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A Journey Searching for Traditional Japanese Candle

It seems that only a limited number of people know about the traditional Japanese candles
that were used as a light source. Nowadays, less expensive candles such as the ones that
we can purchase in a dollar shop are made of paraffin (the right in the above photo); on theother hand, the traditional Japanese candles used in the old days are handmade using thevegetable wax from Japanese sumac or haze trees (the left in the above photo), latter would
be more appropriate to be used in Odawara-Chochin. To know more about traditional
Japanese candles, I visited a candle factory that produced handmade candles
manufactured in an old fashion way using pure haze vegetable wax.
The factory that I visited was called Daiyo, a family owned candle shop 100 years old
located at Oumi-Imazu by Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture. Akihiro Onishi was the thirdgeneration candle craftsman, handmaking candles using 100 percent pure haze vegetable
wax in a traditional way that had been succeeded for generations and his family members
were helping him to preserve the tradition.
The first step in manufacturing Japanesecandles was to prepare wicks.
When I visited the Onishi family, Grandma Miyo,age 89, was working on making the wicks at averandah of her room. She attached an oblong
piece of Japanese paper around a stick andgrabbed a few pieces of rush, already peeledand dried, and wound them around it. The rush
was very fragile and easy to break when pulled,though Grandma Miyo smoothly coiled the rushwithout damaging it. She said she used toplace the rush in the shower room overnight togive it extra moisture. She continued coilingthe rush until the Japanese paper on the stick
was wholly covered and then she tightened it up
with cotton so that the rush would not getloosened, before pulling the wick out from thestick.

Grandma Miyo

Wicks

Grandma Miyo had been working on making wicks for decades since her marriage; she
acquired the technique by looking at the work of her husband who already passed away.
Grandma Miyo said she felt uncomfortable if she did not do the wick making work.
The next step was to cover the wicks using haze vegetable wax and form the candles, theprocess of which was to be done by the third generation candle craftsman Akihiro and hissons. The majority of Haze trees appropriate for wax in good quality are grown in Kyushu
area in Japan and they purchased the haze vegetable wax from a supplier in Kyushu. (Thecake of haze vegetable wax on the left in the photo below is for a basic use and the one on
the right is for cosmetic coating, and the one in front is bleached.)

The traditional Japanese candle forming process is as follows:
1) The wicks prepared in advance are inserted tosticks in appropriate diameters. (Wick Insertionprocess)2) The wicks on the sticks are dipped in melted wax
and dried to solidify, which let the wick sufficiently
soaked and coated with wax. (Pre-coating process)3) The process to pour the melted wax on to thewicks and to form the candles is called wax pouring
process. Haze wax melts at 40 degree Celsius
and liquefied, therefore there is no risk of burning
skin when pouring melted wax using bare hands.
Grab the several sticks with the wicks and place thelower edges of the sticks on a pedestal with a flat
surface and scrub them with the palm of the righthand to rotate the sticks. Scoop up the melted wax
using the left hand and pour it over on to the wicks
and rub them with the fingers of the left hand toeven the thickness with a smooth surface whilerotating the sticks with the right hand. Rest thewax to cool and solidify before applying next layersof wax. This pouring process is repeated until arequired thickness has been achieved. (Basicpouring process)Wick Insertion Process

Wax Pouring Process

4) The haze wax of the best quality will be applied tothe outer layers of the candles to make them look
beautiful in a light green color. (Final coating orcosmetic coating process)5) Take candles out from the sticks and the top partof the candles is scraped with a knife to have the tipof the wicks to come out. (Wick shaping process)The bottom part of the candles is also scraped flat,
which makes the candles ready to be packed and togo.

Wick Shaping Process

There are candle craftsmen in various parts of Japan who manufacture handmade
Japanese candles with the traditional method using pure haze vegetable wax and among
them are young generation chandlers like Satoshi and Hisashi. The handmade Japanesecandles using pure haze vegetable wax are rather expensive; however, through myresearch a strong emotion to light up Japanese candles has arisen in my mind, which
certainly would be a luxurious and relaxing moment. The Japanese Folk Art Museum
Edo-Mingu-Kaido will have a demonstration of lighting up Japanese candles and showing avideo of Japanese candle making in near future. Please look forward to it.

The Onishi family in front of their candle shop “Daiyo”.
The third generation candle craftsman Akihiro on the right in the front row and Grandma
Miyo on the left. Akihiro’s first son Satoshi on the right in the back row, Akihiro’s wife
Chieko in the middle and Akihiro’s second son Hisashi on the left.
Homepage of Daiyo Handmade Japanese Candle Shop: http://www.warousokudaiyo.com/