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Klay Blog

Hariko handmade by Furukawa-san

Hariko is a traditional folk craft in Japan. We have been selling hariko handmade by a craftsman called Furukawa-san for the last few years. He makes these from his studio in Kyoto in his old family shop, which his mother used to use for her traditional Chinese medicine practice.

Furukawa-san was inspired to start hariko (papier-mâché) from when he used to tour all over Japan during his days playing the banjo.

These take him a while to make, as each one is made from at least five layers of paper that is moulded on wooden blocks, then hand painted. They are all unique and Furukawa-san works alone.

Here are boxes of the handcarved wooden moulds that Furukawa-san uses. Different pieces are put together to create different characters or variations of them. A bit like Mr Potato Head!

A mould for one of the masks. We loved seeing these. All the holes where eyes, noses and mouths can be placed depending on which face he is making.

Furukawa-san changes the cat's waving arm on the mould from left side to right side. Left and right arm waving have different meaning in Japanese culture.

Above: on the left is the loose wooden cats arm and on the right shows some hariko just removed from the wooden moulds.

The Tatsu/ Dragon mould.

Furukawa-san uses different types of paper. All are washi paper. For some of the layers he uses recycled paper that students have used to practice Shodo (traditional Japanese Calligraphy). He gets these from his friend that is a children's Shodo teacher.

Each piece of hariko has five layers, that all need to dry before applying the next. It is a time consuming craft.

The hariko ornaments have little bells inside them. They make a very sweet jingle when picked up. Here are the little silver bells that Furukawa uses. You never see these – they are enclosed inside the ornament.

Once all five layers are fully dried, they are removed from the moulds, joined together where need be, then painted with a white primer.

There are also multiple coats of the white primer.

Once the primer is dried, he begins painting on the colours <3

Part of our order part way through painting.

Some of the fish for the Fish Cart drying.

Because he paints each one by hand individually, not every piece is the same. They all have a subtle unique character of their own.

I really like the colours that Furukawa-san creates for the different characters. A lovely mix of soft pastels combined with brighter colours and metallics.

Each piece is numbered, dated and signed by Furukawa-san.

We have been adding to our own personal collection of these over the years too. These are so familiar to me now they feel like friends.

In the studio where Furukawa makes his hariko, it is filled with books and records. Sometimes he gets out books to explain the origins of certain works he has made.

A book about traditional Japanese masks sitting on top of one of Fukukawa-san's records from when we was a folk musician.

He wrote many songs and toured throughout Japan for years.

When we were picking up an order he gave us a little performance :)

We can only pick up this Hariko when we are in Japan. We usually pick up a couple of different orders while we are here. We carefully pack these up and send them back to New Zealand, where Kirsty sends them out to you.

Mason makes custom bubble and card packaging to protect them on their journey.

Furukawa-san is a very creative and hard working person <3

We have a big range of Furukawa's work online now.

Hariko Maneki-neko (Cat), Black, Small
16,300
PKR
Out of stock
Hariko Kitsune (Fox with key)
16,700
PKR
Out of stock
Hariko Maneki-neko (Cat), White, Large
26,300
PKR

If you visit the product page for each, you will see some of them have multiple options: ie several different masks to choose from, or left/ right arm cats. Please select which one you want from the drop down menu on the product page.