Mami Kiyoshi
 
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Yanase Jūzaburō in his workshop,
(Yokosuka, Kakegawa, Shizuoka prefecture, 2018)

Yanase Jūzaburō is the 4th generation to work at the Yanase Chōchin Workshop. In Japanese, "chōchin" means lantern. This workshop was founded over a hundred years ago by his great-great-grandfather Yanase Juta, a samurai who worked in the neighboring castle. After Juta, his son Katsuta, then his grandson Matsutarō held the workshop, and then it was Jūzaburō's turn. The eleven forms of Enshū Yokosuka kites were mostly created by the ancestors of Jūzaburō. The kites placed at the front among the lanterns were made by Jūzaburō; those which hang on the door were made by his father and grandfather.

From the beginning, this workshop has been making lanterns and kites. But today, as the picture illustrates, kites come out from time to time amidst the profusion of lanterns. However, Jūzaburō receives practically no orders for kites anymore. When he was young, in the area, there were several workshops making lanterns, but when he was 32 years old and his father died, all that was left was their workshop. Jūzaburō had no choice but to take over.

Jūzaburō has always been good at drawing and painting. When he was a child, he made lanterns, kites and koi-nobori (carp-shaped windsocks) with his father. That's how he learned the job. He is of a very calm character, applied, perhaps a little maniac. While working, he listens to, in a loop, the same CD of classical music.

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