Finally a picture of the front of Hourakukan, on my last day there.

I can't believe I wrote about my experience in Minakami so far and forgot to write about 体験 taiken. My English is failing me and I can't come up with a concise translation, but the word taiken means "lived/hands-on experience." Takumi no Sato is truly what it translates to, an "artisan's village." It has places where you can pick fruit and buy local foods, but the main attraction is the craftsmen's workshops and the opportunity to buy artists' products, watch them at work, try things yourself, and make a really cool souvenir.

During my time at Hourakukan, I've been treated to a lot of free taiken. My host mom payed for the pottery and washi paper I mentioned in my first Minakami post, before I really understood what was going on with all these people letting me make stuff. The washi paper is ready now, but Ono-san is gone for the day whenever we try to go pick it up, so there's no photo of it yet.
After that, apparently someone put up some money to treat me to taiken because Yumemi-san, whose job description I'm not really sure of but is some sort of Takumi no Sato higher-up, has come to pick me up from work at Hourakukan three different times to take me to meet an artist and try out a craft. I like Yumemi-san because she's really friendly and mom-like (I'm pretty sure she has a daughter who's around my age or younger), and I really appreciate her introducing me to all sorts of people and praising my finished products.

The thing about the craftsmen in Takumi no Sato is that they're really fascinating people too. They care enough about their art and want to share it enough to think hard about how to simplify it and make it easy to teach a total beginner in an hour. And they're interesting to talk to. I found out when I went to make washi that Ono-san walked across Asia when he was younger, and he talked a lot about how things were in India, since my host mom has been to India too, and how he got so tan while walking that he was mistaken for an Indian person. It was entertaining. And at the chirimen (crepe fabric) house, I ended up finishing faster than expected while Yumemi-san went to run an errand, so I had no choice but to talk to the owner there. Turns out his degree is in physics and he spent 10 years teaching Japanese in China, so we talked a lot about travel and linguistics.

So I'll go into more detail about the taiken I got to do (hands-on crafts? How do I condense that?).

First I went to the Mask House (O-men no Ie). There, I painted a mask. There are all different shapes to choose from, ranging from traditional characters to pop culture like Hello Kitty, all of which were made by hand by the woman who works there. The same was true for all of the example masks that covered the walls. I'm not super-passionate about masks, but I looked for one that looked interesting. She told me the one I picked was a kappa, so I thought, heck, let's try to make a kappa (a Japanese folkloric water monster). They had kappa cookies at the souvenir shop at Hourakukan so I kinda remembered what it looked like. It's sorta off from the most popular depiction of a kappa because I only kinda remembered what it looked like, but since it's folk-lore I guess it's fine. I probably should have looked harder and found a fox mask like I originally wanted to, or asked if I could paint one of the Daruma dalls I didn't notice until later. But for now I have this weird green kappa mask. Ha-ha.



The next craft I got to try was making a sewing box at the Crepe House (Chirimen no Ie). The whole process of making the box was really ingenious. I started with a set of pre-cut pieces of fabric and cloth and glued them together following precise instructions. The owner of the Crepe House had a really clever method of using folded paper to help keep the corners and edges of the box crisp, and when there was a step that required putting weight on the flat part of the box while the glue dried, rather than putting it under a book or something, he had me stand up, put the box I'd made on my stool, put a plastic sheet over it, and then put down a pillow and had me sit on it while I made the lid of the box. Clever.



Today, I got to go to the Glass House (Gurasu no Ie) and choose a cup in which to etch a picture. Then I got to pick a design out of the many, many options available, from daisies to dinosaurs to Domo-kun.
The design was a piece of paper that the owner of the Glass House sprayed with adhesive and then had me position on my glass, which he had covered with a layer of some kind of sticky-backed vinyl. Then I used a craft knife to cut out the details of the design and pick off the vinyl to reveal the glass. I also got freedom to write anything I wanted so I wrote Minakami in katakana with thick sharpie and cut that out too. The next step was to use a machine to create the design using fine sand. The machine had a box with gloves attached, so you stick your hands in the gloves, have the glass put in your hand, grab the "sand gun" inside the box, and have someone shut the lid. Then you use the foot pedal on the machine to turn on the sand and spray it at the design. Afterwards, you peel off the remaining vinyl, wash it off, and it's done. I came into the Glass House thinking there was no way I could make anything as beautiful as the works I saw on the examples, but I was amazed at the quality cup I could make. I looked at some of the owner's works-in-progress, and it looks like he uses the same process, with much more precise cutting and many layers, and he produces beautiful work.



In other news, today was my last day at Hourakukan. Starting tomorrow morning at 9pm I'm working at the onsen Yushinkan. Not sure what I'll be doing there, but I should be able to take a bath there where the water isn't so hot it hurts. Hahaha.

I finished off my time at Hourakukan working at the information desk. I really liked getting to talk to Kazumi-san and Keiko-san, so I'm a bit sad I'm leaving, though I'll be back to buy omiyage before I leave. I asked if we could take a picture together, and we did. Included is Gunma prefecture's mascot, Gunma-chan, an orange horse wearing a green hat. I have a second Gunma-chan strap, if anyone ones it. :D

Kazumi, me, Keiko