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Kyoto: The Beauty and Skill in Tradition - Core Kyoto Special

NHK WORLD-JAPAN・16 minutes read

The text highlights various traditional crafts and artisans in Kyoto, showcasing their meticulous processes and dedication to preserving cultural heritage through intricate designs and techniques. It emphasizes the importance of passing down these skills through generations to maintain the rich cultural traditions of Kyoto.

Insights

  • Kyoto is a hub of traditional crafts where artisans dedicate hours to create intricate pieces like braided cords for kimonos and glass pens with intricate designs, showcasing the city's rich artistic heritage.
  • The meticulous craftsmanship of Kyoto artisans, passed down through generations, is evident in processes like thatching roofs and creating dry landscape gardens, embodying Zen Buddhist principles and showcasing the dedication and skill of these artisans.

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Recent questions

  • What traditional crafts are showcased in Kyoto?

    Various traditional crafts like Kyoto Yen dying and braided cords.

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Summary

00:00

"Kyoto's Artisans and Traditional Crafts"

  • Gary Tegler, the voice behind Core Kyoto, has lived in Kyoto for 35 years and introduces the city's wonders in over 200 episodes.
  • The Kyoto Museum of Crafts and Design showcases 74 traditional crafts, including Kyoto Yen dying, a complex technique involving over 20 stages.
  • Artisans handcraft braided cords used to fasten obis around kimonos, with each cord taking over 10 hours to create.
  • Kono Shinji, an artist, paints kimono designs using traditional nihonga methods, creating fan-shaped paper art with plum blossoms against a full moon.
  • Koko shibori, a Kyoto craft, involves tying fabric into thousands of beads and dyeing it, creating a mesmerizing fabric.
  • Khan shapes glass pens that write smoothly by heating the glass rod to 1200°C and forming intricate designs.
  • Eddie Tomoko applies Kitty Kane, gold foil, to Buddhist statues and secular craftwork with intricate designs, handed down over generations.
  • Nishiki Market in Kyoto offers a vast array of Japanese food products, including white miso, a luxury commodity with a refined sweetness.
  • Yamazaki Mari upholds the traditional Kyoto pickle-making process for shogo in turnips, a Kyoto Heritage vegetable.
  • Hirano Yoshiaki, a veteran tofu maker, demonstrates the meticulous process of making tofu, considering factors like season and soybean quality.

35:15

Traditional Japanese craftsmanship in architectural design.

  • The art of thatching, demonstrated in the construction of Kyomi Zud's OKO in 2014, involves Cypress bark strips submerged in water to make them pliable. These strips are then layered and secured with bamboo pegs, a process that requires the thater to put 20 to 30 pegs in his mouth at a time, turning them to point in the same direction before pounding them in with a special Hammer.
  • In the creation of dry landscape Gardens like Kadis Sansui, sheer Boulders represent mountain valleys and white gravel symbolizes an ocean, embodying Zen Buddhist thought. Kitay Yasuo, a renowned architect and artist, meticulously selects natural stones for Rock Gardens, arranging them thoughtfully to represent Buddha and his body sers, ensuring they can be viewed from any angle.
  • Tanaka Akosi, inspired by the premium soil used in the joraku walls of Guon, aspires to recreate similar walls by applying a clay mix with straw as the base, followed by two stages of lighter-colored clay-like mixtures. His meticulous process involves great care in applying the final coat to achieve the desired character, showcasing the intricate craftsmanship and dedication of Kyoto artisans passed down through generations.
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