Traveling and Teaching in Rural Japan: Specialty Crafting in Hirosaki

Lest weekend, I finally got to go on another monthly prefecture-sponsored trip, which I always look forward to. This time, we headed to the Hirosaki Area to experience two different types of specialty crafting: woodworking and brewing.

先週末、いつも楽しみにしている国際交流会の月例旅行がやっと来たぁー！今回弘前市の辺りの名物産品、木工と醸造、を体験させて頂きました。

Our first stop was at a company called Bunaco. Just like their name, they produce furniture and kitchenware using a type of wood called 椈 buna, or Japanese beech. Buna wood is light and flexible, and is shaved into thin long strips, which are wound repeatedly around the edges of a solid-wood base shape. Originally called ぶなコイル buna coil to describe the wrapping of the wood, it is known today as bunako.

最初はBUNACOという木工技術の会社に着きました。名前通り、この会社がブナ「椈」と言う木材を使って、色々なものを作ります。ブナの木材は軽くて柔らかくて、桂剥きのように薄く切られます。その後、硬い木材のベースに何回も巻いたら、「ブナのコイル」になっちゃいます。そのように「ブナコ」と呼ばれてきます。

The kids at one of my middle schools make bunako bowls in their arts and crafts class, so I was enthusiastic to try it myself. First, they gave us a tour of the workshop and showed us the raw materials used.

中学校の生徒も図工の授業でブナコの食器を作っることになるので、一度僕も作ってみたかったなぁ。まず、店員からの挨拶を聞いて、少し工場の見学をしました。

Buna strips

Wooden bases

To start, the buna wood strips are wrapped around the solid-wood base. The larger the piece you are making, the more buna needs to be wrapped around it. After that, the pieces are then shaped using a teacup as a sort of mold press. It's hard to describe, so just watch the video to see for yourself.

ブナコの作り方に対して、まず木材ベースにブナのテープを巻きます。産品が大きければ、ブナテープの量を増やします。その後、茶碗を道具として使って形を成形します。言葉で説明しにくいですが、ビデオをご覧になれば分かるでしょう。

We were all given a piece that was already pre-wound. They gave us each a teacup and taught us how to shape the bowls. The craftsmen made it look easy, but shaping those things took a lot of effort and dexterity. One of the girls was having a lot of trouble getting a smooth curve, causing the wound strips to detach. Immediately after that, the piece burst into a tangled mess of buna strips. Someone came by and gave her a new pre-wound piece, but she ended up ruining that one too... poor girl.

私達も作ってみました！最初から全て作るわけじゃなかったけど、もう巻いておいた板から形をすることでした。板がもう準備されて、茶碗の使い方も教えられて、簡単に作れるとは思ったけど思ったより難しい！マスター職人の働きを見れば「大したことでないな」と思ってしますが、やってみればメチャクチャ硬い！親方様ってなん力強い人だろう！そして、失敗すると、コイルが弾けて、「バーン！」と爆発する。材料はまだまだ使えるので「心配しないで」って言われたんですが、やはり失敗すると悔しいでしょう。留学生の中に１人だけでなく２人も失敗してしまった！かわいそう...

After 15-20 minutes, we'd finished shaping our bowls! Some people made obtuse modern designs, but I just wanted a beautifully symmetrical bowl. We added our final signature mark with a pencil onto the bottom of the bowls, slathered glue over them to solidify the shape, and then laid them in a drying room.

１５－２０分後、成形終了でーす！他の人がモダンな面白い形を作ったが、自分はシンプルのが最高だね。最後に自分のサインマークを書いて、のりを塗って、乾すために乾燥室に入れました。

Complete! It's so beautiful...

My personal logo. How cool is that!

After several weeks, they will arrive finished in the mail! The finished ones will look something like this.

あと２－３週間を待てば完了したお椀が届きますでしょう。この写真のイメージ通りにになはずです。

Completed bowls in 5 different colors.

I asked if they would stamp the company logo on the bottom for us too. The lady told me that anything with their logo on it could be sold as their handiwork, so they would not be including it. I thought, "Why on earth would I sell my personal bowl?" We later paid a visit to their showroom, and I found out why they were concerned about reselling.

「ブナコの印も付くでしょうか？」と店員に聞くと、「それはできない」と返事しました。その印がある物はBUNACO会社の商品になってしまうので、産品として売れることになります。「自分作った物を売らねぇよ！」と思ったが、ショールームを見学すると、あの店員の悩みをよく分かりました。

These things are expensive! Something equivalent to the bowls we made were selling for about 4000 yen. That's about $40 US, for a single bowl! They had a bunch on other cute little bowls, coasters, lampshades, and other trinkets for a surprisingly high price. Bunako stools were selling for over $400. I can understand why they are expensive, because each one is made by hand by a skilled craftsman and not some amateur tourist. As beautiful as they were, the products on display were a bit out of my price range.

