Live with wood

By Sinobu Yamamoto, Yuki Satoh

We visited Tomoo Gotoh-san in Miyagahara. He used to exhibit his
woodworks at Kawazu Industrial Festival when he was a forest ranger of
the local branch forest office. After his retirement, he has been
continuing the woodwork as a hobby.
When we went up a slope, we could see his house and hear the sound of
shaving wood. When we entered a bit inside, there were a wooden small
table and parent & child turtle doll. When we were fascinated by them,
Gotoh-san came to see us from his workplace. When he took us to the
house, we could see a sun terrace attached to the house. The terrace was
decorated with his works. Immediately after we were taken to a room,
we started interview.
Snapshot at Interview

$B!|(JFirst of all, what is your driving force to start woodwork?
"Well, after all, because I was engaged in woodwork at the forest
office."

$B!|(JWhat items are you making mainly?
"Mainly accessories, such as tie pins, brooches and earrings. Other than
these things, I am making chopping boards, corner racks, and small round
tables."

$B!|(JHow long have you been doing the woodwork?
"As for the accessories, I started to work on them 5 or 6 years ago. But
I have been working on chairs and tables since I was working at the
Forest Office."

Suddenly, with a vivid voice, his wife came back. By saying, "Oh dear, you
are here already, arenÕt you?", she disappeared at the back of the house
and she came back with very tasty sweets and tea for us. Having the
sweets and tea, we continued the interview.

$B!|(JThere is something that we have been noticed. Did you make the
pinecone tree that is put in the terrace? (The cones are from Western
Countries, and they are three or four times bigger than the Japanese ones.
They were colored.)
"They are to be used for Xmas trees. There is a Western pine tree in the
Forest Office. We picked up the cones from the tree and colored them in
red, blue and so on."

Western pine tress are limited around here. So it is very valuable. If you
need them, you have to go to the Forest Office or look for the places
where the trees are planted.

$B!|(JWhat material of the tree are you using?
Mostly from a cedar or a hinoki, because their grain appears beautifully.

I think that it is wasteful to throw away woods which is usable. So I am
using thinned-out woods or waste woods. Nowadays, lots of people throw
away things which are usable or they buy the same things that they
already have, so I try to use waste woods as much as possible.
We think that we have to follow Goto-san's example, and also we have to
behave ourselves in a natural manner like Goto-san.
[Goto-san's Works]
Goto-san showed us his works. When we opened a box, there were lots of
accessories in it. Any of tie pins and brooches are glossy, and their grain
appears beautifully. These accessories were only made from natural
Hinoki, not from artificially planted Hinoki.
Hinoki produces more beautiful grain with good color when it is put
longer time. They are made from twigs, so it is difficult to handle them
because they are easily broken unless they are handled with care. His
wife frequently helps to polish them. One day, she was surprised to see
that a white twig was changed to the one with beautiful grain only in one
day.

Sometimes he has been asked to make a woodcraft by a customer. But
mostly, he makes his works as a hobby on the spur of the moment. That's
why we feel softness and warmth from them. Gotoh-san also makes
ornaments of ducks and turtles using the remaining parts of the wood.
When I heard that he made these ornaments for two hours, we were very
surprised because we though it would take longer time. We were very
impressed by his human figure that he doesnÕt waste such a thin twig.
Before we went home, Suzuki-san kindly bought tie pins for us. Shinobu
gave it to her father, and Yuki gave it to her grandfather. Without
varnishing, those tie pins emit natural beam. By them, we were able to
feel beauty and delicacy of the grain that Mr. & Mrs. Gotoh told us.

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