Martial Arts Master if You Dont Receive Their Gift Who Does It Belong to
At 83, a Japanese Primary Still Makes Martial Arts Gear past Manus
Kiichiro Ito spends his days creating uniforms for kendo, an aboriginal class of fencing.
TOKYO — When my vi-year-old son recently joined a local kendo club, I found myself at Yamato Budogu, a family shop that first specialized in equipment for the aboriginal Japanese martial art in the 1930s.
Kendo — the Japanese characters hateful "the way of the sword" — is a form of fencing that uses bamboo swords and protective armor. And equipment for what is considered modern kendo originated in the 1700s.
My son needed a beginner's outfit: a shinai, or bamboo sword; a dogi, the kimono-like peak; and hakama, wide-leg trousers. A uniform for an older or more advanced practitioner has iv additional items: a men, a type of face up mask with metal confined to protect the head and shoulders; a practise, or breastplate; kote, gloves to cover easily and forearms; and a tare, a thick cloth belt with flaps to protect the hip surface area.
"I can make every part of the uniform and repair everything," said Kiichiro Ito, 83, the president of Yamato Budogu Seisakusho and a bogu craftsman (bogu is an inclusive term for kendo equipment).
His specialty is the men, the face mask. Its fabrication begins with two preparatory steps: layering pieces of cotton wool, wool and other fabrics to form a protective pad and wrapping rice straw around the rim of a manufactured metal face grill, called the mengane. The straw provides a base so the pad can exist mitt stitched to the grill, and the edges of the whole assembly is then bound with strips of rawhide to reinforce the structure and improve the piece'south overall appearance, Mr. Ito said.
The process takes nigh ii weeks of work to produce the basic model, while higher-end models, which require finer stitches and decoration, can take equally long as 3 to six months.
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Prototype
Mr. Ito also collaborates with other bogu craftsmen effectually Nippon: For example, one of them, in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, specializes in aizome, or indigo dye. The artisan dyes textiles thread by thread and so sends rolls of fabric to Mr. Ito'due south atelier, where it is cut and added to protective pads. (Other indigo-dyed textiles from artisans in other prefectures are used for the cotton fiber dogi and hakama set.)
The family business concern was started by Mr. Ito'southward grandfather in 1936 in Aoyama-itchome, an area in southwestern Tokyo. Over the decades the workshop moved, shifted to equestrian equipment when some martial arts were banned after World State of war 2 and, in the 1970s, was rebranded as Yamato Budogu by Mr. Ito's male parent.
Mr. Ito joined the business in 1957, at age 19, and his younger brother, Tsuyoshi, came into the business a few years later. They took over the shop when their male parent died in 1980.
"Kendo is ordinarily a family business concern," Mr. Ito said. "I learned from my father, who was as well a bogu craftsman. Information technology'southward non something you can learn at school. Some particular techniques or skills are related to certain families and handed down."
Epitome
The shop and the atelier are in Mr. Ito'south house, in the Shibuya ward, another expanse in southwestern Tokyo ("Nosotros used to be able to see Mount Fuji from here, but now all the buildings block the view."). The shop, on the ground floor, is and so modest that two people can barely become inside: In one case they slide open the front glass door, at that place is just a pocket-size genkan, or entry manner, with bamboo swords and uniform pieces stored in glass instance displays.
But when they have off their shoes, step upwards and walk through a doorway, there is the atelier, a large room that measures almost 900 square feet and has been outfitted with tatami mats and 2 long tables where the cut and sewing are done by Mr. Ito, an apprentice and 2 female employees, 86 and 73, who are relatives of Mr. Ito.
Rolls of textiles, bottles of lacquers, cardboard boxes and small wooden drawers filled with tools have been crammed into any bachelor space. Until its contempo death, a big black and white cat named Fuku roamed around or napped by the gas heater.
Mr. Ito usually sits well-nigh the window on a zabuton, a Japanese floor absorber, with a coating on his lap and a pocket-size wooden worktable nearby. Adjacent to him is another zabuton — but that piece of work infinite has been left empty for the concluding two years, ever since Tsuyoshi Ito died. "I wish yous could take met my younger brother," Mr. Ito said. "He was very entertaining and talkative."
Yean Han, the 33-yr-old apprentice, sits across from Mr. Ito. He is from Negara brunei darussalam, and had met Tsuyoshi Ito at a workshop in Malaysia in 2013. "I was already interested in how bogu is made since I was training for kendo," he said.
