Magewappa, Conveying the Beauty of Natural Akita Cedar
Step into the shop, and you will see the magewappa items for sale, and also a display of magemono that have been collected over the years. We visited Shibata Shigenobu Shoten, a store that manufactures and and sells Magewappa. Yoshinobu Shibata and his son, Masatada took us on a tour. First, they showed us their collection. We were all taken back when we heard that some of the pieces were more than several centuries old. The material is of course, natural Akita cedar. Recently, natural cedar is hard to come by, but Shibata still strongly insists on using natural cedar and creates his products with only natural cedar. ”Artificial cedar may be acceptable if it is more than a century old, but the rings of the tree cannot be the same when growth is sped up with fertilizers. That is my main concern” he says.
Participating in the Mage workshop
We move to the factory after a tour of the store. It’s easy to say ”magewappa” but how is the wood actually bent? First, a wooden board is made out of sawed lumber. The board is immersed in water overnight and then boiled in hot water at approximately 80 degrees for 10 minutes. This makes the wood soft, preparing it for the bending.
This in fact requires a lot of strength. The softened board is wrapped around a log called ”goro”. Nakata tries, and shouts ”This requires so much strength!” in surprise. The bent boards are then dried and are connected together to create those exquisite curves.
They become Treasures because they are used as Utensils
” Our company prospered, thanks to this rice container!” The rice container Shibata talks about received the Good Design Award in 1986. They were highly praised for rounding off the inside corners, making it easier for the rice to be scooped out. Magewappa is indeed a ”utensil” as the Shibatas insist. Shibata says he likes how the surface of magewappa is unprocessed, leaving the color of wood on the surface. Why? ”Because you can tell how much its been used that way.” A customer once visited to have his Magewappa fixed. It had been used with care for dozens of years. I asked if we could replace it with a new one, but the customer refused, saying ”This is so precious to me now, I don’t want to part with it.” That is how utensils should be. ”Brand new items are beautiful, but items that are used daily also have a beauty all its own. It becomes that person’s ”treasure”. That is what utensils are all about, said the artisan.
