Shibata Tamaki (Hakata Magemono)

Hakata magemono — curved woodwork bent from thin boards of cedar or cypress and bound with strips of cherry bark, without a single metal fastener — has been made in Fukuoka for more than 400 years, and the Shibata family workshop carries an unbroken line through that history. Shibata Tamaki, born Mariko in 1961 in Hakata's Bashio district, took up the craft seriously after finishing junior college in 1981, working alongside her father, the 17th-generation Shibata Tamaki. After his death in 1996 she renamed the workshop Hakata Magemono Tamaki and moved it to Shime Town, near Fukuoka Airport; she formally took the name and title of 18th generation in 2007. In March 2025, Hakata magemono was designated a Fukuoka Prefecture Intangible Cultural Property, with Shibata Tamaki recognized as the holder of the technique.

Her workshop turns the wood into bento boxes, rice tubs, flower vases, dippers, offering stands and tea-ceremony implements, alongside custom commissions, and she has shown individually in Tokyo and Kyoto while keeping the craft grounded in daily use rather than display alone. She also demonstrates the technique in public every Thursday at the Hakata Machiya Furusato-kan folk museum, one of the few regular chances to watch the bending and binding done by hand.