Japanese Family Keeping a 100 Year Old Craft Alive [FULL]

Hey everyone, it's Bobby from Kityu Japan. Today I'm going to show you the video about Ujoubori. Ujoubori is a type of unique woodworking craft that originated in Okayama about a hundred years ago. With vibrant colors and really interesting carvings that seem to pop out at you. Its founder, Kiguchi Kyoho, was kind of a renaissance man in his time. And for those of you wondering, the name Ujoubori comes from Ujou, which is the name for Okayama Castle or Crow Castle. Their current fourth generation of craftspeople include Ethan, Andre, and Sasha. And yes, they are mixed Japanese, but more importantly, they are excellent at what they do and they are the future of this business. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. I started carving about two days ago. I think I'll be able to do it in a day or so. It takes a lot of time to carve. The most difficult part is to figure out how to do it. I have to think about how I'm going to do it and how I'm going to carve it. And then I have to think about how I'm going to carve it again. I have to think about it over and over again. It's hard to think about it. Ethan makes it look easy, but when I tried carving at one of the taiken or wood carving experiences, I was surprised about how clumsy my cuts were. The Ujoubori members make it look like cutting butter, but it's so easy to get stuck or even overcut the pieces. Not to mention the level of concentration it requires. It was fun. Even now, I still enjoy carving. I've never said I wanted to be serious about it. I started out with a very vague and unpleasant feeling. When I changed my mind, the first thing I did was to do it with Andre and Sasha. That's how I changed a lot. We've been brothers since we were born. It's a good thing, but he's my big brother. It's done. This takes about 10 days. There are some thin parts, like here and here. It's hard to make sure it doesn't fly away. Now that the carving is done, up next is the most time-consuming process, which is the lacquering. This is lacquer. It's the sap of the wood. The sap of the wood. It's the sap of the wood. The lacquering is done using a technique called spray lacquer. The first step is to apply the base coat. If you don't apply the base coat properly, no matter how well you apply the lacquer, you won't be able to do a good job if the base coat isn't applied properly. The most important thing is to apply the lacquer thinly. If you apply it as it is, it's really hard to apply. When the lacquer hardens, it hardens like a stone. If you apply it as it is, you'll get scratches, so make sure you don't get any dirt on it. There are a lot of gaps, right? If you don't apply the lacquer properly, it will distort. For example, if you soak the wood in water for a long time, the wood will be distorted if the lacquer is not applied properly. So you have to apply the lacquer properly on the first try. You have to apply the lacquer a lot on the first try. If you apply the lacquer more and more, the lacquer won't be absorbed by the wood and the wood won't use the lacquer. It takes about a day for the lacquer to dry. So if you apply the lacquer once, you have to wait until it dries. There are about 30 coats of lacquer on the first try, so it takes about two months to dry. I'm going to wipe off the lacquer that I don't need anymore. I'm going to put the lacquer in a place called a muro. So I was surprised to hear that lacquer actually doesn't dry very well in dry environments. It dries more quickly in humid environments. Andre and other lacquerers use this thing called a muro, which is basically a humidifying box. Depending on the season, if it's a season when it's hard to dry, you need to soak the lacquer in water. But in summer, there's a lot of humidity, so you don't have to soak the lacquer in water. At first, I stayed in Okinawa for five years. I had to come back to Okinawa, so I came back. At that time, I didn't intend to do Ujobori at all. But Fujiwara-san, who is below me, said, Ujobori will end without the next generation, so let's do our best. That's how I started. I painted the lacquer. The lacquer is OK. It's cute, isn't it? Coloring is called coloring. What I polish is garbage. If you look closely, can you see the grains? It's like shaving only the garbage. If you apply it twice, the color will be beautiful. If you apply it too thickly, you can get these wrinkles. Even if you apply it too thinly, if you scrape it, it will come off. If you don't go in the middle, it will look like this. Old school people mix their own colors from the beginning. When I want to make a color I like, I mix powder. But my grandfather, Kiguchi Shogo, he's from the Soke family. When he chose the lacquer, he licked it. He tasted it like this. When he tasted it, he could tell if it was good or bad. Just by mixing it, the shine and the color of the lacquer become better. When it touches the air, it dries, so you have to seal it. I probably have to apply black again. I can't apply it too thickly. It's done. It took about a month. I finished it pretty quickly. I like small details, so it was fun overall. And those plates you saw Andre working on earlier? Well, those are carved by workshop participants and lacquered by Andre. There's a lot of unseen preparation and hard work put into these events, making sure that they succeed. And in my opinion, a lot of that success is attributed to Sasha. Sasha's sort of a jack-of-all-trades at Ujobori. From a young age, she carved, and in Ethan's opinion, she was the best carver in their youth. She does PR, talks to venues, museums, and customers. Sasha makes sure to convey all the necessary information about Ujobori to clients, and then relays the customers' needs and expectations to Ethan and Andre as well. This could be the nitty-gritty details, it could be color, the type of design that they want. Even if Sasha isn't officially a carver or lacquerer yet, she really helps keep the ship on course. I'm still studying I'd like to try it someday. But I'm still lacking in skills, so if I start working on a piece if I mess up a little, then that alone will ruin the value. So I'm still studying. Ujobori was named in 1925, and I wanted to make a piece for the 100th anniversary of Ujobori. The piece I made in 1925 will probably last longer than me. So even if I die, I want to leave a piece that's not embarrassing. Thanks again to the Ujobori family for letting us film them. If you find yourself in Okayama City, I highly recommend you visit their headquarters or workshop. I'll leave a link in the description down below for their website. You can try to book an appointment with them, but honestly, just drop by and see the beautiful works of art for yourself. Because generally speaking, there's going to be somebody there, and they're all very nice. Big thanks to my friend India for helping me shoot on several occasions. And let me know in the comments if you have any questions about Ujobori, woodcrafting, or just other things about Japanese culture. So, with that said, I'll catch you in the next time.