Kokontozai: KASHIYUKA’s Shop of Japanese Arts and Crafts — Wild Cherry Bark Tea Canister

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February 8, 2023 | Design | KASHIYUKA’s Shop of Japanese Arts and Crafts

Searching all of Japan for handcrafted items that express its heart and soul, our proprietor, KASHIYUKA, presents things that bring a bit of luxury to everyday life. Our visit this time is to Kakunodate in Akita prefecture, famous for its cherry blossoms, where we encountered Kabazaiku tea canisters made from the bark of prized wild cherry trees.

Fujiki Denshirō Shōten was founded in 1851, carrying on the traditional craft of kabazaiku in Kakunodate, Akita prefecture and bringing it to the present day. KASHIYUKA is comparing tea canisters of the silver bark type in the main building. “There are so many colors and individual characteristics to the bark of the yamazakura!”.

In Kakunodate, Akita prefecture, where here and there 400-year-old samurai dwellings still stand. The town is known for its gorgeous cherry blossoms and for kabazaiku, literally “wild cherry bark work”, which was at one time a side business for the local samurai. “Kaba” is an alternate name for the mountain cherry tree. It is said to have come from oldest collection of Japanese short verse, the Man’yōshū, in which the poet Yamabe no Akahito referred to the tree as “kaniha”, ultimately euphonized to “kaba”.

This time around I visited the 170-year-old workshop of Fujiki Denshirō Shōten. The studio produces tea canisters and other everyday items handcrafted by artisans under the name Kakunodate Denshirō. Among these, what caught my eye was a traditional tea container made by the nationally recognized, registered traditional artisan Mr. Kengo Yonezawa. I was drawn to the beauty of the pattern and its size and usability.

Purchase No.57[Wild Cherry Bark Tea Canister]Tea canisters of wild mountain cherry tree bark express rich character.

Says Mr. Yonezawa: “I’d long loved the designs of Yanagi Sori, and when I was made aware that his father, Yanagi Soetsu was interested in kabazaiku I discovered the beauty of this local craft, which I’d previously written off as ‘old-fashioned’.” In the natural light-bathed workplace, wild cherry bark and crafting tools are very neatly arranged. “Tea canisters are made using a technique called katamono that uses tubular wooden molds. Very thinly sheared strips of wood and cherry bark are painted with glue on their unshown side and mounted on them, and then a hot trowel is used to bond the materials together. The wood forms the core, and the bark, the surface.”

“It’s fantastic that there are many modern designs as well,” says KASHIYUKA.

The newly formed tubes are overlayed upon one another, and the outer layer is sliced through to delineate the top from the body. It’s up to the individual artisan to decide where that cut will fall. They must rely on some innate sense. “What the canister expresses differs greatly from one to another depending on the location of that cut,” says Mr. Yonezawa.

Tea canister in production. Bark is attached even to the koguchi, the “small mouth” or flange.

I was unaware that kabazaiku tea canisters were double-layered. That’s why the top and body meet with seeming perfection to make them so airtight. “The beauty of the wild cherry tree is what I aim to convey,” Mr. Yonezawa says. And with that he showed me samples of the bark, and I was taken aback by the surprising texture. I’d no idea how rough it was!

Bark of the rare and valuable mountain cherry tree, which grows in a harsh environment.

“By shaving the bark’s surface, a reddish-brown layer emerges. Polishing brings out pattern and luster. There are a number of bark types, and each appears different. Amekawa shows a great deal of luster, while hibikawa has a rugged, cracked appearance, as it is grown in an exceptionally harsh environment. Kabazaiku bark is shorn from living trees, which grows back over the following years. The tree’s new surface is called nidokawa and has the texture of cork.”

With registered traditional craftsman, Mr. Kengo Yonezawa.

Mr. Yonezawa admits that it’s hard to determine what part of the bark to use. “I want to waste nothing, yet at the same time, to make something beautiful I’m seeking out the best parts. There’s always that conflict.”

This time I decided to purchase a silver-barked tea canister that displays a different look depending upon the light it’s in. I was told that over time, as a result of touching, the luster and nuances will deepen even further.

Full-bark Tea Canister / Silver-toned Bark by Kengo Yonezawa

Right / Canister, Nidokawa bark; ¥33,000.
Middle / Full-bark tea canister, Silver-toned bark; 5.5 cm circumference x 10 cm height; ¥19,800.
Left / Business card case, Shimofuri bark; ¥22,000.

●Fujiki Denshirō Shōten / 45 Shimo-shinmachi, Kakunodate-machi, Senboku-shi, Akita. TEL 0187 54 1151。10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Wednesday. If national holiday falls on Wednesday it will remain open, and close the following day.

KASHIYUKA, is a member of the electro-pop group Perfume. “Perfume LIVE 2021 [polygon wave]” Blu-ray and DVD are on sale now. They’ll be appearing at the music festival “Primavera Sound 2023” in Spain. Her memory of Akita is seeing a Namahage festival demon in the flesh at the Namahage Museum in Oga-shinzan. Instagram account: @kashiyuka.prfm_p000003