TOP > Takaoka: a place familiar to the Maeda lords of Kaga domain
In feudal times, Kaga Domain straddled present-day Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures, and here, in what, 400 years ago was a wilderness, Toshinaga the second Maeda Lord of Kaga built Takaoka Castle.
To kickstart production in the castle town, the lord invited metal casters to settle in became known as the Kanayamachi metal-working quarter which, along with a street called Yama-ch Suji, since the time of Toshinaga has been center stage for the procession and other events of the Takaoka Mikurumayama Festival, and remain locations where the traditional culture of craftsmen and townsmen is still celebrated and transmitted to the present.
Wander around these parts of town and touch the time-honored culture of Takaoka.
In 1588, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the ruler of Japan, presented to Toshiie, the first Maeda Lord of Kaga Domain, the ceremonial court carriage he rode when visiting members of the Imperial Household. In 1609, around the time of the construction of Takaoka Castle, second-generation Lord Toshinaga, the town father, bestowed the vehicle on the townspeople of the castle town, and so began the history of Mikurumayama floats.
In the name, mi is an honorific, kuruma means car, and yama refers to the high central pole with its umbrella like decoration. During the spring festival of Takaoka Sekino Shrine, annually on May 1, gorgeously decorated using metalworking, lacquering, woodcarving, dyeing and other living artisanal skills of the townspeople, these floats set out in procession through the city’s thronging streets.
In 2016, recognized as one of the notable "Yama, Hoko, Yatai, float festivals in Japan," Takaoka Mikurumayama Festival was inscribed as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Housed in a replica traditional merchant property, Takaoka Mikurumayama Museum, one at a time by turns, displays each of the seven floats actually used in the festival procession. In addition, including exhibits showing the lacquering, metalworking, dyeing and weaving, and other artisanal skills deployed on the Mikurumayama floats, you can learn about the history and cultural background of the festival.
More closely touching Takaoka and its festival, in interactive exhibits, you can also join in with the musical accompaniment of the float procession, control a karakuri ningyo figure’s limbs, and in the museum cafe enjoy food made with local produce and served on pewter tableware made by local artisans.
Metal casters first moved into this part of town, known as Kanaya-machi, in 1609. In recent times, many workshops have moved to the suburbs, but the old-time appearance of the lattice-fronted business premises along the stone paved street retains the atmosphere of those lively days.
Along this street, in business since 1860, Otera-Kohachiro Shoten is a long-established store. After starting off by casting kettle braziers and other everyday items, the family business expanded into the wholesale trade, as well. These days, besides manufacturing and wholesaling operations, the company also runs a cafe and gallery in its characterful main building, which has been standing for 200 years.
After, in the elegant gallery store, while viewing an array of distinctive charming figures and other products based on animal motifs, and products such vases as accessories, all of which combine traditional Takaoka casting skills with the sensibility of young designers, you can relax with matcha green tea or other drink in the cafe, either seated in a chair or on the tatami mat floor of the Japanese room space.
Experience workshop options include creating original pewter accessories or making a relief mold for casting, and there is also a matcha green tea experience.
In the mid-19th century, in a corner of Kanayamachi, making hand braziers, kettle braziers, and other items, Risaburo Foundry was established by first-generation Risaburo. Inheriting techniques present since metal-working was first practiced in Takaoka, the foundry still uses the double casting method.
Suitable for braziers and tea kettles, double casting involves making two molds in iron plates, both together being an external negative image of the finished product, which emerges after these are combined around an internal mold and, to form the object, molten bronze is poured in to fill the gap. The workshop studio makes, exhibits, and sells portable kettle braziers and other tea ceremony utensils, vases, wine coolers, door handles, and various other craft items.
At Risaburo Studio Foundry you can take a tour to see artisans performing double-casting. Witness molten bronze heated up to 1300°C being poured into sand molds and then smoothing and other finishing processes.
Pouring molten metal into a mold, you can also try your hand at casting, under the guidance of an artisan, a small pewter original work such as windchime, paperweight, chopstick rest or fridge magnet.
Set up in Kanayamachi in 1946, Yotsukawa Works started by making vases. In response to the times, various other original cast-bronze products were planned in-house and manufactured, including a highly appreciated incense burner made using precision casting techniques.
While Kisendo, one of the brands developed here, expresses traditional beauty, in tea ceremony utensils and incense burners, born of our legacy of traditional artisanal skill, the other Kisen brand of stylish tableware matches refined modern lifestyles.
Line-ups for both brands were completed in 2016 and, in the showroom at the headquarters of Yotsukawa Works, you can enjoy the contrast between the traditional and the innovative.
Fronting the stone-paved street in Kanaya-machi, the "antenna shop" Tatara-an Kisen is back-to-back with the headquarters. Here in the elegant, restored space of an old lattice-fronted building you can handle, and purchase, some of the items from the brand line-ups.
