Overview of producing areas Kishu Koya Kumiko wood joinery

Overview

Koyasan is a World Heritage Site. Kishu Koya Kumiko wood joinery is a traditional handicraft handed down through the generations at the foot of the mountain. It is a decorative technique in which finely split wood is joined by hand without the use of nails or other fasteners, and a variety of patterns are woven into the item. The wood used has primarily been the local "six trees of Koya" (pine, fir, southern Japanese hemlock, Japanese cedar, hinoki cypress, and Japanese umbrella-pine), which yield wood that is strong, lustrous, and easy to process. New technologies such as mountain-shaped and wave-shaped expressions from geometric patterns have been woven in.

Scenes of work

Fine splitting into the desired dimensions

Logs and thick lumber are split and sawn into specific boards. The boards are then split into desired dimensions using a circular saw bench.

Frame-making

Frame-making is performed with a homemade die table. Scraping is performed so that the finished materials can be joined. Component materials that form the canvas and those for the geometric patterns are created.

Foundation assembly

Foundation assembly is the creation of a canvas for the dimensions to be produced. Using the prepared component materials, a frame for weaving in the pattern is assembled.

Temporary assembly to main assembly

The picture is fitted to the canvas, and wood chip crosspieces are inserted one by one. When the temporary assembly is complete, the expression in the picture is reviewed and corrected. After main assembly and fixing, the work is complete.