The First European Woodcarver
Mike Taylor (Ishikawa)
Hanz Georg Weiz is carving an unusual chess piece.
He’s been commissioned to make a whole set for someone on the other side of the world. He’s currently finishing up the first piece: the king. Only this king is a traditional Japanese dragon. This piece alone, each line delicately and painstakingly carved by hand, has taken him nearly a month. In the soft light, shadows ease their way into the grooves, giving the piece an unearthly depth.
Georg Weiz, more commonly known as Asaya, has been living in a small town in Toyama called Inami for a little over a year, studying under a series of master woodcarvers. He’s the first European to become an official apprentice to the woodcarvers in Inami, world-renowned for their style and skill.
He says “There’s such richness here in Inami. It’s so inspiring. The first time I came here I was just amazed at how beautiful the town is. People have been so welcoming and so supportive here. It’s been incredible.”
In the first decade of the 1800s, Inami was forever changed by a craftsman from Kyoto. He was commissioned to rebuild the local temple, Zuisenji, after a fire and took several families from the nearby village as apprentices. When he was recalled to Kyoto, they carried on using his techniques and the town flourished as part of the wealthy Kaga domain. Walking through the town today, there are beautiful carvings everywhere you look—ranma, decorative panels that hang above doors, lifelike carvings of cats hidden around the village as a charming scavenger hunt. Even the temple’s “take off your shoes” and “no smoking” signs are beautiful wood carvings.
Recent years have been less kind to Inami. Less than 50 years ago, more than 300 master woodcarvers lived in Inami. Today, though, there are just shy of 150. The average age of the woodcarvers is 70. Asaya says there’s a genuine fear that, one day, the craft could be lost. “Time is running out. This skill and knowledge would be very sad if it gets lost. I hope it can get passed on. But there are more people coming and I think, if the community here starts seeing that, it will open up to foreigners who want to study here. There will be solutions that the community can present.”
His own story has been a whirlwind. Originally from Germany, Asaya preferred working with his hands to academia, eventually moving to Sweden to study woodcarving. Once he’d finished, he moved again to Mexico. It was there he first learned about Inami and the unique woodcarving style. He set off to Japan with one goal: be accepted as an apprentice in the town. “In Mexico, I was feeling that I had learned what I had gone to learn. I got interested in Japanese woodcarving after seeing some pictures online and I heard about this village with 200 woodcarvers in it. I was blown away and couldn’t understand how they could make these intricate works. I decided I have to come here.”
Searching through social media, he found a woman who had tagged herself in Inami and messaged her. When the conversation fizzled out, Asaya was left with no choice but to go to Inami himself and try to find somebody. He was on the bus to the town when she messaged back: A friend of a friend is a woodcarver and when would be good to meet?
“I said I’m on the bus now on my way to Inami, so now would be great! She said ok. Then I met the head of the woodcarving cooperative and my first teacher, Toshida-sensei.
“We met in the Woodcarving Museum and we talked. After a bit, they said they’d accept me as an apprentice. I’m not sure why they accepted me. Maybe they saw I was really curious and interested.”
It’s easy to see the passion for woodcarving that Asaya has, so it’s no wonder that the masters in Inami accepted him during their first meeting. In the year since, he’s studied under three different teachers. “Each master has a different style of woodcarving. The first master was doing a lot of ranma. The second master was similar in that he did the traditional Inami style but he also did a lot of his own art. So I learned a lot about how to approach how to make an artwork, which is very different from the concrete dragons but going abstract—how to make a shape that looks aesthetically pleasing. The master I’m with now has a focus on Buddhist sculptures. There’s more human body work because we’re carving Buddhist figures.”
Typically, apprentices study under one master for five years, living under the same roof, eating the same meals, and earning enough money to gradually build up their own set of tools. The apprenticeship ends with a “payback” year—working mostly for free under their master to pay back the cost of the apprenticeship. In his time with the different teachers, done in modern times because of the lack of apprentices, Asaya has made a wide variety of carvings.
During his time in the village, Asaya started an Instagram documenting his woodcarving journey and has amassed thousands of followers. He says they’ve been really encouraging. His passion is clear to see.
“The woodcarving itself is so fulfilling. The learning here is so fulfilling, it gives me so much. And the patience is something that I’m really starting to enjoy learning. At the beginning, it was difficult for me to work for so many hours on the same piece but now I’m starting to enjoy the patience that it takes. There’s something here in Japan that makes it really enjoyable. To me, it’s like a spiritual practice. Woodcarving becomes a practice of growing yourself as a person.”
Mike Taylor is a JET alumnus based in Kanazawa, Ishikawa. Originally from Scotland, he spends most of his time longing for Irn Bru, Tunnock’s tea cakes, and a good breakfast with plenty of baked beans.
Notes:
His IG