Wallpaper 11

That’s the beauty of a small city like Nara.
Once you know one person, your network
expands quickly. Most of the interesting
young entrepreneurs know each other, and
there is strong sense of camaraderie without
everyone necessarily doing the same thing or
even headed in the same direction. In biger
cities such as Tokyo or Kyoto, there is intense
competition among the creative crowd, but
here in Nara, they seem to enjoy each other’s
company, which makes the city all the easier
to penetrate, and more fun.
When Nara was Japan’s capital, craftsmen
from all over the country followed the

emperor and set up shop here, leaving a

long and impressive line of traditional

crafts in the city. Everything from beautiful

raden lacquerware to cast-iron kettles (once

a must-have item for the tea ceremony, now

increasingly popular among auent Chinese

tea-drinkers) are still made here. Hiroyuki

Maeta is one of the younger generation

of craftsmen, specialising in handcarved

wooden sculptures called ittobori. The

technique is unique in that only straight

cuts are made using razor-sharp chisels

and carving knives. Many of the works are

then painted in vivid colours, distinguishing

them from other Japanese carving traditions.

Ittobori is most often used for small takasago

dolls, but Maeta is taking the craft in a more

creative and humorous direction with

his larger works, often inspired by ancient

Japanese folklore. His adventurous designs

have included all kinds of animals (a bright

red octopus and a golden Arowana ish),

and a set-up of a black devil playing a game

of Go with a white devil. A few of these

pieces can be seen at the Nara Craft Museum

near Naramachi, and he was also recently

invited to participate in a craft exhibition

at the Nara Prefectural Museum of Art. (^) »
ANNA HASEGAWA
AND MANPEI
TSURUBAYASHI
Speaker designers
Having studied painting,
Tsurubayashi branched
out into audio design,
launching his own brand,
Sonihouse, with his
graphic designer wife,
Hasegawa, in 2007.
They are pictured here
with their tetrahedral
‘Sight’ speakers, from
¥384,000 ($3,408) for
a pair. sonihouse.net
∑ 251
Most of the interesting young entrepreneurs k now
each other and there is a strong sense of camaraderie