Discover the Light of Japan 19788811147
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"We may only have lost our appreciation for handmade goods." Igarashi san has been making chochin paper lanterns in his small shop for his lifetime. His father also, and his grandfatherand great grandfather and also great, great grandfather. Gear & the tools that surround him today, in reality, have outlasted his ancestors, their wooden surfaces worn smooth with age. Since the start of the Meiji era (1868 - 1912) Kanazawa individuals have already been buying Igarashi chochin from the shop, in the heart of old Kanazawa's business area, near the back of the fortress. The shelves are stacked high with beautifully decorated lamps - vibrant bursts of color peppering the confines of the small class.
Chochin lamps have a relatively long history in Japan - there's proof of them being used in temples in the 10th century - and were used primarily as a means of light. Only sporadically used inside, they customarily hung outside a home, temple or business or else in the entrance, prepared to be suspended on a and carried before anybody venturing out during the night. Igarashi-san reckons that previously these were so trusted there could have existed 40 or 50 chochin shops only in Kanazawa. In these times there remain only herself site link and one other local contractor in the industry and the other man (Matsuda-san) has long since diversified, making old-fashioned umbrellas his principal.
Making a chochin is just a hard, pretty delicate method despite the beautifully simple appearance of the finish product. And, when asked what are the main qualities in his profession Igarashi-san replies, his brilliant eyes dead serious, "patience and concentration". The average sized lantern according to Igarashi-san, at about 30 cm across, can be produced at an interest rate of about two per day by one person including a lot of the painting. However some really huge people have left the Igarashi store over the years - his greatest was a matsuri monster measuring 5 shaku (1 shaku = 30.3cm in the old Japanese measuring process) in height having an elaborate year of the rabbit design about it. The old lantern creator is realistic about the fact that people need cheaper, mass-produced, plastic covered lamps these days - he also sells them himself - but he is confident in the data that a well-made paper lantern is just a beautiful thing, superior in lots of ways to these garish modern impostors.
"You can restore an excellent chochin," he tells us, "you can replace one rib or repair a hole in the paper no problem." "Plastic lamps don't have any inner body and can not be patched." A paper lantern irrespective of how well made lasts just about annually (natural beauty is definitely fleeting) whereas a plastic one might last twice that and cost half the maximum amount of. Along with that, we as a community might have simply lost our appreciation for handmade products. As customers value has become our main enthusiasm. We don't care to know how things were made today, or who made them, or else Igarashisan would be the effective head of a chain of stores.
The walls of his ready-to-hand scrapbook sport and the Igarashi Chochinya countless monochrome photos and press clippings showing a proud, broad-shouldered son with strong, thick arms and an attractive smile showing off elegant paper spheres with matsuri lights glimmering in the backdrop. Humbly demonstrating us them, his warm, friendly smile only falls somewhat as he tells us that he'll function as the last of his family line making lanterns here.
