What Kijiya Yamato (木地屋やまと) is known for
Run by Masayuki Ogura, who inherited the workshop from his father, Kijiya Yamato sits 800 meters up in a kijishi woodturning hamlet in Nagiso, Nagano. Bowls and trays are lathe-turned from chestnut logs, then finished in lacquer and chinkin inlay.
Kijiya Yamato belongs to the kijishi woodturning tradition of the Kiso mountains, a craft the workshop's own account traces back more than a thousand years to Prince Koretaka and the Ogura district of old Omi Province. The present shop sits at roughly 800 meters elevation in Nagiso, Nagano, in a small settlement in the Urushibata area still known locally as a kijishi village, though fewer than ten workshops and shops now remain active there.
The business is currently run by Masayuki Ogura, who took over the craft from his father, Eiichi Ogura. Working chestnut and Japanese horse-chestnut logs on a lathe, the workshop hollows and shapes them into bowls, trays, sake cups and other tableware, aiming, in the proprietor's own framing, for 'the beauty of utility' rather than purely decorative form.
Finished pieces are coated in lacquer and, on selected work, decorated with chinkin, a technique of carving fine lines into the lacquer surface and filling them with gold or metal leaf. That combination of centuries-old lathe-turning with lacquer and metal-inlay finishing is what distinguishes the shop's output from plain turned woodware.
Best for — Lathe-turned Kiso chestnut bowls and trays with chinkin inlay
Nagiso (Kiso), Nagano
Where next
- Kiso Ebiya — Japan
- Kobayashi Shikki — Japan
- Bagan House Artistic Lacquerware — Myanmar
Hand-curated for ORBIS · no paid placement