week 7: Distribution of Karakuri

Hello! This week I’m going to introduce you the distribution of Karakuri especially that I showed in my blog week3 like follows.

<Dashi karakuri(山車からくり)>

It is used at festivals which puppets are used in to tell the myths and legends and so on.

In Japan, There are as many Karakuris as there are people.

This time I use the book “図説 からくり人形の世界(千田靖子／法政大学出版局)” as a reference. According this book, It seems that many of Dashi karakuri are used in the Chubu region. In fact, 49 of karakuri festival are held in Aichi prefecture, 18 of that are in Gifu prefecture and so on(there are about 100 festivals are introduced).

< Tsunabi(綱火：rope fire ceremony) — Ina and Mitsukaido cities in Ibaraki prefecture >

This is a part of fairly tale “Urashima Tarou”. Urashima Tarou takes a turtle and walk in the sky. The

fireworks and smoke make fairly tale fantastic!

In Sengoku era gun-powder was very important as weapons. With the development of  gun-powder’s technology, Tsunabi had developed as a ethnic performance which is played with dolls and fireworks and Japanese orchestra.

< Hinkoko festival — Gifu prefecture >

This puppet show is ritual event of dedication of sowing wheat to destroy big snake that torments villagers. “Hinkoko” derives from “hinomiko(火のみこ)”, it means “Susamikoto(須佐男命)” or from the yell of the festival “hinkoko, chai chai”. Hinkoko dolls are made from a hamper and wore the closs which is made by “Mino washi(Japanese traditional paper)”.

After this festival villagers begin sowing.

< Sakura festival / Dashi summer festival — Aichi prefecture >

The effect of Gion festival at Kyoto in Heian era had Dashi festival with spectacular Japanese orchestra. That festival developed deluxe which symbolizes popular culture with synchronizing commercial flourishing.

The feature of “Iwakura Karakuri doll” is that the body which storages devices is made by local amateur people. We are able to see their passion for Karakuri. They seemed to  refer to Imuyama festival that is held near by Iwakura. Every year they visited there to detect the secrets of Karakuri and copied the playing skills.

 < A water wheel Karakuri at Kaseda ― Kagoshima prefecture >

In this year this doll are symbolizing samurai because to admire them. In Kaseda, this play shows the scenes of battle that the tiger extermination by Kiyomasa Kato, Ushiwakamaru and Benkei at Gojyouoohashi, a mark of Yoichi at Nasu(那須の与一扇の的), Battle of Sekigahara, prosperity of Shimazu family and so on.

These Karakuri owe their movement to water wheels that move because of a river in front of a shrine. Karakuri dolls move with belt conveyor.The feature of a water wheel Karakuri is that it is able to  for a long time with no person. (502 words)

week 6: mechanism of carrying tea doll

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Today I would show you “cost of Karakuri doll” so I asked the museum about it, but there are few information. Therefore I will talk about carrying tea doll’s mechanism in this week, sorry.

Mechanisms of a carrying tea doll

The inside of a Karakuri doll seems to have been made with a wood, a thread, and a whisker of a whale (materials of a spring).

A doll does the following movement:

1. A spring is wound up first, and then a doll is in the state that stands still.
2. If a master puts a tea cup on the tray which the doll supports, the doll will begin to advance and the legs of the doll begins to move forward and backward.
3. If the doll comes in front of a visitor, the head of the doll will lean forward, that is, the doll bows.
4. Then, if a visitor takes up a teacup, the doll will stop, and the leg motion will also stop.
5. If a visitor drinks up tea and puts the teacup back on the tray again, the doll will rotate 180 degrees.
6. Then, the doll stands with the head straight.
7. The doll begins to advance toward the place where the master is, ie, a starting point. The legs of the doll also move again forward and backward.
8. If the doll comes back to the master and the master takes away an empty teacup from the tray, the doll will stop moving and the legs also.

Mechanism of feet moving back and forth

When the eccentric disk (that is A) rotates, the horseshoe end of component B which is between in A without clearance oscillates. This is a positive motion cam. That is the leg of the Karakuri doll connecting with B moves forward and backward. Moreover, since the phases of the eccentric disk of legs on either side are shifted 180 degrees, a leg on either side moves forward and backward by turns.

Mechanism of a turn

It is about the bottom of the doll. This picture shows the front and the back. A lever has a prop in the lower part and the upper end of the lever is always pulled clockwise with the thread and the board spring. That is, the upper end of the lever is always pulled back. The upper end of the lever is connected with the handle of the front wheel through the coupling rod, using thread. The direction of the front wheel is forward when the protrusion of the rotation disk does not touch with the tip of the lever. If the protrusion of contacts and moves the tip of to the front, will rotate the clockwise and the doll will turn to the right. If the protrusion of leaves from the lever, wheel will rotate anticlockwise and a doll will turn to the right. This combination of this wheel and the lever is the cam mechanism.

