[VILLAGE Report vol.37] The Third of Japan’s Three Great Uchiwa Fans | Chiba Prefecture

Chiba Prefecture’s nationally designated items are Boshu Uchiwa Fans and Chiba Artisans’ Tools the 2 items.

In this series, this is the third uchiwa fan.

With this, Japan’s three great uchiwa fans are all here

Marugame uchiwa fans (Kagawa, vol.14), Kyoto uchiwa fans (Kyoto, vol.22), and Boshu uchiwa fans (Chiba). These three are known as Japan’s three great uchiwa fans.

All three have different structures.

• Marugame is made with the handle and ribs from a single piece of bamboo. There is also a flat handle. 83 million are made annually, accounting for 90% of the national total
• Kyoto uses a “sashi-e” method, joining the separately made fan face and handle afterward.
• Boshu is, uses a “round handle” method: one round piece of bamboo remains as the handle, and its tip is split finely to form the ribs.

With the Boshu method, the handle and ribs are originally one piece. There is no joint, so it does not come apart.

The split ribs are woven with thread and spread out. The beauty of this section, where fine ribs line up in detail, is synonymous with Boshu uchiwa fans.

Even under the same name “uchiwa,” the way they are made is entirely different from one production area to another. This is something that has come up many times in this series, but uchiwa fans show it most clearly.

Why Boso?

The Boso Peninsula was a production area for slender bamboo suited to uchiwa fans, such as medake bamboo..

Originally, as a bamboo-producing region, it supplied materials to Edo. In the Taisho period, this changed into a model where finished products were made locally. according to estimates.

From supplying materials to finishing the product. This was a major turning point for the production area.

Yamanashi crystal (vol.29) was the opposite: even after the raw stone disappeared, the processing techniques remained. A production area can survive even if it lets go of either its material or its technique.

Cutlery, added in 2017,

Chiba Artisans’ Tools is a relatively new craft to receive national designation.

Kitchen knives, hoes, scissors, sickles— the very tools used by artisans in total.

Cutlery has appeared many times in this series: Sakai in Osaka for professional Japanese kitchen knives (vol.23), Echizen in Fukui for sickles (vol.30), Kochi for forestry tools (vol.17), and Sanjo in Niigata for everyday cutlery (vol.33).

And Chiba is about “tools for people who make things.” Because the users are professional artisans, the shapes are said to be often adapted to order.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Where are Boshu uchiwa fans made?
A. They are made mainly in the area around Minamiboso City. There are more than 20 processes, all done by hand, from cutting bamboo to splitting ribs, weaving, and pasting paper.

Next issue, we go to Ibaraki, with the story of a pongee silk listed by UNESCO.

References: Chiba Prefecture, Minamiboso City, Tateyama City, Association for the Promotion of Traditional Craft Industries

—The Value Village Editorial Team