The following three videos have been posted on YouTube.
In the above video, I sneaked into my father’s studio and briefly recorded him while he carved a piece of material (subtitles in English).
This video is a close-up of my father carving. Just like the first one, this video is short, but you can see how he uses the type of carving knives known as hidari-ba.
These are the tools he used in the above videos.
This is the carving area of his studio, and most of these carving knives were made by himself. The blades are shaped differently, and used according to a purpose or area of carving.
The blades are so small and fine that it is hard to distinguish them unless seen closely. My father says that, when making knives, he selects certain kinds of wood for handles and make each handle look somewhat unique so that he can easily identify the one he wants to use. This has a lot to do with the next video.
In this video, my father explains the shapes and materials of the handles of his carving knives. (Facebook livestream in Japanese on October 31, 2020).
Click here for a bio of my father Ryushi.
Text, photos, and videos by Komada Makiko