We can make carrying tea doll with kit, so why don’t you make it?

http://otonanokagaku.net/magazine/vol16/index.html

(Reference)

http://translate.google.co.jp/translate?hl=ja&sl=en&u=http://www.museum.kyoto-u.ac.jp/english/materials/chakumiDolleng.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3DKarakuri%2Bdoll%26start%3D10%26hl%3Dja%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DzQb%26sa%3DN%26tbo%3Dd%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:ja-JP-mac:official%26biw%3D1001%26bih%3D624&sa=X&ei=zZD_UISSKdHYkgX5joGoBQ&ved=0CDEQ7gEwADgK

week 5: blueprints

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In this week I will show you some blueprints of Karakuri doll. It is indispensable to leave the technology to after ages. And today I picked up two famous blueprints.

The one is called “Karakuri kinmou kagamigusa(からくり訓蒙鑑草)”. It is constructed from 3 booklets, Matsu(pine 松), Take(bamboo 竹) and Ume(plum 梅). 27 types of Karakuri devices are collected in Matsu booklet, and it are drown like illustrated book. Take and Ume shows those structures. “Takeda Karakuri” was a most famous Karakuri doll’s play in Edo era that was born in Dotombori in Osaka by First Oumi Takeda in 1662. He created solidly and realistic Karakuri, but Second Oumi Takeda created entertainment Karakuri. Like –

・  The instigator who hides in audience move Karakuri doll with synchronizing the voice of audience.

・  The child enter Karakuri doll and play the shamisen.

 – and so on.

“Karakuri kinmou kagamigusa” is said that Tagaya Kanchusen(多賀谷 環中仙) took up that “Takeda Karakuri”. Masterpieces in this book are Land ship car(陸船車), Brocade dragon water(錦龍水), The show box which has a doll blowgun dart(人形吹き矢を吹くからくり).

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Another is called ”Kikou zui(機巧図彙)”. It is written about outstanding Karakuri in technology, and so correct that the dolls are restored by according to this blueprints. It is constructed from 3 booklets. Frist take up 4 types – “wall clock(掛け時計)”, “belfry-shaped clock(櫓時計)”, “alarm clock(枕時計)” and “shaku clock(尺時計)”. Second and Third take up 9 types – “carrying tea doll(茶運び人形)”, “somersault doll(段返り人形)”, “drums and fifes child(鼓笛児童)”, “game cock(闘鶏)”, “fishing doll(魚釣人形)”, “ball acrobatics doll(品玉人形)” and so on. The author is Hanzo Yorihao Hosokawa (細川半蔵頼直) who is famous as a “Karakuri Hanzo”. He studied Western study of calendar making and created celestial globe, clock, measure. An extremely superior characteristic of this book is the point that mechanisms of Karakuri or mechanical clocks are illustrated in detail. About Karakuri in particular, all of that part – choice of materials, dimensions of the parts, the assembling method and finishing – are illustrated scientifically and finely.

Karakuri researcher Shoji Tachikawa praised carrying tea doll as a masterpiece of all Karakuri. And he reconstructed carrying tea doll with student group following Kikou zui. It showed precision of this blueprint.

In short, “Karakuri kinmou kagamigusa” likes puzzles, and ”Kikou zui” likes echnical reports.

By the way, I explain “Karakuri” as dolls or model, machinery in this week. Karakuri is classified roughly in “a detached room mechanism”, and “a thread mechanism” which moves originally with a thread and a spring spring, and a gear.

week 4: Maker

Last week, I introduced that Shooting an arrow doll is made by Hisashige Tanaka. Today I’ll tell you about Hisashige Tanaka.

September18 in 1799, he was born in Kurume (now Fukuoka). He is an inventor called “Asian Edison” or “Karakuri-Giemon”, and he is a founder of Toshiba company.

His father is a tortoise shell worker(べっこう細工師), so in his childhood he acquired the basement of creation before he is aware. When he was 9 years old, he made the box that anybody couldn’t open. He had a fun to make his friends be in difficult. His mischief that surprises surrounding people grew up as an energy that opens his future.

In those days Karakuri doll catched the people’s attention and it admired people without distinction of age or sex. He was also a part of them. In the last day of the Tokugawa shogunate the blueprints that called “Karakuri-zui” were published,so Hisashige was more absorbed into creation.

