"The Work of Yamachan, an Edo Traditional Craftsman (?) – 'African Earth'"My dad was a kyōjiya, a traditional craftsman of sliding doors, shoji screens, folding screens… Kind of like a “Japanese-style interior artisan”?— kenkenchan

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Hi, this is kenkenchan.
This isn’t exactly something grand enough to call “Japanese culture” per se, but here’s a little something from back in 2005—
a piece made by my dad, Yamachan.

I think it might’ve been his best work.
He looked so happy when he got the title “Edo Traditional Craftsman”—even though he was honestly a bit of a strange guy (lol).

He was a kyōjiya—a traditional craftsman who worked with things like sliding doors (fusuma), shoji screens, and folding screens (byōbu).
So maybe that’s basically a “craftsman,” right?
He was always broke and constantly bugging my mom like a kid:
“Hey, gimme some materials!!”
…and while you’re at it, some cigarette money too (lol).

He hardly worked.
But then again, it was the era of tight budgets and deflation—there really weren’t any jobs around.
Oh, and he had a psychiatric condition.
I think he had a Level 2 disability certification for mental health.

My mom used to say,
“He’s not just a leech—he’s the whole damn rope!” (lol)

Every now and then, he’d make these bizarre creations, like folding screens.
And then, using borrowed money (lol), he’d go and force himself to put on an exhibition.

Of all those, the two works I’m showing here were probably his masterpieces.
He gave one the title “The Lands of Africa” or something like that.

We were always kind of an international family to begin with,
but I never thought the world would turn out the way it is now...
Whether people find it interesting or not, I guess it still counts as a slice of Japanese culture?

When I took the photos, I was honestly thinking,
“Is this gonna be useful for anything someday?”
But I had a lot of free time back then,
so I took some shots of Yamachan’s work—and they actually turned out pretty decent (^▽^)/

I wrote the Spanish article first, but hey—order doesn’t really matter, right?
If I’ve already posted too many times in the shared magazine, sorry about that <(_ _)>

Yamachan was super shy, so if he were still alive,
he’d probably be all like “Ehh, that’s embarrassing…” while secretly grinning inside (lol)

🎵 Now playing: Elvis Costello – “The Beat”