The traditional craft of making Kumano brushes has been newly designated as an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Hiroshima Prefecture
The traditional craft of making Kumano brushes, long practiced in Kumano Town, has been newly designated as an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Hiroshima Prefecture.
Kumano brushes are produced in Kumano Town, which accounts for approximately 80% of all brush production in Japan. It is said that the craft originated about 180 years ago, toward the end of the Edo period, when local farmers, seeking to earn income during the agricultural off-season, purchased brushes and ink from Nara and Wakayama to sell, and some of them learned the brush-making techniques locally and brought that knowledge back to spread in their hometown.
Kumano brushes were designated as a National Traditional Craft in 1975. This time, however, the Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education, based on the recommendation of the Prefectural Cultural Property Protection Council composed of external experts, decided on the 22nd to newly designate the brush-making techniques themselves as a Prefectural Intangible Folk Cultural Property.
The reasons cited include the widespread transmission of production techniques within households and the local community, contributing to production efficiency, and the participation of women among the main producers, reflecting a unique regional characteristic.
Hidekazu Sakamitsu, Director of the Cultural Property Division at the Prefectural Board of Education Secretariat, commented, “We want to work together with the town and prefecture to preserve this traditional technique, developed within the community, and pass it on to future generations.”
Among Hiroshima Prefecture’s Intangible Folk Cultural Properties, kagura and other cultural practices have been designated in the past. With the addition of the “brush-making techniques of Kumano brushes,” the total number of designated properties now stands at 68.
(from NHK News)
