are paraded around the town at the spectacular Takayama Festival each year. Te festival, which takes place twice a year in spring and autumn, is thought to have originated in the late 16th, or early 17th century and is considered one of the three most beautiful festivals


in Japan. Te fittings, dyed floats


incorporate the finest carpentry and sculpture, lacquerwork, as well as metal


textiles,


paintings, animated dolls and other trappings. Te evolution of the floats is said to have begun in 1804 by when they had attained their basic form and structure. Around this time, the floats became important symbols of community, and people with closely integrated social and economic livelihoods formed units called yatai-gumi, or ‘float


which rallied around the floats and maintained


them. Today,


teams’, these


• The Carpenter’s Line runs until 29 January, 2023, Japan House, London, japanhouse.org


annual festivals maintain the links between people, craft, and nature – providing an enduring legacy for Hida.


ASIAN ART | NOVEMBER 2022


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