Kabazaiku -Samurai craft-
In the north of Japan, in Kakunodate in Akita prefecture, they produce one of well-known Japanese crafts with wild cherry tree bark: Kaba-zaiku.
The bark surface is very rough in the beginning. The maister polishes it, and it reaches silver colour first, and later crimson colour. Then, they stick the thin bark to the base wood with nikawa gelatin.
It has a long history.
The technique has been conveyed among the Samurai class in Kakunodate since the end of 18th century, the Edo period. Their country Kubota domain (current Akita prefecture) faced financial difficulties since they settled in. The Satake family used to rule Hitachi domain (current Ibaraki prefecture) which was richer than Kubota domain, the lord Satake had many retainers. Bringing whole retainers pushed their budget, and Kubota domain located in the north, far from the capital cities and not really developed. Kaba-zaiku became one of their income of Samurai class and the lord Satake encouraged Kaba-zaiku as their important domestic industry.
There are several styles to create a piece with the bark.
1 Kata-mono: Layer fine wood sheets on the models to shape. It is usually used for round ones, such as tea caddies.
2 Kiji-mono: Compose solid wood boards for boxes, or large table.
3 Tatami-mono: Layer many barks and stick them together to be a solid mass. They curve it to little objects. It shines like a jewel.
Since then, new techniques are invented, and the wild cherry bark is applied on new items. The beautiful barks appeared on the new phases. We introduce here the wood plates and container with cherry-bark.
Each one of them is unique, only one in the world.