| Heibei
Minoya @Work |
Inventor of sujimonobiki, years of birth and death unknown, around the Bunka Era. An almost legendary master craftsman who has long been remembered as the initiator of sujimonobiki. Two examples of his lacquerware are preserved in Yamanaka-cho. |
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| Uhei
Aratani |
Master woodturner, born in June 1856, died in April 1885. An incomparable tray master, his works are quite esteemed even today. An extremely hard drinker, a story relates that he even demanded liquor instead of money for his work. |
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| Seizo
Mimasuya @Work |
Master of sensujibiki (thousand-stripe woodturning). Born October 3, 1833, died in June 1887. Added new variety to sensujibiki. In the Han government era, the feudal lord visited Yamanaka and demanded that Mimasuya show him some work. Mimasuya squatted in front of the chunagon (medium-rank officer) to perform woodturning, and people teased him saying that he should have been a dainagon (high-rank officer) to be so bold. Then, people began to call him Daisei, which stood for Dainagon-no-Seizo. |
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| Shogoro
Matsuno @Work |
Master of usudebiki (thin woodturning). It is said that 100 pieces of his work only amounted to a pile 6 sun (18.2 cm) high and that one could blow these pieces into the air. It is also said that he was naturally neat and could make a wooden horse that looked alive. |
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| Mankichi
Sawade @Work |
Born October 8, 1871, died May 16, 1929. Started woodturning at the age of 16. At 18, he improved the one-person woodturning wheel, which was invented by Kichitaro Yagi, by adding two flywheels. At 22, he contrived a range of new models such as gotenwan. At 28, he changed his specialty to oval and hikioroshi woodturning, and contrived ransujibiki and mushiborisuji. He made great contributions even while young. In 1900, he set out for a journey to popularize the arabiki technique with his followers. Grateful to the hermit god Prince Koretaka, he installed a statue of the Prince in Higashiyama in cooperation with his followers and opened the Higashiyama Shrine in April 1908. He promoted the modernization of production, and introduced the powered Suzuki-style lathe wheel in 1912. He was also eager to teach others, and nurtured more than 60 followers. |
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| Ryotaro Tsuiki
@Work |
A master hand of sensujibiki, born on October 27, 1874. Tsuiki learned woodturning techniques under woodturner Sankichi Asahiya, and kept on studying. He invented polished-lacquer products in June 1893, designed innovative sujimonobiki styles including kesuji, urokome, and inahome, and invented the hiroitome, matsumarime, and yamamichisuji styles in 1909. While improving the conventional itomebiki styles, he presented his work in many exhibitions and expositions and won awards. He even presented his work in overseas events, including the Kyongsong Expo in 1907, the Yukon Pacific Expo in Alaska in 1910, the World Expo on Modern Ornaments and Art Crafts in Paris in 1925, and the San Francisco World Expo in 1926. In each of those overseas events, Tsuiki received a silver medal for merit. Tsuiki was also eager to nurture his followers and to encourage his craft brothers, and received an industrial merit award from the Mayor of Ishikawa in 1931. Additionally, he often won official commendations by government agencies and organizations. |
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| Yoshizo
Aizuya @Work |
Came to Yamanaka in the Tempo Era, and strove to incorporate the techniques of Aizu lacquer into Yamanaka lacquerware with Rokuemon Echizen'ya. He contributed to the improvement of Yamanaka lacquerware by introducing refinement techniques of liquid lacquer, the proportioning of color coats, and a rotary drying bath shelf. His merit was awarded by the Mayor of Ishikawa in 1892 and by the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce in 1898. |
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Yujo
Goto the First
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A master lacquerer in the Bunsei Era. Known as a master of negoronuri, created a variety of fancy lacquering. He improved the rotary drying bath shelf introduced by a lacquerer from Aizu, and popularized it in Yamanaka. |
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| Tozaburo Takeuchi | A master lacquerer. Born in April 1844, died October 12, 1923. Based on negoronuri, he incorporated the schemes of nunokaburi-katajinuri to improve the quality of Yamanaka lacquerware. He made great contributions to maintaining people's trust in Yamanaka lacquerware. There were other famous lacquerers including Saburoemon Izukuraya (around the Bunka Era), Yaemon Mikuniya (around the Kaei Era), Jinshichi Kosaka, Yoshitaro Wada, Eizaburo Tsuchiyama, Yoshiro Nagaya, Yujo Goto, and Shinji Tanimura (Meiji and Taisho Eras). However, details about them are not clear. |
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| Kahei Kasaya | Born in 1780, died July 3, 1838. He learned from Zensuke, a lacquerer in Kyoto, in 1825, and the techniques were greatly improved then. Kasaya was a pioneer of lacquering. |
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| Rokuemon
Echizen'ya |
Born in 1789, died on August 25, 1856. He made great contributions to the study and improvement of lacquering. He was the person who invited Yoshizo Aizuya to Yamanaka. |
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| Nisaburo
Tanaka @Work |
Born in Miki Village in May 1885, year of death unknown. His pseudonym was Keimin. As a child, he was adopted by his uncle and studied lacquering in Yamanaka. At the age of 18, he went to Kyoto to learn from Komin Harui. Six years later, he came back to Yamanaka at the age of 23 and continued learning by himself. His specialty was Kyoto-style scraped lacquering of precise and delicate mountains and waters. He spent at least one year to finish a single work, sometimes even two or three years. He was full of craftsman-like spirit, and was particular about every detail of his work. |
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