When Mr. Han moved to Tokyo in 2016 to report robotics at Waseda University, his frequent visits to the atelier slowly turned into a training plan.
"I became and then interested and naturally I merely sabbatum hither," Mr. Han said. "Sometimes he would but throw small things at me, like 'Effort this, attempt that'," he said. (Mr. Han outset learned from Mr. Ito's brother, but now Mr. Ito trains him.)
"We talk a lot sometimes. Other times he only does his work and I sit down across from him for i hour or ii and I just lookout man," he said.
Mr. Ito seems to appreciate his amateur: "Mr. Han is the ane who welcomes customers. He speaks Japanese very well."
Paradigm
Mr. Han said he was nonetheless learning skills. "I still take a certain fashion to become earlier I tin be entirely responsible for making something. What Sensei will practise when he creates something and thinks he can trust me with certain parts of the procedure, he volition ask me to practise one part," he said, referring to Mr. Ito equally sensei, a term of respect for someone who has attained a certain level of mastery. (He doesn't railroad train any longer, as Mr. Ito gave him a choice: exercise kendo or brand bogu.)
Mr. Ito'southward handcrafted bogu is a rarity: Today, he said, less than one percent of the world's kendo gear is fabricated in Japan; other Asian countries, such equally China and South Korea, industry it. Yet in the 1970s and '80s, when kendo was particularly pop in Nippon, his shop had fourteen employees and would distribute to vendors. At present it does concern with individual customers.
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Co-ordinate to Alexander Bennett, a professor of Japanese history at Kansai Academy and editor in chief of Kendo World magazine, "The golden age for kendo in Nippon was in the 1970s and 1980s for children. There would have been a waiting list to get your child into kendo." Now, still, the country's low birthrate means at that place are fewer children, and kendo may not be every bit appealing as soccer or baseball game.
"Kendo is traditionally known for discipline and for pedagogy children good manners," he said. "But nowadays parents give their children more freedom of choice, and parents do not see the value of kendo the same way they used to." Withal, he said, the All Nihon Kendo Federation estimates there are one.5 one thousand thousand practitioners in Japan today; the population is around 126 million. (For comparing, there were iv meg to five million practitioners in the 1970s and '80s.)
Mr. Ito is worried the old means will disappear. "Martial arts are likewise 'onetime schoolhouse'," he told me. "And compared to other martial arts, kendo is expensive, probably the most expensive, which could be a factor. Y'all have to recollect about the costs in the long-run if your son continues kendo."
Prototype
My son'south simple cotton set and shinai, or sword, cost less than the equivalent of $100, while his teacher'south garments, bought from Mr. Ito, were around $300 and a full outfit, with shinai, can cost $500 to $1,000, depending on the quality.
Just well-crafted bogu can terminal: Mr. Ito mentioned a client who has kept his uniform for more than than xl years. "Loftier-quality, handcrafted items can be repaired and used for a long time," he said as he repaired a kote, or glove, for a girls' kendo squad at a local loftier school. The kote was lined with deer leather, which is easily worn out and may need to be replaced equally often every bit five times a year because the team practices daily. But Mr. Ito replaces just ane modest area so the team doesn't have to keep ownership new ones.
Mr. Ito's married woman, Yasuko, 79, also is part of the business: She used to have care of the deliveries, but now handles administrative tasks. "A lot of brunt goes to my married woman," Mr. Ito said, and she is in accuse when they all take a break for oyatsu, or afternoon snack, at 3 p.m. each workday, handing out cups of tea and sweets. "The sweet is different every day," Mr. Han said.
Mr. Ito doesn't take much fourth dimension off. He said he doesn't have whatever hobbies, simply he loves the annual matsuri, a traditional festival held in September in Shinjuku, i of Tokyo's entertainment and business districts. "If you immune me to talk about information technology, I could talk about it forever," he said.
Even though the official business hours of the shop are 10 a.chiliad. to seven p.m., Monday through Saturday, Mr. Ito usually works late in the atelier. "There is no end time," he said.
"At my age, I'm oftentimes asked if I yet do this equally a hobby or for pleasure, merely I do this to make a living," he said. "I don't receive any pension money similar people who used to work in big companies. As a craftsman I don't have that, then I have to keep working."
"I'm the last bogu craftsman in Tokyo," he said. "When I pass away, there won't be anyone."
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/27/fashion/craftsmanship-kendo-martial-arts-tokyo.html