Type: INT 97-34 **NSF/Tokyo Report: The Transformation of Traditional
Folkcrafts: The Woodcarvers of Inami-Chao**

Org: INT

Date: 9/19/97

Replaces: None

The National Science Foundation\'s offices in Tokyo and in Paris
periodically report on developments abroad that are related to the
Foundation\'s mission. These documents present facts for the use of NSF
program managers and policy makers; they are not statements of NSF
policy.

Special Scientific Report #97-29 (September 5, 1997)

THE TRANSFORMATION OF TRADITIONAL FOLKCRAFTS:

THE WOODCARVERS OF INAMI-CHO.

Mr. Jeremy Savian, a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Anthropology,
University of New York at Buffalo, prepared the following report. Mr.
Savian was a participant in the 1997 Monbusho Summer Program sponsored
by NSF and the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture
(Monbusho). Dr. Koji Asaoka, Department of Folklore, National Museum of
Japanese History, Sakura-shi, Chiba-ken, Japan hosted Mr. Savian. Mr.
Savian can be reached via email at: savian@acsu.buffalo.edu

The National Museum of Japanese History is a full research facility
comprising four departments, History, Anthropology (archaeology),
Folklore and Museum Science. The Department of Folklore has many ongoing
projects including research into textiles, tool culture, and
contemporary issues involving folklife and \'the traditional\', to name
a few. As with Universities in Japan, the facility offers short-term
research seminars for college and graduate students during the summer
and in between semesters and has a number of part-time student
researchers on staff.

My interests have been in the transformation of traditional folkcrafts
and the role of \'the traditional\' in the formation of identity. As
such, I have used the Museum as a kind of home base from which I have
visited craftspeople and researchers both in the Tokyo area and in other
cities. Questions such as: what roles do the spokespeople of craft play
in the formation of the various craft fields? Are they influential in
the everyday lives of craftsmen? And how does innovation take place in
lifeways that are defined as traditional? These are the kinds of
questions that will hopefully lead to an understanding of how the

individual negotiates an identity in the face of national (and
international) pressure to keep their \'traditional\' ways. The
viability of a craftsperson\'s livelihood can be jeopardized as

changes take place both in the definition of their field, and through
changes that continue to take place in the world surrounding them. An
example of this is the woodcarvers of

Inami-cho.

During the late 18th century Inami became a location for woodcarvers for
temples and shrines, based on the teachings of a Master temple builder
Maekawa and its proximity to wood supplies. This kind of work
transformed into the rama, transom woodcarvings, for which Inami is now
famous, during the late Tokugawa and Meiji periods as a result of the
new found wealth of the merchant class. During the postwar boom and the
subsequent housing boom the town of Inami went through a kind of
renaissance. Housing construction continued to increase steadily
throughout this period and in 1975 the Ministry of International Trade
and Industry proclaimed rama carving a traditional industrial art. As
the town\'s tourist brochure informs, the Ministry ordered the carving
\'maintained\'. Like other important intangible folk cultural properties
(juyo mukei minzoku bunkazai) their definition was written in stone so
to speak. They are no longer able to change the style of work that they
do, or it will no longer be considered \'traditional\'. An

example of this are the set patterns used in the carving, for example
one style uses bamboo, pine tree and plum tree in a defined pattern.
Although the pattern can change based on the qualities of the wood,
(\'the character\' is the phrase we agreed was the most appropriate) the
general layout and location of the trees remains intact. As the economic
boom came to a halt number of changes took place, the first change has
been in labor laws. The craftsperson\'s apprentices have always been in
a sense, a part of the family. The apprentice lives with the
craftsperson\'s family and acts as a member of the family, baby-sitting,
or as when I was there, cleaning the yard for Obon. This, as suggested
by one craftsperson Maki, was a way to train the spirit of the
apprentice, \"so the entire life of the workshop is lived.\" In return
for room, board, and training, the apprentice received a small wage (at
the time of his apprenticeship the craftsman Kennichi said he received
2000yen a month when salary men were receiving 30000yen). In the past
few years there has been pressure on the part of the government to treat
the apprentices as workers, not students. If the government follows
through with this new definition it will mean that the apprentice will
be entitled to a living wage which will effectively eliminate the
apprentice system as the apprentice will have to be treated as labor in
order to be able to pay his/her wage. The \'life of the workshop\' will
no longer be lived. Kennichi suggested that while it was true that the
apprentices thought that they should be treated as labor as well, he
suggested that the government had influenced them in this idea. This
insinuated that it wasn\'t in their best interests to take this stance
(this statement is complex to say the least and I am not prepared to
make any assertion at this time, but it is indicative of the different
points of view in this struggle). All of the craftsmen asserted that
changing patterns of preference in buyers (the young buyer was usually
shown to be the \'problem\', another loaded statement) has lead to
decreased demand for rama. Western style houses are not

designed for the use of rama over doorways, so this kind of decision is
part preference, but it is also related to changes in the construction
industry and changing onstruction

techniques.

As Japan has opened its markets to international competition, their
\`trade imbalance\` with North America is being reduced with products in
short supply in Japan (and \'abundance\' in North America). One of the
new products that has had an impact on housing, and in turn the
woodcarvers is importation of \'two by fours\', and with them changes in
house construction techniques. Two by four construction (the techniques
being imported as well) does not create the space over doorways and
shoji screens (if they are used at all) for rama carvings. So these two
instances have lead not only to a reduction in orders for rama, they
have meant a reduction in orders for the object that defines who they
are as woodcarvers. The definition of their craft is not only defined by
outside forces such as international trade agreements, it is also
recreated as the woodcarvers try to redefine themselves, their identity.
The assertion by both Kennichi and Maki was that it was the technique of
carving that made their tradition, this in spite of their \'name\'
nationally

as rama carvers. This assertion leaves the future open ended for the
woodcarvers of Inami. If they are successful at asserting the techniques
as their tradition, they can then create forms not defined strictly as
rama carving as they have been known. This is an important distinction
for if they are unable to assert technique as their legacy this
profession of woodcarving will be unable to change with changing
national and international currents, it will be stuck as a
\'traditional\' craft, rama carving.

This is a sketchy outline of the situation in which the woodcarvers find
themselves. Clearly it is not a definitive statement and future research
will probably render a number of

the assertions on my part less significant and others more so. More
research into the historical and economic situations will be necessary
as well as more in depth field research. These phenomena do point to a
kind of back and forth in the construction of, from a national level
\'tradition\' and from an individual level, \'identity\'.