It may be difficult to imagine today, when the flow of goods has become more flexible, but in pre-modern societies, all kinds of production activities developed in each region in a self-contained manner. The handicrafts that we now call traditional techniques were all born in order to make use of materials that could be found close to hand, and were cultivated over a long period of time in each locality.

Have you ever heard of kabazaiku, the traditional craft handed down in the Kakunodate area in Akita Prefecture known for its samurai residences? kabazaiku uses a special technique of pasting many layers of bark from wild cherry trees sourced locally. This technique was passed down as a domestic craft by the samurai warriors who lived in the area, and later spread to the general populace. In other words, kabazaiku is a craft in which the location, people and materials are inseparably linked.

One of the typical items of kabazaiku is tea canisters. This simple yet exquisite form is produced using a technique called katamono, in which a thin sheet of wood and wild cherry bark are layered on a cylindrical wooden mold and pasted together using a heated metal trowel. The bark is often polished to a fine luster, but the tea canister  made with the patterned bark called chirashi (marbled bark) stripped from the tree without being polished. The craft technique that draws out this wild beauty is admirable.

What is also noteworthy is its functionality. The technique described above allows the body and lid to be tightly fitted together, but does not completely shield the interior as is the case with metal tea canisters. With kabazaiku, the humidity-regulating property of the bark works well to keep the tea leaves inside at the optimum level of humidity. In addition to the simple, minimalist appearance, this functionality may be one of the reasons these tea canisters have been able to survive for so long.

These are handicrafts that can be enjoyed by looking at them, or touching and using them, while imagining the crisp limpid landscape of the north. By incorporating design created by our predecessors and spanning over generations into our modern life, we would like to contemplate how human society came to be where it is, and where it is going.

(Kabazaiku tea canister : Yatsuyanagi)