The Dictionary · Craft tourism of Japan
The Dictionary
Doors into Japan's living crafts — where the maker stays unknown, and the beauty lives in use.
Tsugaru-nuri津軽塗
A lacquerware of Hirosaki. Its 'karanuri' pattern emerges only when dozens of built-up coats of coloured urushi are ground back — so painstaking it earned the…
Craft /en/craft/tohoku/tsugaru-nuri/
SANSAI (wild mountain greens)山菜
Wild greens gathered for a few spring weeks, served in the valley's own bowls.
Food · Spring /en/food/tohoku/sansai/
Nambu Ironware南部鉄器
Cast ironware from Iwate — kettles, teapots and wind chimes. Japan's first designated Traditional Craft (1975); nearly lost, now prized worldwide.
Kitakami basin /en/craft/tohoku/nambu-ironware/
Every word is a door to the next.
Onta's clay leads to the river, the river to a hot spring, the spring to the table. The relations are the route.