Saturday, September 16, 2017

Kumamoto Prefectural Traditional Crafts Center

This is a marvelous place and is located across the street from Kumamoto Castle. The first floor has a shop area and the second floor is the museum.  I think  the entrance fee for the upstairs was about 200 yen.  


The crafts displayed in this center are objects that were normally used in the daily lives of the people of Kumamoto, but that have become rare or neglected in recent years. The center was created in order to bring back these crafts to modern society.  


There was a special exhibit of Higo Inlay Metal Work (Higo Zogan).  The designs in this traditional craft date back to the Tokugawa Period (1603) when they were used to decorate sword guards, then later for other items.  













The rest of the museum included examples of a variety of tradional crafts.  

Smithery 





Wood Products 


Ceramics- Shodai Pottery and Koda Pottery  


Washi (Japanese Paper)   I took a paper making class on my Kumano Kodo trip and wrote about it Here.






Yamaga Paper Lanterns 



Kutami Fans 



Bamboo Products 


Higo Saburo Bow 



Higo Temari



Other things  



This is a great place to visit!


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Pamela,wow you found another wonderful place to visit,thankyou for sharing,its lovely to see a display like this xx

Lin said...

What a fascinating place to visit. xx

Queeniepatch said...

You have found so much information in English on this trip. Thank you for sharing it all with us readers.

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

I agree, it was a great place to visit. I was thinking it would be nice to read a little about each item and then you posted the explanations that included English. That must have made the visit all the more interesting.
xx, Carol

kiwikid said...

Wonderful to see the older crafts veing preserved. Love the lanterns.

Vireya said...

Beautiful craft work in this museum.

Brigitte said...

Such an interesting museum. These red paper lanterns look amazing.

Leonore Winterer said...

I really like those places that honour traditional crafts, there were some of those in Ireland as well. How interesting!

Anna van Schurman said...

I love looking at all your vacation pictures. I know if I ever get to visit Japan, I won't get to see so much of the country and smaller places will be passed over. So, thanks!