 All
the products made here today are shipped to Australia:
(What do you use this hake?) (A hake is a brush made by clipping the
tip together with two pieces of wood) People have used hakes to draw Japanese
paintings. Then, the Australians started using them for oil painting.
(Wasn't there a problem in using them for oil painting?) Well, no. There
wasn't any problem with the hake itself, but the paint they use is thick
because it's oil. So the person who uses our hakes thin the paint before
they start. The hakes will paint better once the paint has been thinned.
(What is your specialty?) Let's see. I would say that I produce a lot
of hakes for making artistic craftwork. There are quite a few people from
other countries around the world who use hakes for hanga (Japanese block
printing). All the products made here today are shipped to Australia.
This hake can also be used to paint on paper, but it is usually used for
dyeing. You know how the Japanese ink blurs when you paint it on Japanese
paper? In order to stop the paint from blurring, people paint what is
called Dosa first, and they use our hakes to paint it. (What about the
tip of the brush?) We use sheep's hair. (How about this hake?) You use
it to tooth wood. It's used by those who make getas (Japanese traditional
wooden sandals) or kotos (Japanese harp). You see, the tree ring is very
hard, so we use this to curve the soft parts between the tree rings. (How
about this?) Well this is used to paint over paper patterns on yuzen (printed
silk). (What's this round one?) This is to color the whole surface. This
is a really small detail, but the center of the hair used for this hake
is hollow like a macaroni. You see that white one at the bottom of the
wall? Then can you see the white hair on the upper side of it? That is
same sheep hair, but the price is more expensive than the ordinary hair.
It sure is. It can be double the price up there. It depends on the sheep.
This is better used for brushes. The tip of the hair is soft, and yet
it has a firm body. You can't judge it by the first look though. So this
one is cheap, and this, this is expensive. This has a whole bunch to make
it firm, but this one is firm with only a little hair.
 I
actually started out with cleaning up the working place:
(How long has it been since this shop has been established?) I wonder.
Well, I would say it's about a hundred years. (For how many generations
has this work been handed down?) I'm the second. (Where did you do your
training?) When I was around the age of fifteen, I worked at another shop
for a while. But since the war started, I stopped and came home. My mother
was stricken with paralysis, and so I had to come back. From then on,
the two of us, my father and I were working together. (What does the training
start with?) You see how there is the apprentice system? Well, I was still
very young, and so was making the preliminary parts or the very inexpensive
parts of brushes. I actually started out with cleaning up the working
place. You know how they say, "A saint's maid quotes Latin?" Well, because
I was helping out a little at our own shop, I was able to make the stem
of the brush from a fairly early stage. (Did you start making hakes after
a while?) Yes, you see, hakes are totally different products, and I started
making them. But making them is a troublesome process. It makes a lot
of dust because we rub it with ash. So we can't make hakes in shops like
this. Now it looks spacious, but the storefront used to be half this size.
It was so tight that we couldn't work. This shop doesn't suit making hakes,
so we've been mainly producing brushes since then.
There aren't any competitors around:
We formally started our business after World War II. We were selling
brushes before that, but everything was war-use  commandeering
goods. A lot of things were made for the military supplies factory, and
we couldn't much of our own business. So we formally began our business
in 1945, after the war ended. Yes, that's right. (Were you helping your
father before that as well?) I sure was. Only we didn't have enough material,
so my father wasn't that serious. He was half joking around. There weren't
much material then, but we started making brushes out of what we could
acquire. The material supply started to move in a while, little by little.
(So you would say that today is in a good situation.) The way we do it,
there aren't any competitors around. We make hakes and brushes, but they're
both expensive goods. You see, we don't make the normal plain kind of
goods. Most of the customers buy their brushes at furniture shops or one
of the large consumer shops. We make the kind of things that those shops
don't sell. We don't sell our products in these shops because there aren't
any people there who can tell the good and bad of a hake, or a brush.
We only sell our products after explaining to the customer about our hakes
and brushes. That's the good part of our way of business. (Are there many
repeaters?) Yes, there are a lot of customers who come more than once.
But instead, we don't sell that much in quantity. But then, we probably
have a better profitability than the large stores. Hahahahaha.
