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  • Uchiwa.

  • Theyre one of the two traditional types of Japanese fans.

  • Unlike sensu, or folding fans,

  • uchiwa are rigid and fixed in shape.

  • Here in Gifu prefecture, a specific type of fan called Gifu uchiwa is produced.

  • These uchiwa originated during the Muromachi period of Japan

  • more than 500 years ago.

  • They were originally introduced as souvenirs

  • for people visiting to see the cormorant fishing on the Nagara River.

  • Today, Kazunari Sumii has the last store in Japan

  • dedicated solely to making Gifu uchiwa.

  • At 52 years old and more than two decades of experience,

  • he’s the 4th generation fan maker in his family.

  • First you take a stick of bamboo,

  • and then shave off the outer shell.

  • Bamboo fibers run vertically.

  • If you split the ends and then bend the stick back and forth,

  • it just splits evenly like this.

  • You see this joint part is thicker.

  • I put this part, called the bow,

  • through a hole I drill in that joint.

  • From there I tie a string to the ends of the bow

  • and thread it between the bones of the fan.

  • Tomijiro is my grandfather's name.

  • This store used to just be called "Sumii's Shoppe"

  • but my father added Tomijiro to it.

  • And we just never changed it since then.

  • The Tomijirou Sumii store has been rife with difficulties

  • difficulties since its inception over 100 years ago.

  • Tomijiro’s father passed away when he was a young boy.

  • In order to carry on his father’s work,

  • he apprenticed under another uchiwa craftsman to learn the trade,

  • and finally reopened the store after years of training.

  • Kazunari also lost his father early, at age 24.

  • That’s when he decided to take on the family business himself.

  • But since he had never trained under his father, either,

  • he had to teach himself how to make fans

  • from the memories of watching and helping his father when he was younger.

  • I carved these designs myself.

  • If the bones aren't stuck to the paper carefully,

  • then when I paint the fan later,

  • some of the bones could come loose.

  • These uchiwa are made almost entirely from products grown in Gifu.

  • Bamboo from Gifu’s abundant thickets,

  • and mino washi, a Japanese paper made from the kouzo tree.

  • Mino washi was designated as a traditional craft in its own right in 1985

  • by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

  • For the transparent designs on his fans,

  • Kazunari uses a specific type of mino washi called ganpishi.

  • They'll usually dry overnight.

  • After that, I run a tool down along the bones

  • to get them to stand out like this.

  • This part takes a while.

  • A file will get rid of the excess paper on the bottom.

  • And I get rid of the top part with this.

  • This is made of steel.

  • It's like a knife, but curved into a circle.

  • And that's how you get the fan's shape.

  • I made these tools. They slowly wear down like this.

  • When it gets bad, I'll replace it.

  • This is all I can show you today.

  • After this, I'll cap the edges of the fan and paint it.

  • Within Gifu uchiwa three types of fans stand out:

  • Shibu uchiwa is one of the largest varieties of fans.

  • Shibu is the name of a specific type of persimmon.

  • This fan is named after those persimmons because it’s covered in persimmon juice,

  • which makes it water resistant.

  • These fans are ideal for using to fan the flames of grills

  • in traditional Japanese restaurants.

  • The transparent paper mentioned before, ganpishi,

  • can be used to make a fan that’s completely transparent,

  • called mizu-uchiwa.

  • Mizu is the word for water.

  • But theyre not just called water fans because you can see through them.

  • In the past, mizu uchiwa would be dipped in water,

  • making the fan even more refreshing for its user.

  • This final type of fan is exclusive to Gifu uchiwa.

  • The fan is covered in shiny lacquer glaze,

  • making it far tougher than normal uchiwa.

  • Kazunari’s shop offers a version called ryomen-sukashi uchiwa,

  • or double-sided watermarked fan,

  • where you can see a transparent design cut into the middle.

  • You can find articles about Kazunari

  • and many more craftsmen on the websiteCraftsman Times.”

  • The website is in both Japanese and English,

  • and it also has a blog section with articles about Japan

  • for people overseas who are interested in visiting.

Uchiwa.

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