In his 14, he decided to be an inventor and he was to be called out by Den Inoue. She was a mother of Kurume cloth with splashed parttern and interested in his ability so she asked him to design a never before pattern. He responded her demand and to weave up into fabric the design. He contributed the development and succession of the culture of Kurume.

Hisashige in its 20s performed a pilgrimage in Osaka, Kyoto, Edo as a Karakuri performer. "Karakuri doll" using various power including the air pressure, waterpower and gravity is his speciality. He attracted the attention of a destination and give people fun with Carrying tea dolls, Shooting an arrow dolls, Writing kanji dolls and so on.

In 1834, Hisashige moved to Fushimi, Osaka (present-day Fushimi-cho, Chuo Ward, Osaka City) where he constructed various devices such as a portable candle stand and an automatic-refueling lamp (that used compressed air to replenish oils), for which he won a nickname, “Karakuri Giemon” and also popularity among people. It was so felt thankful because merchants said “it is for the keeping accounts in the night” and it was used in midnight medixal care. So his name thundered in the world with his policy “be useful and make new creature.”

In 1851, he made a Myriad year clock which is now designated as an Important Cultural Property by the Japanese government. With the development of the Sonnou joui movement, the atmosphere in Kyoto became increasingly dangerous towards foreign influences and technology, and Hisashige was invited by Sano Tsunetami to the Saga in Kyushu, where he was welcomed by Nabeshima Naomasa.

While in Saga, Hisashige designed and built Japan’s first domestically made steam locomotive and steam warship. He was also involved in the construction of a reverberatory furnace and Armstrong guns in Saga.

 In 1873, 6 years after the Meiji Restoration, Hisashige, by then aged 74 and still energetic, was invited by Kubusho (the Ministry of Industries) to come to Tokyo to make telegraphs at the ministry's small factory which later evolved into his first company Tanaka Engineering Works, the first manufacturer of telegraph equipment in Japan. Today this company is known as Toshiba. (528words)

week 3: Types

Karkuri doll was made to be useful for people, but gradually to be entertains people. I’ll introduce you the type of entertainment Karakuri doll in this week.

<Zashiki-karakuri(座敷からくり)>

It is small and used in home.

<Butai-karakuri(舞台からくり)>

Mostly they are used the stage of kabuki. This is used as the one of highlight scene.

<Dashi-karakuri(山車からくり)>

It is used at festivals which puppets are used in to tell the myths and legends and so on.

And this week I’ll show you some major Zashiki-karakuri.

<carrying-tea-doll(Chahakobi doll 茶運び人形)>

It is the most famous Karakuri doll because it is not only practical but also make the guests happy.

The use of it is only turning the zenmai(=spring). At the same time a teacup was putted on the tray which the doll have, he begins walking with his head shaking. When the guest pick a teacup up, he wait until the guest finishes to drink tea. And the teacup is putted on the tray again, he turn around and go back to the starting point again. Its slow moving is so cute! It move as if he has a life, and it is wonderful as a ornamental doll, too.
☆movie→http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1ZoFGCSFS1o

<shooting-an-arrow-doll(Yumihiki doll 弓曵き童子)>

The doll pick and shoot arrows. Its moving is controlled by zenmai(=spring),  cam(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cam), and threads. He shoots some arrows but he is crafted to miss the one shooting, and he expresses the delight of the hits and the sadness of the miss with his moving of neck. That action have a good taste.
☆movie→http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JV--AwLxiE

<Writting-kanji-doll(Mojikaki doll 文字書き人形)>

It was made by Hisashige Tanaka and it is said that he made this for the celebration of the birth of a child. When the board turns to him the writing brush is moving to write a word. It is perfect about Tome(an end of one brush stroke), Hane(splashes of brush), Harai(brush off), The speed(high or low) and power(strong or week). Moreover his face follow the head of a brush so he looks real human. He can use different writing styles: “松 Matsu(a pine)”, “竹 Take(a bamboo)”, “梅 Ume”, “寿 Kotobuki(congratulations)”, from the changing cams. It has the most advanced technics in this era so it is called masterpiece of Karakuri doll.

☆movie→http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSv_qnJT90Q)

<Handspring doll(Dangaeri doll 段返り人形)>

The doll is put on the steps, at the same time he starts Handspring and go down stairs. In his body, the mercury lean and the weight make him rolling slowly. Its not tired moving and the risk of landing make people more fun.

☆movie→http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-2jqeY0zcg)

What did you feel about today’s my blog?

It is very attractive for me since I search about this topic so I’m glad you to have a interest in Karakuri doll.

There are more types of Karakuri doll so why don’t you search other types? (518words)