 They
will last a long time:
(Was that your daughter that was right there now?)Yes, we have her come
in to help out. (So the two of you are normally doing the work.) That's
right, as for now. We're making some products that we can't turn to others.
(What do you mean by turn to others?) I have to do the work by myself
to guarantee the quality of the brushes. I can't be satisfied by the work
if I have it done by the coworkers who make parts of many brands as their
profession. It's a very difficult process to plant the hair neatly in
a row. (Can you tell the number of hair you use when you hold them in
your hand?) You see, if I have it done by the other coworkers, there are
complaints from the customers because the hair isn't neat. When we ask
a coworker to do it for us, we pay them by the number of holes they fill
with hair. They wouldn't do it over even if the number of hair were a
little more or less than the right amount. Once they hold the hair in
their hands, they don't care to plant them neatly. Most people wouldn't
want to go through the trouble of fixing the amount of hair once they
hold it in their hands. They just put them right into the hole without
even aligning the tip of the hair. That's why the tip of hair aren't planted
neatly. It looks like a forest when some of the hair in each hole is longer
than others. But we have the coworkers help out with the products that
are used for work that doesn't require that much attention. So our products
are bought more because of the quality than the price. Ours are more expensive
than others, however we do it. As they are expensive, as long as the customer
understands the right way of using our brushes, they will last a long
time. That's how we make them.
Mostly craftsmen:
(What kind of people come to buy your products?) Mostly craftsmen I
would say. These are sold to painters, these to box
makers, repairers of Japanese paper doors, cardboard box makers, and bookbinders.
These are sold to people that have to do with food, such as bakers or
Japanese confectioners. This brush is for painting. This one if for dyeing
patterns on kimonos. In the Japanese traditional goods exhibitions that
are held at department stores, they have dolls, urushi (Japanese lacquer),
dyeing, ceramics displayed. Within them, a lot of doll craftsmen and urushi
craftsmen, and some dyeing craftsmen come to our place to buy brushes.
Also craftsmen who do wood block printing come too.
Some people used to ask me if I was an adopted child:
(Mrs. Miyagawa, when did you begin making hakes?) I started after I came
I married my husband and came here. Then, his father made me this stand
for me to work on. It's as if I came here as a worker rather than a wife.
Haha. So I've been making hakes for almost forty years. (So you're an
expert now.) I can't have someone do my work instead of me. There are
some famous wood block printing artist who come to our place to buy brushes,
saying that the others aren't good enough. Since this place is located
near the mountains of Ueno, many teachers of urushi, and oil painting
from the University of Fine Arts of Tokyo come and purchase brushes. (What
is this?) It's a hake used for block printing. (Do you make brushes used
for anything besides block printing as well?) Oh of course. I make everything.
For instance, I have to fit the hair into this brush. All the material
is waiting for their turn. The work is endless since we're the only ones
who make the kind of things we make. (How long did it take for you to
obtain the skills after you came here?) The question is how long was I
allowed to take my life easy. (Was there a lot of practice?) Practice
after practice after practice.She works well.My husband doesn't work here.
He works upstairs, and I stay here. So some people used to ask me if I
was an adopted child.(master) She was like "the cute girl at the tobacco
shop." (In Japan, there has been a story of young men going to buy tobacco
at the tobacco shop to meet the cute girl working there.) (wife) But there
are some brushes that I cannot make, and only he can. (What kind of brushes
are they?) Well, they're very special brushes, and it takes a lot of trouble
to make one. There are only two or three people in Tokyo who can make
them. (Do you have time to stop working and make meals?) No, I don't .
That's why many craftsmen in the downtown area get over their meals by
having something ready-made delivered.
 Making
the drill that opens the holes is even more difficult.
(Do you work everyday?) (wife) Everyday. (Do you take some days off?)
Yes, I do these days. (Is there anybody who helps you out?) The daughter
that was around till a while got married and lives nearby, so she comes
everyday to work. She does the preparations, goes to the bank or the post
office, and other things. There are many tasks to do. I used to do all
of them by myself. (Does your daughter make brushes too?) She doesn't
do that yet. Considering she has a father-in-law, we make her finish her
work early and send her home so there isn't any trouble at their house.
