For many years, the town of Hakone (in Kanagawa prefecture) was a relay station on the main road to Edo (currently Tokyo) , and Hakone-yoseki-zaiku was developed as souvenirs for travellers. The geometric design is made by binding together various shades of wood. In Hakone yoseki-zaiku, trees of different shades are glued together, and the patterns are enlarged one after another, from the basic material for the pattern, to the pattern components, to the unit pattern material, to the tissue pattern. The resulting seed boards are then shaved thinly with a large plane with all the strength in the world....
Japanese bronze cast metal Bronze tool casting was brought to Japan from the Korean peninsula around the second century BC (the Japanese Yayoi era). Bronze was mainly used in rituals, such as for swords, bells, and mirrors. Thereafter, copper coins and Buddha statues started being made, and accompanying this, there was significant progress in copper refining and casting processing techniques. The history of Takaoka copperware The origin of Takaoka copperware was in 1611 (Year 16 of the Japanese Keicho era), when Toshinaga Maeda, the lord of the Kaga clan, came to Takaoka Castle and founded Takaoka town. At that time,...
Introduction Tea was once known in Europe as "the elixir" and "the mystical drink of the East". Nowadays, tea is one of the most popular products of Japanese culture. Tea is not only good for the body, but also has a calming effect on the mind. In fact, tea has a number of health benefits. Even though there is no scientific evidence, the health benefits of tea have been recognized since ancient times, both in the East and the West. In this article, we will look at the health benefits of tea. Background of the spread of tea as a...
About NOUSAKU Located in the northwestern part of Toyama Prefecture, Takaoka is the prefecture’s second largest city with a population of about 170,000.In the Edo Period (1611), in the castle town of Takaoka Castle, the lord of the castle, Maeda Toshinaga, invited seven Imoji (Shokunin or craftsman of metal casting) from nearby villages to set up a foundry.For this reason, over 400 years later, Takaoka Copperware still holds the top share of the domestic casting market and continues to produce a wide range of products from small items such as Buddhist altar fittings and tea utensils to large items...
About Chikumeido Chikumeido (竹茗堂) is an Takayama Tea-whisk whose tradition has been kept for 500 years in Ikoma, Nara Prefecture, which is a hometown of the tea whisk. Takayama Tea-whisk originated about 500 years ago, in the middle of the Muromachi period, when a son of Takayama feudal lord created it at the request of Murata Juko, the founder of the tea ceremony. After that, the process was kept as secret teachings of the lord family, and was passed down for generations only as a “Isshi Sōden” technique. Later, the secret teachings were passed down to 16 main retainers, and...