タイトル：
ミノ虫飛び出しの中の独楽 (minomushi tobidashi no naka no koma)
bagworm larva leaping out top
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蛾の幼虫、ミノ虫がテーマの独楽である。イモムシのときに自分を温めるためのミノを作るので英語では『ケース・モス(case moths/ ケースは入れ物、モスは蛾)』と呼ばれることもある。住んでいる木にある葉を食べるために、ミノ虫がミノから頭を出す。日本で人気があるのは蓑笠の蓑のように見えるミノがある姿である。ミノ虫は俳句の秋の季語として使われることがよくある。この独楽で、廣井先生はミノ虫が木の枝に付いているミノから顔を出す姿を表現している。
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廣井道顕：うんでこれは何だっけな。あぁ、これはあれだ。ミノムシか。ミノムシの、ミノムシのその殻がないんだ。
廣井夫人：うん。
廣井：あのミノムシってぶら下がっててこんなんありますよね、あのう、これから。そういう形の独楽、飛び出してくる独楽。中のミノムシの虫が飛び出る、蝶ネクタイやってね。
Title:
ミノ虫飛び出しの中の独楽 (minomushi tobidashi no naka no koma)
bagworm larva leaping out top
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This top depicts a bagworm larva, the larval stage of the bagworm moth. They are sometimes called “case moths” because their caterpillars build little protective cases in which they gestate. As they emerge, bagworm larva pop their heads out of their case to eat the leaves of the tree they inhabit. In Japan, their popular image is related to the top of their case looking like a straw raincoat. Bagworms are often used as a subject for seasonal haiku in the fall. For this top, Hiroi-sensei depicts a bagworm popping out of its case, which is attached to a tree branch.
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Hiroi Michiaki: And what was this? Ahh, we talked [about this]. The bagworm larva? The bagworm larva doesn’t have a body.
Mrs. Hiroi: Yeah.
Hiroi Michiaki: Bagworm larva dangle [from branches] like this. From here. It’s a top with that sort of shape, one that leaps out. The bagworm inside jumps out, and it’s wearing a bowtie.
While Janell was an apprentice to Hiroi-sensei, he encouraged her to produce tops that dealt with themes related to American folk culture and lore that reflected both her background and the art and culture of her new home through traditional Japanese crafts. The photos below show tops Janell made in the 1980s. There are both western-themed tops and traditional Japanese tops.
Hiroi-sensei and Maeda-san have appeared many times in Japanese newspapers. Below is a translation of an article entitled “Moved from Toshima, To Train in Akiu: Maeda from the Izu Islands” that ran January 10, 2008 in the newspaper Kahoku shinpō. See the original Japanese article at the link below.
廣井先生と前田さんは多数の新聞記事で特集されています。2008年1月10日、河北新報が廣井先生についての記事を掲載しました。以下のリンクでアクセスできます。
Click here for the original article: 記事はこちら。
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Kahoku shinpō (January 10, 2008)
Moved from Toshima, To Train in Akiu: Maeda from the Izu Islands
“I want to become a woodworker using camellia wood in my hometown”
Akiu Craft Village in the Taihaku Ward of Sendai City and the Izu Islands near Tokyo are forming a closer bond. A man from Toshima has moved to Akiu and is training in traditional crafts. Given the opportunity to use reclaimed camellia wood from the Izu islands during his training at Akiu Craft Village, in the future, he hopes to return to his hometown as a woodworker specializing in their local camellia wood. For Akiu, they can also greatly increase the assortment of products they make, and their craftspeople have responded warmly, saying, “We this to become a bridge between Akiu and isolated islands of the Pacific.”
This man is Maeda Ryōji (26). While working a part-time job at a gas station in Sendai, he commutes to the “Komaya [Top Shop] Hiroi” workshop and is learning how to make tea cups, saucers, and tops.
The Hiroi workshop is managed by Hiroi Michiaki (74), one of the seven artisans of the Akiu Craft Village Work Association.
Maeda, after helping with his parent’s fishing business, worked at a company in Tokyo. In spring of 2004, he came to sell camellia oil at a product fair in Akiu Craft Village, where he by chance met Hiroi and developed an interest in traditional arts. In fall, he moved to Sendai.
Maeda says that his dream is “to master [everything], from methods of sawing to the making of ten types of edged tools using the lathe, then become the only woodworker in Toshima.”
In 2004, at the suggestion of local planner Aizawa Yū (51, Izumi Ward), the Work Association began a project to create new traditional craft pieces using reclaimed wood from Toshima. They received a donation of camellia wood from Toshima village and began their exchange selling kokeshi and accessory cases they made from it.
