Disabled People Emerging as Bearers of Traditional Craft Culture in Kyoto

July 4, 2018

Kyoto- People with intellectual disabilities are playing key roles in the traditional manufacturing industry in Kyoto, where a shortage of inheritors is becoming a serious problem.

Intellectually impaired people aiming to acquire professional techniques to make traditional crafts, such as "Nishijin-ori" textiles and "wa rosoku" Japanese candles, are expected to be new bearers of the long-established industrial art of Kyoto, which has a 1,200-year history.

At the Nishijin Koubou facility in Kyoto's Kita Ward, people with intellectual disabilities are producing Nishijin-ori goods using hand-weaving equipment.

Takashi Kawai, a native of the Nishijin area in the western Japan city, opened the facility in 2004, hoping to protect the traditional weaving technique while providing disabled people with opportunities to improve their work skills.

With orders for filature increasing every year, the facility became one of the biggest filature plants in the area, which stretches between Kamigyo and Kita wards.

"People with disabilities who tend to engage in simple work at low wages are looking for more challenging jobs, while traditional businesses are looking for workforce," Kawai said.

"If disabled people acquire skills, we can join hands" with traditional businesses, he noted.

Nakamura Rosoku, a producer of Japanese traditional candles established in 1887, is making use of a city government project aimed at increasing the number of disabled people on the payroll.

Satoshi Asano, who has a mental disorder, started working at the company in Fushimi Ward as a candle painter in April last year.

Hirokazu Tagawa, president of the candle maker, hired Asano as he had felt a need to employ enough painters to pass down the tradition of wa rosoku.

"I see Asano as a craftsman regardless of the disability he has," said Tagawa, who sells candles painted by Asano in the same way as other painters' works.

Tagawa gives a high mark to Asano's skills, saying his paintings "look good."

Tomoki Ueta, with developmental disability including an attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, started working at Cosaien Taneda, a "Kyokanoko-shibori" tie-died goods manufacturer set up in 1837, in Shimogyo Ward in April this year.

"I'm good at work that involves repeating something thanks to the psychiatric conditions," Ueta said. "I believe I can help the traditional craftwork survive by capitalizing on my disorders."

"I want to build my skill," he also said.

Yasuo Taneda, president of Cosaien Taneda's management company, said he hopes Ueta will strive to become a certified traditional craftsman to help keep the Kyokanoko-shibori business going. Jiji Press