Ohkawa Kumiko Background

Ohkawa Kumiko Series 3

City of Ohkawa is a town in the southern part of Fukuoka prefecture, located at the mouth of the Chikugo river where it runs into the Ariake sea. There is a forest area in the upper of the Chikugo river, and timbers have been carried to the lower area by rafts for a long time. Ohkawa, facing the Ariake sea, has prospered as a port town for about 500 years, and timber business flourished. So, there were good ship carpenters settled in Ohkawa, and eventually some of them became furniture craftsmen and joinery craftsmen. Even today, Ohkawa city is famous as a “furniture town” in Japan.

They say that Kumiko in Ohkawa city started about 300 years ago. Since then, the number of Kumiko craftsmen in Japan has decreased; however, the furniture town, Ohkawa, has inherited Kumiko craftsmanship without interruption. In other prefectures in Japan, there are only one or two Kumiko craftsmen today but in Ohkawa city, there are many Kumiko craftsmen. As a result, it is said that they work hard to improve their Kumiko technique with each other as a good competition.

Cruise Train - Sevenstarts (Nanatsuboshi) by JR Kyushu

https://www.cruisetrain-sevenstars.jp/english/

Ohkawa Kumiko was designated as a specialty craft by the Governor of Fukuoka prefecture in 1987. In 2013, Ohkawa Kumiko was adopted as an interior decoration for luxury trains by one of Japan's top industrial designers. At that time, KINOSHITA, Masato was the leader of the craftsmen in Ohkawa Kumiko. Nanatsuboshi (Seven Starts) luxury train by JR Kyushu is decorated with this Kumiko which is full of traditional Japanese beautiful craft art and it has been praised by a lot of tourists and they have been receiving many orders from the people in both Japan and overseas.

Writer : Mayumi Haruno

Translator : Hiroshi Onaka