Stuffed Folk Toy - Waxwing

Hida-Takayama is the centre of wooden furniture production in Japan. The manufacturing process inevitably results in an amount of scrap wood, but to avoid waste, some of this is made into printing blocks. Woodblock is an age-old method of printing used in the Asian continent and was adopted in Japan during the Edo-period (1603-1868 CE) for printing books and creating decorations, painting on paper and canvas alike. The relief of the patterns is carved by hand into the wooden blocks which can only be used for one colour at a time. The patterns and colours hand-printed onto the cotton fabric show the many varieties of woodblocks that have been skilfully carved to create each of these hand-sewn toys. Once the colourful patterns are transferred onto the fabric, they are set using steam. The toy is then filled with natural rice hulls, which is the hard, protective covering of rice grains. This particular toy takes the shape of a Japanese waxwing (Bombycilla japonica), one of the many species of bird often seen in the area of Hida-Takayama.

Avoid moisture and open flames.

Size: L14 cm x W4 cm x H8 cm

Kansai

The Kansai region includes the second-most populated metropolitan area in Japan with its largest city Osaka. Kyoto and Nara, two of Japan’s former capital cities, are home to important temples and shrines and strongholds of intangible cultural heritage, such as the Kyoto textile weaving skills of Nishijin.