値段がタッケイー！私たちが作ったサイズのお椀は４０００円で販売されていた。茶碗、コースター等の小さな物も安くはない。ブナコの椅子もなんと４万円以上。値段が高いが、その理由は分かります。産品は全部マスター技術職人が上手に手作りをした物で正真正銘なアートなんです。美しくても、この一般人の私には高すぎますね。

As usual, lunch was was an all-you-can-eat buffet, this time at Hotel New Castle. On the top floor, the dining hall has excellent view of both Mt. Iwaki on one side and the rest of Hirosaki on the other side. The food was great, and I must have eaten them out of their smoked ham! Lunch is one of the best parts of these trips...

昼飯は～～～ランチバイキングでした！ホテルニュウキャッスルの９階には素晴らしい景色が見えるダイニングホールです。料理も美味しくて、生ハムを少し食べ過ぎた～わけがないよね！一生生肉！いやあ、交流会のランチタイムは最高やなー！バイキングばんざい！

After stuffing ourselves at lunch, we went to the company headquarters of a company called Kaneshou. They specialize is various kinds of brewed food products, like soy sauces, miso, and vinegars. Their most famous product is a drinking vinegar made out of apples. Apple vinegar for cooking isn't all that special in itself, but this company was the first to begin production of a premium type of apple vinegar suitable for straight consumption.

食べた後、カネショウと言う会社の工房に行きました。カネショウの専門は醤油、味噌、酢などの醗酵した食物です。一番人気の商品はりんごに作られた飲む酢です。料理用りんご酢がどこでも作られていますが、プレミアムの飲むりんご酢を初めて作った会社はカネショウです。

Normal cooking apple vinegar starts as normal apple juice, which is then fermented into apple wine, which is is then fermented into vinegar. The premium stuff starts out as a paste ground from a blend of fresh Aomori apples. Using this instead of regular old apple juice gives the final product a more wholesome flavor. This apple pulp is fermented into apple wine, after which a special blend of bacteria is introduced to turn it into vinegar. This mixture then sits to age in oak barrels for about a year.

普通の料理用りんご酢はりんごジュースからワインを作り、そのワインから酢に変えます。飲むりんご酢は新鮮な青森りんごのパルプから作っられて、その後バレルに一年のエージングです。そうしたら、ふか～い味ができます。おいしくてそのまま飲めるようになった。

The process explained.

The special bacteria blend, stored at a frigid -80 C

This apple vinegar that comes in the bottles is concentrated, so it needs to be diluted with water before drinking. It's also quite sour and pungent by itself, so most people buy the sweetened versions. The most popular bottle is half vinegar and half honey, while they offer a low-honey version and a cheaper corn syrup option as well. We had a taste test of the water-diluted vinegar, and it was sweet and enjoyable! The taste of crisp apples was strong, with that special saliva-rendering flavor that only fermentation can bring. I personally would have preferred the low-honey version, but it's all good!

ボトルから飲むと、強くて超スッパイ！飲む前に、まず１分の酢と７分の水を混ぜて、スムースに美味しく飲めるようになる。そして、酢だけですっぱい味ばかりなので、人気がある商品はハチミツ入りりんご酢です。ライトハチミツバージョンもありますし、値段が安い異性化糖使用バージョンもあるよ。このスイートな甘くて、すっぱくて、すっきりなよだれをドロドロ出してくる飲み物です。私ならライトバージョンが良かったと思う。

They also showed as a different drink to prepare. Instead of diluting the vinegar with water, you can use milk instead! Watching it for the first time made me cringe a little bit, but it's surprisingly palatable. The sour vinegar reacted with the milk in a way that made the end product taste and feel like a sweet yogurt drink! One of our companions was lactose intolerant, so I offered to "bite the bullet" and help him finish his cup.

そして、見たこともない飲む方法も紹介したのです。水の代わりに牛乳を使えば、甘いヨーグルトみたいな飲み物になります！まずそうな感じをしたけど、意外とうまい！牛乳がにがてな一人の仲間がいたので、わたくしがあの人の分を飲んで差し上げました！フフフー

Aging apple vinegar in oak barrels.

Other than apple drinking vinegar, they also produce a multitude of interesting stuff from apples, like apple balsamic, apple salad dressings, apple soy sauce, apple vinegar jelly snacks, garlic and soybeans stewed in apple vinegar, and their most expensive product, Megami no ringo, or "Apple of Goddesses". I wasn't entirely sure what they were saying, but there's some sort of miracle agent (recently discovered by scientists at Hirosaki University) inside that has anti-aging properties. Besides apple products, they have other bizarre stuff like peach vinegar, pear vinegar, and scallop soy sauce. Bizarre, but also probably delicious!

飲むりんご酢以外、りんごドレッシング、りんごバルサミック、りんご醤油、りんご酢ゼリー、りんご酢を入れ込んだにんにくや大豆等のりんご商品もありました。一番高いのは「女神の林檎」と言うりんご酢ドリンク。よく分からなかったけど、弘前大学で発見された奇跡のアンチエージングの不思議な物が酢の中に入っているそうです。りんごの商品いがい、桃酢、かりん酢、ほたて醤油、その他。異様な物いっぱいですが、なんかおいしそうです。