HokkaidoArt & CraftsOtaru
Kitaichi Glass Hall 3
A glassworks that made fishing floats and oil lamps; a hall lit by 167 of those lamps became the image of the whole town.
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HokkaidoArt & Crafts
AomoriArt & CraftsHirosaki
Hirosaki Kogin Institute
Kogin stitching filled scarce hemp cloth with cotton thread; the workshop still does it by hand, inside Maekawa's very first building.
Goshogawara
Tsugaru Kanayama Ware
Unglazed stoneware coloured only by wood ash, using local clay and earth dug from a former reservoir.
Hachinohe
Nanbu Hishizashi
The counterpart to Tsugaru kogin: counted on even threads, so its diamonds are built on a different geometry.
AomoriArt & CraftsHirosaki
Tsugaru Lacquerware
Nicknamed the fool's lacquer for its 48 coats, ground back to reveal a mottling made by eggshell and rapeseed.
AomoriArt & CraftsGoshogawara
Tachineputa Workshop
Next year's giant lantern is built inside the building all year, from frame to paper, wax and paint.
IwateArt & CraftsMorioka
Nambu Ironware
Four centuries of cast ironware; the hailstone pattern on each kettle is punched by hand.
IwateArt & CraftsMorioka
Morioka Handi-Works Square
Fourteen workshops under one roof, where visitors watch and try the crafts themselves.
Ninohe
Tekiseisha
In the town that taps over 70 percent of Japan's lacquer, including the sap used to repair national treasures.
Hachimantai
Appi Lacquerware Workshop
A workshop that revived the lost Appi lacquer tradition, working from raw wood to final coat.
Ninohe
Nambu Chest
Chests of zelkova wood fitted with hand-forged iron mounts, made by two trades working in tandem.
Sendai
Akiu Craft Village
Nine workshops in one hamlet, where the three trades behind a Sendai chest can be watched separately.
Sendai
Tamamushi Lacquer
Colour lacquer over silver powder, shifting like a jewel beetle's wing; developed for export in the 1930s.
MiyagiArt & CraftsSendai
Sendai Chest
Zelkova grain glowing through lacquer, dressed in hand-forged iron mounts; its size came from storing swords.
MiyagiArt & CraftsIshinomaki
Ogatsu Inkstone
Black slate inkstones made here for six centuries, once the source of most inkstones in Japan.
MiyagiArt & CraftsOsaki
Naruko Kokeshi
The only kokeshi lineage whose heads squeak when turned, still turned and painted in the hot-spring street.
Osaki
Naruko Lacquerware
Wiped lacquer that keeps the grain visible, grown from the same woodturning trade as kokeshi.
MiyagiArt & CraftsShiroishi
Yajiro Kokeshi Village
Yajiro kokeshi wear thick lathe-turned rings on the head, recognisable at a glance.
MiyagiArt & CraftsShiroishi
Shiroishi Washi
Paper strong enough to be sewn into clothing, supplied to the Todaiji Omizutori rites.
AkitaArt & CraftsAkita
Akita Silver Filigree
Silver wire finer than hair, coiled into spirals - a mine technology turned into jewellery.
Akita
Yabase Doll
Unglazed clay dolls painted in mud pigments, a folk tradition brought back from near extinction.
AkitaArt & CraftsSemboku
Shiraiwa Ware
A kiln extinct for a century, revived in 1975; known for its blue namako glaze.
AkitaArt & CraftsSemboku
Itaya Basketry
Baskets woven from split Itaya maple, a winter craft of farming households that became a traditional craft of Akita Prefecture.