＃168 珊瑚彫刻作家　山本 達也　|　明日への扉 by アットホーム

At Home Presents The Door to Tomorrow The mystery of the sea created by nature, coral. Its colorful and diverse shape is truly an artwork of the sea. Coral is actually a rare species of animal that belongs to the Chihuahua. There are two main types of coral. The first is the coral that forms the coral reef in the shallow sea. The second is the coral that lives in the deep sea. The largest coral reef is in the Kochi Prefecture. The red coral is one of the rarest. The deep red, also known as blood red, is the world's highest quality coral. The coral is colored from white to red. It is processed into jewelry such as rings, brooches, and earrings. Jewelry corals are sold at a high price and are highly valued as artworks. During the year when famous artists are on display, corals are also on display. Among them, there is a craftsman who was on display at the age of 20. Masaki Sango, a coral processing company in Kochi City. Here is a young man on display. He is Yamamoto Tatsuya, a coral sculptor. He is 25 years old. I hope to discover the potential of coral. Tatsuya, who is now in his 7th year, was inexperienced when he started this path. The following year, he reached the pinnacle of the world of coral sculpture. How did he master the art of coral sculpture at such a young age? He was particular about the number of techniques to create this beauty. The history of coral jewelry is old. 25,000 years ago, beads were discovered from the ruins of Germany in the 9th century. It is said that these beads were used as jewelry at that time. In Japan, in 752, during the Great Buddha's visit to the sea, Emperor Shomu used a crown made of jewelry coral, which was thought to be imported. Coral is also famous as a treasure in Urashima-taro and Momotaro. It is known to have been a valuable luxury item from ancient times. In the early Edo period, there are records of fishermen from Muroto and Misaki in Kochi Prefecture pulling up coral. However, the Tosa-han at that time was afraid of being fined by the Shogunate. Therefore, it was forbidden to collect, store, or sell coral. After that, in the Meiji period, coral fishing began in Muroto and Ashizuri, and it became an indispensable industry in the local area. Currently, in Japan, only in Kochi Prefecture, the importation of raw wood from coral is carried out. Mr. Tatsuya, who grew up in Nankoku City, Kochi Prefecture, has loved drawing and making things since he was a child. He enrolled in a high school with an art course. He majored in painting at the art club. I learned a lot of arts, such as drawing and painting. After that, he found a job in his hometown, and it was a masaki coral processing company. I didn't know anything about making things, and I never thought about coral. Mr. Tatsuya, who joined Masaki Coral, learned the basics of coral carving from scratch here. Mr. Tatsuya's second year at Masaki Coral was full of good luck. He won the best prize at the Tosa Coral Festival, a national competition for coral carving. His work, which includes a beautiful cherry blossom and a lively shrimp, received great support from the judges. I was surprised. When I entered the room, I saw a sticker with my name on it. I doubted my eyes. I looked around to see if I was in the wrong place. The following year, Mr. Tatsuya won the best prize twice in a row. His work, which includes a beautiful cherry blossom and a lively shrimp, made Mr. Tatsuya look like a coral carver. In addition, in 2023, he won the best prize in three-dimensional carving using the shape of coral. Mr. Tatsuya, who is young and aims for the future of coral carving, actually showed me the process. First, he starts by separating the coral. Coral wood continues to thrive due to the increase in popularity overseas. Large wood costs tens of millions of yen or more. It is a material used from jewelry to sculpture. It is a precious material that young Mr. Tatsuya can't reach. I hope one day I will be able to touch it. This coral, chosen from raw wood, will be Mr. Tatsuya's work. Jewelry corals can be divided into several types depending on their color. Among them, the highest quality red coral shines beautifully when polished with raw wood. This time, Mr. Tatsuya uses a peach-colored coral about 6 cm in length. I'm going to make a work with a flower motif. I'm going to make it using the shape of the coral in the company. I'm going to scrape off the scratches around the coral to see if they disappear. Corals that are collected while alive are called sacred, and are valuable and expensive. On the other hand, dead corals evaporate over time, leaving holes and scratches. This time, Mr. Tatsuya changes the corals that are not suitable for jewelry into artworks. He uses a polishing machine to smoothen the surface of the coral. Before polishing, there were a lot of scratches and holes, but the shape has been adjusted to make it easier to sculpt. This is called rough sanding. With a large tool like this, I usually make a big cut while making a pattern. This time, I'm going to carve a cherry blossom, so I'm going to carve a circle as a base. Roughly scrape off the rounded part with a pencil with a tool called a router. The hardness of the coral is almost the same as that of human teeth. Use a flat, cylindrical blade to shape a small cherry blossom. There are various types of router blades. A blade for cutting a wide area. A blade for dividing and angling. A blade with a pointed tip to make a hole. A blade for replacing the blade according to the purpose. Here, you can carefully carve with a small disk-shaped blade. Three hours later. On the first day of production, he finished carving a rough outline of a small cherry blossom. The second day. On this day, he makes the cherry blossom flowers three-dimensional. The center of the flower is bulging out like this. I'm lowering the center of the flower. The number of flowers is about 30. Scrape off all the bulging flowers. Next, put a mark in the center of the flower and carve with a needle-shaped blade. In addition, carve in a curve toward the center of the flower. This kind of fine carving is Mr. Tatsuya's new passion. I asked Mr. Tatsuya, the president of Masaki-Sango, who was in charge of carving. Basically, he was very quick to understand. If he was an ordinary person, he would have to train for 10 or 20 years. I learned in 2 or 3 years that he couldn't get into it easily. In this way, a three-dimensional effect was added