Area Aid Design Project ｜ JDP東北茨城デザインプロモーション JDP Tohoku and Ibaraki Design Promotion

Tansu production started in the Edo era. Tansu became part of the brides dowry in Meiji, spreading tansu production throughout Japan. However, majority of tansu production has vanished today. Marui Formative Furniture has preserved the art to produce "traditional Iwate folkscraft - Nambu tansu". Traditional Nambu tansu is built by meisters, using cypress and Paulownia trees grown in the mountains of Iwate prefecture. Beautiful grains of cypress wood glow with the "suri-urushi (lacquer scratching, or to paint many thin layers of lacquer)" painting, bound with hand-carved metal plates. All of this work come from meisters' pride carried on for generations, and the elegant style of the craftwork.