FukuiArt & CraftsEchizen
Echizen Ware
One of Japan's six ancient kilns; unglazed, its surface coloured only by falling ash, and once shipped all along the north coast.
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FukuiArt & Crafts
FukuiArt & CraftsSabae
Echizen Lacquerware
Said to be 1,500 years old, and now making 80 percent of Japan's commercial lacquerware - lacquer as working tableware.
FukuiArt & CraftsObama
Wakasa Lacquer
Eggshell, shell and pine needles are buried in the lacquer, then ground back to reveal the pattern.
Obama
Wakasa Agate Carving
Agate heated until its colour changes, then carved and polished - a technique surviving only here.
FukuiArt & CraftsFukui
Shakudani Stone
Quarried for 1,500 years and soft enough to carve; wet, the stone deepens to blue-green.
YamanashiArt & CraftsKofu
Koshu Inden Deerskin
Lacquer patterned onto deerskin, and a smoke-dyeing method kept as oral secret for four centuries.
Kofu
Koshu Crystal Carving
Crystal from the local gorge carved and polished by hand; the stone ran out but the skill founded a jewellery industry.
YamanashiArt & CraftsMinobu
Nishijima Washi
Paper for calligraphy, made since the 1500s and still varied sheet by sheet to control how ink bleeds.
YamanashiArt & CraftsIchikawamisato
Paper and Fireworks of Ichikawa
A paper town that also makes fireworks - the shells are wound from paper, so the two trades grew together.
Tsuru
Yamura and Gunnai Textiles
Thin lustrous silk that sold in Edo for linings and umbrellas, woven in this valley.
Koshu
Stonemasons of Enzan
Stone that weathers to rust-red, quarried for gardens; the craft includes choosing and setting it, not only cutting.
Minobu
Buddhist Implements of Minobu
A temple-gate trade in Buddhist implements, the beads turned and the tassels braided by separate hands.
Kofu
Jewellery Quarter of Kofu
A jewellery quarter grown out of crystal carving, its cutting, setting and lapidary studios packed into the city.
Kofu
Joinery of Kai
Mulberry from the silk fields was worked into furniture once the trees were finished - a cycle of material and craft.
Ueda
Ueda Tsumugi
Said to last three generations; its striped and checked colourways follow local conventions.
NaganoArt & CraftsShiojiri
Kiso Lacquerware
Iron-rich local earth in the ground coat makes it exceptionally tough; it grew as souvenirs for travellers on the highway.
Nagiso
Nagiso Woodturning
Kiso hardwoods turned on the lathe and often left unlacquered, so choosing the timber is the real skill.
Nakano
Nakano Clay Dolls
Two families keep two separate moulds and palettes in the same town - an unusual survival of parallel lineages.
Nagano
Togakushi Bamboo Craft
Baskets woven from bamboo bent by snow, made at the gate of a mountain of ascetics for the pilgrims who came.
Suwa
Glass and Precision Industry of Suwa
A precision-machinery town whose skills flowed sideways into glass - industry and craft at close range.
GifuArt & CraftsGifu
Gifu Lanterns
Mino paper stretched so thin the bamboo ribs show through when the lantern is lit.
GifuArt & CraftsGifu
Gifu Paper Umbrellas
Most of Japan's paper umbrellas came from here; looked up into, the threads binding the ribs form a geometric pattern.
GifuArt & Crafts
GifuArt & CraftsMino
Hon-Minoshi Paper
Paper made here survives in the 8th-century Shosoin; fibres crossed both ways make it thin, even and hard to tear.