STUDIO

Nakagawa Mokkougei is Japanese traditional woodworks of cooper. we create our works using a various woodwork techniques especially Japanese traditional buckets (ki-oke) technique. Our traditional wooden buckets (ki-oke) are made by arranging strips of wood into a circle then binding them with a metal or bamboo strip on the outside. This technique is said to have been established in the Muromachi period in Japan, some 700 years ago. In the Edo period, virtually every household used this wooden bucket, either in the bath, or for keeping rice or miso. Each home came to have many buckets for various purposes. Although this item has been used for over 500 years, in contemporary times, it is rapidly disappearing. However, the techniques and embedded spirit for making this bucket still have value for today’s lifestyle.

At Nakagawa Mokkougei, we continue this tradition and aim to further the beauty of wood and wooden buckets to incorporate them into modern life.

Nakagawa Mokkougei has two studios in Kyoto and Shiga.　One of these does the chairperson by Kiyotsugu Nakagawa in Kyoto. He was designated as a living national treasure of Japan in 2001. And another one is working as the chairperson his son "Shuji Nakagawa" in Siga. It is Nakagawa Mokkougei "HIRAKOUBOU". Shuji Nakagawa is a Japanese traditional craftsman of woodworks and a contemporary artist. He is the third generation of his woodwork family and studied woodwork under his father.