Enjoy high -quality house time.

Lacquerware that has been popular in Japan for a long time as a local culture. Above all, Kiso lacquerware gained popularity as a souvenir for travelers on the Nakasendo in the Edo period, and gradually developed as daily necessities, and during the Showa high growth period, Kiso lacquerware table became a necessity for homes and inns. Now, local craftsmen are evolving traditional techniques to the next generation. Why don't you add color to the new everyday life with such Kiso lacquerware?

Kiso lacquerware that is a traditional craft and traditional industry

Kiso lacquerware grown in Kiso, which has flourished as a post town on Nakasendo, while has lacquerware that has developed as an arts and crafts in castle towns, such as Kyo lacquer ware and Wajima paint, as a living item that flourished as a post town on the Nakasendo. It has developed.
Approximately 100 lacquerware shops are lined up in the Kiso Hirasawa area of Shiojiri City, a major production area of Kiso lacquerware, and many craftsmen are active. "Many craftsmen are able to respond flexibly and are eager to study." I'm Hiroshi Ota, the director. The efforts and technical skills of these craftsmen have been evaluated, and about 20 years ago, we have been united in the production area and have been working on repairing cultural properties. I have worked on.

Recently, it has also been developed from women's perspective by collaboration with students of Showa Women's University. The won medal of the Nagano Winter Olympics, which was held in 1998, was produced here due to the spirit of craftsmen.

"I have a strong image of" traditional crafts ", but Kiso lacquer ware is a new one to keep traditional techniques, such as traditional technologies, but always incorporate new things to meet the needs of customers in that era. I think that it is a traditional industrial that has been inherited and has been evolving, so the number of colors used in lacquer ware is always born. I hope you can use lacquerware in a small place as a color in your life. "
Mr. Ota, who says so, conveys the passion of wanting more people to feel a new lacquerware.

The Kiso Hirasawa area was selected as the first important traditional building group preservation area in Japan as a lacquer town. "Kiso's craftsmen can work on cultural properties because they have a history of making flexibly from small to large furniture," says Ota. In addition, Kiso lacquer ware craftsmen seem to be able to work together as a production area because they are coordinated.

"Cocoro Concept" product and Nagano Winter Olympic medal

At the Kiso League Crafts Museum, which is operated by the Shiojiri / Kiso Regional Industrial Promotion Center, purchasing Kiso lacquerware such as "COCORO CONCEPT" products by collaboration between students and craftsmen at Showa Women's University, Nagano Winter Winter. You can visit the Olympic winning medal.

[Shiojiri / Kiso area local industrial promotion center]
2272-7 Kiso Hirasawa, Shiojiri TEL 0264-34-3888
http://www.kiso.or.jp/

Produced the unique Kiso lacquerware with an original "ancient Akane coating"

Kanji Ito Shoten
Hiromo Ito
In Kiso Hirasawa, each craftsman is working hard every day and works hard. Among them, Hiromo Ito of the long -established "Kanji Ito Shoten" founded in 1830, which is a unique coating called "ancient Akane coating", is a unique coating.
"The ancient Akane coating is dark red right after painting, but the gloss and brightness increase as you use it," says Ito. There are differences in lacquer formulation, pigment ratio, humidity and drying in the room.

It was born about 40-50 years ago. The reason was that the main product of Kiso lacquerware, the table, was gradually no longer used in everyday life, and as the center of the production shifted to accessories, Mr. Ito's father, Mr. Ito, consulted from a department store in Tokyo. Was received.
"It was a hint that a department store buyer consulted if a lacquerware with a more calm color than the conventional vermilion was possible. The predecessor and uncle repeated research and completed it after trial and error for about a year. It is a color that can only be put out.

One of the commitments of such "Kanji Ito Shoten" is the last top coat, and the luxury and valuable Japanese lacquer, not the current mainstream Chinese lacquer, is refined with "Tenpo Tekurome". Being using it. "Tenjiku -Goume" is a refining method in which raw lacquer collected from a tree is manually stirred while applying the sun all day, gradually draining water to increase transparency. is. The "Kanji Ito Shoten" makes "Tenjiku -Goume" every summer, and the lacquer is made to make lacquerware with a better feel.