Compared with dogwood and other trees used for wooden toys, camellia has numerous hidden knots in the wood and becomes extremely hard when dried, making it difficult to work with. The products made from camellia have a particular texture and tint to them that give them a high-quality feeling.
Aizawa has said, “I thought we would join forces—Toshima, which had an issue with disposing of its old camellia wood, and the Craft Village, which was looking for a new challenge. We would be happy if Maeda became an independent craftsperson and inherited our traditional craft techniques.”
“I don’t think there are any woodworkers in Japan that use camellia. I want to guide Maeda so he can readily become an independent artisan,” Hiroi said enthusiastically.
Toshima 利島 is located 140 km south of Tokyo. The population of the island, which spans about 8 km in circumference, is around 300 people. More than half the island is covered with around 200,000 camellia trees, whichproduced about 14.5 kiloleters (3830.5 gallons) of camellia oil from their seeds a year in 2006–an estimated 60% of all of Japan’s camellia oil.
Creating Edogoma involves careful work within the workshop. Hiroi-sensei creates his own tools and spends hours at the lathe carving and painting his tops. The following photos show Hiroi-sensei at work in his small workshop at the front of his store and home in Akiu Craft Village.
江戸独楽の製作には工房での慎重な作業が求められる。廣井先生は自作の道具と旋盤を使い、何時間もかけて独楽を削り出して色付けする。秋保工芸の里にある独楽店の前には、廣井先生の自宅兼工房がある。こちらは小さな工房で働く廣井先生の写真である。
タイトル：
もみ独楽 (momigoma)
hand-rubbing top
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もみ独楽という種類の独楽である。両手のひらを合せて独楽の芯棒を素早くもむようにして回す独楽である。
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Title:
もみ独楽 (momigoma)
hand-rubbing top
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This top is a momigoma, or a “hand-rubbing top,” which is spun by rubbing the handle of the top quickly between your palms.
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The following materials are from an exhibition Hiroi-sensei described in his earlier interviews. The exhibition occurred from June to August 1993 at the Sendai City Museum. The materials included an image guide to tops in the exhibition and an informational page on the history of tops. Regarding this exhibition, Hiroi-sensei said:
“The Sendai museum. I’ve done an exhibition of these Edo tops before. What was amazing at that time was the museum exhibited all of the tops, and we asked Landis-sensei if there was something she’d use to describe the Edo tops in one word in English, and it was the first time I’d heard her use the word unbelievable [anbiriihaburu]] And the museum wrote above its entrance “Unbelievable Edo Tops.” And before long it was on television, so at the time they started saying unbelievable. It might be because of Landis-sensei that the word unbelievable spread throughout Japan at the time. Heh heh heh. Until then no one knew about that kind of thing. It was said that that word fit Edo tops perfectly. I thought, “Yeah, that’s the sort of thing they are.” “
See the interview here: Hiroi-sensei and Exhibitions
See the catalog here: Exhibition_Catalog
この資料は先のインタビューで廣井先生が言及された展示に関するものです。1993年6月から8月、仙台市博物館で行われた企画展です。展示された独楽の案内、独楽の歴史などが含まれています。廣井先生はこの展示について次のように言われました：
「仙台市の博物館、博物館でね。この江戸独楽の、展示をやったことがあるんですよ。そのときに、あとすごかったのは、あの博物館全部この江戸独楽を飾って、でそのときにランディス先生に、あの英語で、一言でこの江戸独楽を表現する、何か言葉ないかってんで、そのとき初めてランディス先生に「アンビリーバブル (unbelievable)」って言葉を聞いて。であの博物館の入口にでっかく「アンビリーバブル (unbelievable) 江戸独楽」って書いてあった。それからね、間もなくしてからテレビだのなんだので、この頃アンビリーバブルって言うようになったのね。そのときは、だから、日本でアンビリーバブルって言葉流行らしたのはランディス先生かも分かんない。へへへ。それまで、そういうこと知らなかったものね。だっけ、江戸独楽がその言葉にぴったりなんだって言われて。あぁそういうもんなだ、と思って、いたんですけどね。」
インタビューはこちら：廣井先生と展示
資料はこちら: Exhibition_Catalog
Title:
タイトルなし
untitled
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This top does not have a particular title, and Hiroi-sensei does not remember anything about it.
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Hiroi Michiaki: I don’t know what this is. I didn’t know [before either]. Mm. It’s pretty big isn’t it? Mm. I don’t quite know, though. I don’t know. It’s a top that comes to a point, huh.
Carving Community: 