(What kind of preparation does she do?) She drilled all of these holes.
But she still can't sharpen the point of the drill yet. We use special
drills. Only he (Master) can sharpen them in our house. In the first place,
there are only one or two places that use this drill in Tokyo. The person
who used to make them passed away. That's why we have to handle what we
have with special care. I tell her to learn how to sharpen them while
my husband is alive, but it seems to be quite difficult. He teaches our
other craftsmen, but they still can't sharpen them. And then, I can't
use a drill that someone other than my husband sharpened. (Do you sharpen
them by yourself, Mrs. Miyagawa?) Actually, I can't either. It's requires
a very delicate touch. (So only the master can do it.) Yes, only my husband.
So I ask him to sharpen the drills when I want to use one. (master) Some
brush makers can't open their own holes. There are people who open holes
as a profession, and the brush makers have the holes opened by them. But
you can't get the right kind of holes if somebody else does it. I personally
think that the most difficult part of brush making is opening the hole.
Furthermore, making the drill that opens the holes is even more difficult.
It's not the kind of drill that is ordinarily sold. The section is shaped
like a crescent moon. I sharpen it so it creates the kind of hole I prefer.
A strip show theater:
There was a great demand for hakes and brushes after the World War II.
If I tell them that the brushes aren't ready because they aren't finished,
they say they still want to buy them saying it's okay as long as they
have hair on them. (What kind of brushes?) It didn't really matter what
kind of brushes they were. They just brought it away once they're half
done. Come to think of it, I wonder what they used them for, but it was
a time of confusion. And then, here's an interesting story. You know the
sell what's called a body brush now? Well, I think I'm the first one that
made one. You see, it all started from a strip show theater. Hahaha. In
the old days at strip show theaters, they used to place the stripper in
a bathtub, and have the audience pour hot water on her back. They used
to use scrubbing brushes with hard hair, but that hurt the strippers.
So they came to me and asked me to make this certain kind of brush. They're
discussing about it hurts, or it being too soft, so I asked them, what
are you going to use the brush for. Then they explained to me that it
was to brush the back of a stripper. It was a little earlier than 1955.
And so, I presume that I'm the first one who made a body brush in Japan.
We have the brushes stamped inside so they won't be stolen:
(What's the brush you're making now?) It's a clothes brush. (What about
the hair?) It's the hair of pig raised in Chongqing, China. It's a town
located in the upstream of the Changjiang. The hair produced there is
considered to be the best. (Can you tell the difference between the good
and bad when you use them to make your brushes?) Oh sure. I can definitely
tell the difference. (wife) We have the brushes using this kind of hair
stamped inside so they won't be stolen. (master) Hahaha. (wife) Only my
husband plants the hair for these brushes, but some people buy them at
our place and stamp their own stamp inside. (Do you have a "Made by Miyagawa"
stamp in every brush?) (master) No, because some customers ask for them
not to be stamped. So nowadays, it's harder to stamp them. I usually don't
stamp them so I wouldn't have to make them all over again when they ask
for non-stamped brushes.
I'll become all ashes when I get cremated:
(You're in such good shape.) Well, not that much. I'm getting weaker.
(Excuse me to ask, but how old are you now?) Oh, don't ask me that. Haha.
I might as well tell you though. I always say seventy plus consumption
tax. Hahaha. I'm seventy three and a half. (Doesn't this work require
pretty much strength?) It sure does. You sort of push with the thumb while
you pull the hair. (Doesn't it take a lot of time to plant hair into many
holes?) (wife) It takes about thirty minutes for just planting the hair.
(How about the brush Master is making?) His takes more than twice as much
time. It has more holes. (master) It will probably take more than an hour.
It will take an hour making one in a place like this with concentration.
With a little rest in between, I make about five a day. (Are there any
occupational diseases?) (wife) We wouldn't be able to get along if we
start saying something like that. (master) I'd say not. There aren't any
kind of disease like that. But you see how we inhale a lot of wooden dust
while we work? I think I'll become all ashes when I get cremated. Hahaha.
|