There are many fans of this "ancient Akane coating", and in response to requests from regular customers, pasta dishes have been made, and there are also lacquerware knives and forks that can be used for this pasta dish.
I'm glad that the customers say, "I'm glad I used it," and "I feel the taste of the usual dishes has improved a few steps."
Mr. Ito, who is making the production with cherishing tradition and flexibility. From now on, the DNA that creates new things inherited from the predecessor will create various specialty dishes.

If the red color is getting brighter over time, the predecessor is named "ancient Akane coating". In addition to regular customers visiting Kiso every year and purchasing, many orders are received as souvenirs and wedding gifts. In addition to this "ancient Akane coating", all products in the "Ito Kanji Shoten" are coated with Japanese lacquered Japanese lacquer.

Lacquered is performed on a coating (left photo left) with a large window on the second floor. It is craftsmanship that pays close attention so that dust does not enter and apply quickly with uniform thinness. A bowl is made over a couple of months. Good quality Japanese lacquer is soft and easy to apply, and does not feel heavy even when it is dry and hardened. The craftsmen make their own tools, use their equipment and machines properly, and work efficiently in consideration of setup.

[Kanji Ito Co., Ltd. Shoten Co., Ltd.]
1607 Kiso Hirasawa, Shiojiri City TEL 0264-34-2034
http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/ha/yamaichi/

INFORMATION

Ginza NAGANO On sale at!
Ancient Akane coating
41,800 yen

A new future of woodworking and lacquer with tradition and modern techniques

Oguchi Furniture Studio
Jun Okochi
"Sosawazen" is a lacquered four -legged table. As a manufacturing method, the legs were alternately combined with the legs from one piece of wood to make wood -shaping without waste, and a reasonable and uniform method was devised in the middle of the Taisho era in the middle of the Taisho era. It was a craftsman of Kiso Hirasawa. This technology and the beauty of the unique curve are fascinated, and the brand name "NOKO" is producing new Kiso lacquerware and daily necessities that make use of the bending technology of "Munawazen". However, this is Jun Okochi, the representative of the "Okochi Furniture Studio" and Kiso lacquerware traditional artist.

"Your set is not used in your current life style, but this is Kiso's identity, and I think the shape of Munawazen is also wonderful. "NOKO" was launched with the desire to connect the technology cultivated by the ancestors to the future by using it. "

So far, lunch boxes, stools, coffee dripers, etc. have been released. How to apply lacquer is also finished with the technique of sliding lacquer, which is transmitted to the simple and warm flavor of grain. As a furniture workshop, the manufacturing of "Made in Kiso Hirasawa", which is made from wood making to in -house, and is lacquered, is one of "NOKO" selling. It has a good reputation, and the coffee dripper and stand has won the gold prize in the first term of the "Omotenashi Selection 2020" program that discovers and certifies Japan's excellent products and services and sends both domestic and overseas.

Such a commitment to "NOKO" is to make use of contemporary technologies in addition to old -fashioned techniques and leave it as an industry.
"While I want to leave the tradition of my predecessor, it is very difficult to inherit my personal craftsmanship. So, using an NC cropping machine that has been programmed dedicated to ground, grounding. I feel that it is one way to connect the tradition to posterity to make the method of creating a groove by mechanization.
All five craftsmen working in the workshop are in their 20s and 30s, as young craftsmen are also involved in traditional crafts. Products tailored to the current lifestyle are being created.

"Okochi Furniture Studio" where young craftsmen work. Mr. Okochi (the rightmost of the photo) moved to Kiso Hirasawa because he was fascinated by woodworking while being from Nagoya City. He is a 20 -year -old furniture craftsman and a traditional Kiso lacquer ware artist.

The NC craftsman handled by young craftsmen is a programming with reference to machines that make conventional ground grooves from wood shops closed in the district. The young craftsmen who apply lacquer are currently studying lacquered to Kiso lacquer art in Shiojiri City.

"NOKO" was born in 2017 with the simple beauty of handicrafts handed over Kiso, such as "Munawazen", "Kiso Bendo Wappa" and "Menpa". Both are made to order.