Japanese Wooden Barrel Cooper Craftsman, Kurita Minoru

Kurita Minoru was born in Nagoya on July 4, 1948. As a junior high school student, he commenced
helping his father in the family wood tub crafting cooper business. After graduating from high school,
he and his brother continued in the family business, Nagoya Wood Barrels, Kurita Coopers. He regularly
shows his wares at traditional handcraft displays at department stores across the nation, and has been
focusing on maintaining the traditions, while developing new products. In 1999, he was the recipient
of a Nagoya Traditional Industry Association Award, and in 2010 was certified by the National Lands
and Forestry Department as a recognized woodcrafts and cooper artisan. Mr. Kurita has been heavily
involved with the forming of the Aichi Prefectural Traditional Craftsman Organisation.

 50 Years of Craft  / この道一筋50年・・・

—Kurita San, how long have you been  working as a
    traditional cooper?

   栗田さんは、桶結師（おけゆいし）のお仕事をされて何年ですか？ 

49 years now. 
49年になります。

—Why did you decide to become a cooper?
    桶結師になったキッカケは？

My father was a cooper. I didn’t want to become a cooper at first,
and so after graduating I experienced life briefly in a white shirt
and necktie. At the time, both my parents and my brother were
very busy with the family business. It didn’t seem right that I should
want to work elsewhere, and so I started making tubs, barrels and
pails alongside my parents and brother,…that was nearly 50 years ago now.

もともと父が桶屋だったからです。僕は桶屋になりたかったわけではなくて、学校を卒業したら、白いシャツを着て
ネクタイしめてという生活をしたかった。でも、当時はものすごく忙しくて、父と母はもちろん、兄も一緒に家業を
していました。だから「他のところで勤めたい」なんて言えるような環境ではなかったんですね。それで、両親や
兄と一緒に桶を作っているうちに、気がついたら50年近くたっていたという感じです。 

The Owari Nagoya Districts were Home to Many Craftsmen
尾張名古屋は、桶屋が栄えた場所だった 

—The numbers of traditional coopers has decreased dramatically, right?
    現在は、桶屋さんも少なくなってしまいましたよね？ 

There’s only about 30 or 40 left across the nation now. I looked in the phone book, and most from
my father’s era have closed their doors, and the majority of coopers these days only make barrels.
There’s only about 5 traditional coopers left here in Nagoya. There used to be over 200, or so I heard.
Just south of Nagoya Castle is an area called Okeya-Cho (Cooper-Town), where it seems coopers once
flourished in old Japan.

おそらく、もう 全国で30軒〜40軒くらいだと思います。電話帳にはのってはいても、お父さんの代で閉めて
しまったというところもありますし、「桶屋」と書かれていても、実際には桶の取り次ぎをしているだけのところ
もあります。自分で作っている桶屋ということでいうと、名古屋では5軒ほどしかありません。先輩に聞いた話に
よると、昔は名古屋に桶屋が200軒くらいあったそうですよ。名古屋城の南には「桶屋町」という名前が残っている
くらいですし、この尾張で桶屋は一番栄えたみたいです。

—That’s an interesting story,…
    それは興味深い話ですね！

Kiso Hinoki cypress, ..that’s a wonderful timber! They cut very high quality wood in the Kiso districts,
and float it along the Kiso River to the Horigawa (Moat River). That’s where we used to get it from.

やはり木曽の檜というのは、とても良いものなんですよね。その「木曽檜」や良質な「さわら」を切り出して、
木曽川を下って堀川へと運ばれ、この尾張が原木の集積場になっていたことなどが、尾張で桶屋が栄えた要因 
なのかもしれませんね。

>>CONTINUE

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