Magemono has its roots in the Kiso district in the village of Narakawa It has been blessed with a special tree called the Kiso Cypress (Kiso Hinoki) The wood used to make Magemono is chosen among Kiso trees ranging from 200 to 300 years old Only completely dried out trunks are used It is said that the quality of the timber can be easily determined by the tree's bark Cutting timber in slices is called Tama-giri (Round cutting) Ordinarily, the first meter from the root up is not used First, the upper 90 cm where the quality of the timber is best, is cut out and used to make the bigger products Next, an additional 60 cm block is cut out to make comparatively smaller products Magemono only makes use of the undamaged parts of the tree Which is why there is a limited amount of usable wood per tree A hatchet or saw is used to open up a slit to begin splitting the block of wood. This method is called Mikan-wari Wooden triangles are inserted and hammered down to split the trunk apart The trunk is eventually split into 8 parts The craftsman must be careful with the direction of his strikes The quality of the final product is greatly impacted by the materials used The already cut material is called Kure The state of each slice determines which products will be made out of it Brittle and easily broken material will be used to make the sidewalls of the Magemono The rest will be used to make the bottom part and the lid of the Magemono Using a saw, the excess wood is trimmed down To break the timber down, a saw is used to open up a slit Then a hammer is used to completely break down the wood While doing this, it is very important to split the two planks with the same thickness If one of the planks appears to be thicker than the other, it must be corrected by turning the wood around and working on the opposite side By repeating this action, the board is split into smaller parts The wooden planks are split in two by aiming the saw at the center of the plank and slicing through it These boards are cut a bit thicker before being trimmed down At this stage, the boards are called Hegi-ita Next, to flatten out the boards, a wood shaving stand is used A device called Tsukiate is attached at the chest and the stand is placed higher by the worker's side With the front of the stand at a lower height, the board can be easily worked The tip of the wooden board is held down by the Tsukiate Using the blade (Sen) the bottom part of the plank is shaved down After shaving down one side, the top side is worked Then, in order to even out the thickness of the boards A tracing tool called "Kehiki" is used Using this line as a guide, it's possible to carefully shave down the excess This is especially important at the ends of the planks, which will later be glued together This board will be used as a sidewall in the finished product This stage of the work has the greatest impact on the finished product. Which is why it must be done with care The board on the sidewall is thicker at the top and gets thinner at the bottom It is made this way in order to prevent deformation or damage to the wood If it were a uniform thickness, the bottom of the Magemono would appear bigger The appearance of the final product is of utmost importance Additionally, the inner side of the plank is slightly curved This curvature is made in order to prevent strain on the wood from heat expansion Next, the boards enter the bending process The boards are left on boiling water for about an hour After boiling, they are soft and flexible Two boards are stuck together and bent with a tool called Hota The Hota is a very heavy and hard tree trunk It has a belt made of leather attached to it The wood is bent by placing it between the leather and the Hota By sticking two thin strips of wood together, it is possible to prevent the wood from naturally deforming There are three shapes of Hota: circular, elliptical and shell Depending on the product different types of Hota are used In order to avoid creases on the wood, wooden shears are used to join and hold the board together The wooden shears are held in place by a "mouth" piece After adjusting the shape, the wood is left to dry in natural sunlight for about three days The thin wooden strips used to make the lid walls are bent in a bulk Several strips are then bound together inside a circular ring and dried out in the sunlight Next is the binding stage Rice grains are crushed with a pole This is called Sokui-nori or "Rice glue" The already dry side wallboards are separated. And glued together at the seams Once again, wooden shears are used at the joining surface to glue the ring together The glue will be completely dried out in 7 to 8 hours After applying glue to the thinner strips They are held in place with bound straw In this case, straw is used to uniformly hold the ring together and save some space After the glue dries out The joining surface is sewn together with a string made from the Sakura tree The string is called Kanba It is used because of its durability and strength The bark from which the string is made is harvested in the mountains around August The string is made by peeling the bark off of the Sakura tree It is then dried out and thinned out in order to be used as a string The string (Kanba) is sewn in by opening holes along the joining surface with a tool This work is normally entrusted to the women And is performed in unison and cooperation With this, the sidewalls of the Magemono are completed Next, the lid and bottom parts will be crafted A reversed shaving plane is used And the wood is delicately shaved The bottom board and lid are made by sticking two or three boards together It is made this way to prevent the wood from warping or bending In order to properly attach each board to one another A small space in between each board is left in order to insert the glue Glued boards are dried out vertically They are then finished off with a shaving plane To make the round bottom board and round lid, a cutting compass is used Next, the side walls are attached to the bottom board There are two ways to attach the sidewall, the Ire-soko and Kaki-soko method In the Ire-soko method, glue is placed along the sidewall and attached to the round bottom The shape is then adjusted to avoid an overly loose or tight fit The Kaki-soko method starts with a process called Enba-Kezuri First, a tracing tool is used to draw a line at the edge of the wooden board And a slit along the edge is carved out When a board has been carved towards the top it is called Soto-Enba This method is extremely strong and durable In the case of stacking boxes, a method called Uchi-Enba is implemented in which the slit is carved towards the bottom Taking into account the fit of each box, the object is shaved down to the appropriate size A sidewall is also attached to the lid This process is applicable to all kinds of Magemono and the methods used are all the same Lastly, the overall fit is checked and the Magemono is deemed complete Shoichi Tsuchikawa protects the long-standing tradition of Magemono While enthusiastically creating products for a new modern age When I inherited the family craft I only wanted to catch up to my father and one day overcome him After many years, when I had finally managed to find my working style I felt strongly in my heart that I could finally lift my head and feel proud of what I was doing The feelings of happiness or sorrow in my life are always accompanied by Magemono
Peep that foot come out at 10 minutes
I can recommend the movie Wood Job.