ひのきの里の技能祭 - Craftsmanship Fair in Kiso

木曽の上松には家具・木工職人をめざす生徒のための上松技術専門校という県立の施設がある。寄宿制一年コースの職業訓練所となっていて、この時期には年に一度訓練生たちの習作展示会がある。今年はヨーロッパの有名デザイナー作品のレプリカも多いと聞いて足を運んでみた。生徒たちはもちろん全くの未経験者もいれば、それなりの現場実績を経てさらに高みをめざす者もいて、スタート時点では玉石混合だが、それが一年後には総じてここまでのレベルの手作り家具が作れるというのを見ると、驚嘆もさせられるし、日本のレベルは捨てたもんじゃないなと心強く感じもする。このイベントは即売会でもあり、盛況だった。



The region Kiso is almost 4 hours away from Tokyo, surrounded by high mountains, and famous for cypress. In the town of Agematsu, they have a prefectural training school of specialized skills (Gijutsu-Senmon-Kou) for people aiming to be furniture and woodwork craftsman. Their curriculum is 1-year boarding for about 30 students, and in this time of the year, they organize an event to display each student’s major achievements. As I learned that there would be several replication practice of well-known European design furniture this year, I decided to visit this Fair. The students range in the beginning, like jewels and pebbles, from novice starters to relatively experienced craftsmen challenging higher hurdles, but it is quite amazing to see that they all generally have achieved skills to handcraft the furniture in this level in a year, and I felt more confident with the quality of Japanese hands despite the declining business in this area. The event was dense with more than 300 visitors to buy the furniture.