Super Fitness Health BlogUncover the Light of Japan
“We may simply have lost our appreciation for handmade goods.” Igarashi san has been building chochin paper lanterns in his little shop for his lifetime. His father also, and his grandfatherand great grandfather and also great, great grandfather. The various tools & equipment 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 residents have already been getting Igarashi chochin from the store, in the heart of old Kanazawa’s merchant section, near the back of the fortress. The shelves are stacked high with beautifully decorated lanterns – radiant bursts of color peppering the dusty confines of the small course.
Chochin lamps have a fairly long history in Japan – there is proof of them being used in temples in the 10th century – and were used primarily as a portable means of light. Only occasionally used inside, they often put outside a residence, temple or organization or else in the entrance, ready to be stopped on a and carried before anybody heading out at night. Igarashi-san reckons that at one time they were so trusted there might have existed 40 or 50 chochin retailers only in Kanazawa. In these days there remain only herself and one other local craftsman in the trade and the other man (Matsuda-san) has long since diversified, making old-fashioned umbrellas his principal.
Creating a chochin is a hard, pretty delicate procedure despite the magnificently simple appearance of the conclusion product. And, when asked what’re the most crucial features in his career Igarashi-san responds, his bright eyes dead serious, “patience and concentration”. The average sized lantern according to Igarashi-san, at about 30 cm across, may be developed at an interest rate of about two per day by one person including all the painting. However some certainly big ones have gone the Igarashi shop over the years – his biggest was a matsuri beast measuring 5 shaku (1 shaku = 30.3cm in the old Japanese measuring system) in length by having an complex year of the rabbit design about it. The old lantern manufacturer is realistic concerning the fact that people need cheaper, mass-produced, plastic covered lanterns these times – he even carries them himself – but he is comfortable in the knowledge that a well-made paper lantern is a beautiful thing, excellent in a variety of ways to these garish modern impostors.
“You can restore a good chochin,” he tells us, “you can replace one rib or repair a hole in the paper no problem.” “Plastic lanterns don’t have any inner body and can not be patched.” A paper lantern irrespective of how well made lasts just about per year (pure beauty is definitely fleeting) while a plastic one might last twice that and cost half the maximum amount of. Along with that, we as a community could have only dropped our appreciation for handmade products. Cost is becoming our primary determination as customers. We do not care to know how things were made today, or who made them, or else Igarashisan would be the effective head of a chain of shops.
The partitions of the Igarashi Chochinya and his ready-to-hand scrapbook sport innumerable monochrome pictures and press clippings showing a happy, broad-shouldered young man with strong, thick hands and an attractive smile showing off sophisticated report spheres with matsuri lights glimmering in the background. Humbly showing us them, his warm, friendly smile just slips somewhat as he tells us that he will be the last of his family line making lamps here.
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