to the cherry blossom flowers. The third day of production. From now on, I will draw a line of 5 equal parts and draw all of them. I'm going to split the flowers. Use a pencil to divide the cherry blossoms into 5 equal parts. Scrape the lines with a thin disk-shaped blade to shape the petals. This is the motif of cherry blossoms, which is often seen in Mr. Tatsuya's works. Why did you choose cherry blossoms? It's beautiful at a glance. Of course, I was given a not so beautiful coral at that time. Even if there is a deep hole in such a material, cherry blossoms can be used as a gap. I thought that the motif was suitable for the material I was given. While making use of the scratches and holes of coral, he uses cherry blossoms as an image of his own work. Next, combine another coral with this round part. The material used is the root part of the white coral. Roughly draw the shape with a pencil. After cutting off the draft part with a rotary saw, shape it with a file. It is chocolate that is made with cherry blossoms. If you make a rough shape, you can arrange it in more detail. Next, consider the shape of the mouth of the chocolate. Make a dent while adding water. In order to prevent a crack when it becomes high temperature due to friction, scrape while lowering the temperature with water. And the final finish. The outer part of the coral is a little conspicuous, so I'm going to add a pattern of cherry blossoms with another pink coral. One of the characteristics of coral is that it has different colors and patterns. Since coral without dents is valuable, processed products are traded at a high price. First, glue a small coral to the tip of a thin stick. Make a cherry blossom with a diameter of about 5 mm. Check the size of the flower and trace it. Dig a hole in the chocolate to fit the cherry blossoms. After gluing and smoothing, the chocolate has a cherry blossom pattern. Day 4 After arranging the petals in more detail. In order to express the overlap or gap in the middle of the five petals of the cherry blossoms, it is a process of opening five flowers around the round part. Make five holes of less than 1 mm in each flower. Day 4 is over in this process. On this day, cherry blossoms bloomed in the shape of a round flower. Day 5 of production. It's finally time to finish the cherry blossoms. I'm going to express the wrinkles of the petals, such as the walls in the center of the cherry blossoms. What I use is a needle-shaped blade. Shave the center of the flower, add a three-dimensional effect to the petals, and add a streak pattern to the petals. After putting a streak on all the petals. I put it in the broken shape of the cherry blossom petals. Divide the tip of the petals into two. In order to bring it closer to the real thing, I stick to the details thoroughly. It can be read from the pictures from high school. Ise-ebi drawn with a color ballpoint pen. The work written in detail won the Shōrei Award at the National High School Art Exhibition. I want to make it more beautiful, so I'm going to think about what I can do to make it better. Next, he went to a place where he hadn't touched since the beginning of the work. The side where there were many scratches and holes and the cherry blossoms couldn't be sculpted. I'm going to put a sculpture in a place where the cherry blossoms are placed to make it look like a cherry blossom branch. It is difficult to make a smooth sculpture when the material, coral, has deep scratches. Tatsuya thought about sculpting a cherry blossom branch to keep the scratches and holes. He made the scratches and holes of the coral look like trunks and carved the branches of the cherry blossom tree. There is a customer who buys my work several times. He sees my work in a loop. I want to make something that people can enjoy even if they look at it. In this way, the side where the cherry blossom flowers and branches were almost carved, and the side where there were scratches and holes, he made use of the characteristics that seemed to be a drawback and reborn the cherry blossom branch. One day during the production, Tatsuya appeared at a department store in Chiba Prefecture. He was there to sell his work at an exhibition. In Kanto, there are many fans of Tatsuya's work. On this day, one of Tatsuya's works was purchased. He carved the gravel part with white coral, and the material with red coral and peach-colored coral. It's small, but it looks exactly like the real thing. Each and every one of them is really realistic, and it's amazing that it's all made of coral. Tatsuya's works continue to fascinate many people. The 6th day is finally over. I'm going to carve the area around the hole to make it look like a cherry blossom branch. He's going to carve the area around the place where he puts the chocolate. First, he uses a needle-shaped blade to carve the cherry blossom branch. Furthermore, Tatsuya puts his hand into the invisible part. There's nothing there. It's because there's a shell like this. He's carving petals on the place where he puts the chocolate. It's an elegant production where you can enjoy the flowers that have fallen while watching the cherry blossoms. And to remove the dirt on the surface, he soaks it in solution overnight. On that night, Tatsuya was in the gym. After work, he sweated at a local badminton club. The vitality of a young coral sculptor in sports. And the last day. After removing the dirt, he rinses off the solution. He makes a secret solution that is passed down to young corals. He soaks the corals and the base and chocolate that have been sculpted in solution. The ingredients of the corals dissolve and the base and chocolate become glossy. The work is completed by applying gloss to the entire surface. A seven-day-long coral sculpture. The motif that Tatsuya cherishes. The cherry blossoms are blooming in full bloom. The chocolate is indispensable for the cherry blossom viewing. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom. It's a work full of playfulness. A young man who is aiming for a new height by blowing a new life into a coral sculpture. What is the door to tomorrow that he will open with his own hands? Coral is a very old material, so it's been done a lot. I think everyone has never seen sushi or garlic that I made the other day. I want to make a work that continues to look for what no one has done. A young craftsman who creates the future of coral sculpture. He opens the door to tomorrow and gets closer to his dream.