Karakuri Craftsman Passes Down Seed of Robot Technology from Edo era to the Present

HIGASHINO Susumu, chief director of the Nippon Karakuri Society

Japan is well-known as a country at the forefront of robot technology. Now, the country is becoming well-known for its technology used in making animations and movies, and in artistic fields in addition to its industrial technology. When Western culture was introduced to Japan in the 18th century, the seed of the nation's robot technology was planted. The origin of modern industrial technology was born and bloomed through successful "gizmo" making, or "karakuri," during the Edo era.

One of the well-known karakuri dolls is "Cha-hakobi-ningyo." This doll was created in the image of a woman walking towards you holding a tea cup in her hands with a cute smile on her face. The other doll is "Yumi-hiki-douji," who is notching 4 arrows to the bowstring. He even has a proud look on his face when each arrow hits the mark. The precise movements are created when the arms of the doll places an arrow against the bowstring, and through the neck movements when the doll holds back its arms. These work-of-art karakuri dolls are called "automata," and no help from human hands is involved when they move.

The greatest of all karakuri masterpieces is "Moji-kaki-ningyo," a doll that holds a brush, dips it in ink and writes a word on a piece of paper. The paper even turns so the written word can be seen by an audience. This is a creation by TANAKA Hisashige, known as a brilliant karakuri craftsman "Karakuri Giemon" in the Edo era. It is overwhelming in its sophistication and ingenuity, yet it leaves big smiles on peoples' faces.

Those karakuris were created by karakuri craftsmen such as Hisashige in the Edo era. But some of these were once kept by foreign collectors. "Moji-kaki-ningyo" had been owned by an American magician. He did everything he could to repair and mend it, yet was faced with a seemingly insurmountable barrier due to the extremely high level of detail of each component of the mechanism, and gave up. The doll was returned to Japan after 150 years. It came home to the workshop of a karakuri craftsman called HIGASHINO Susumu of Osaka.

Higashino, the chief director of the Nippon Karakuri Society, is a leading karakuri researcher in modern Japan. With his love for antiques and his natural dexterity, he has collected antiques and repaired them for most of his life. He reveals that after he married his wife, "I got down on my knees and begged for her approval to purchase one of the
premier antiques that could cost as much as a house we intended to purchase, and I bought it." Higashino has been enthusiastic about antiques for most of his life.

Hagashino has thrown his body, soul and his assets into antiques just like "Karakuri Giemon." He lives a life similar to that of Hisashige, full of curiosity, discovery, searching and hunting. Higashino does, in fact,
represent a modern day Hisashige. Higashino says, "When I pick up any of Hisashige's dolls to repair them, I just get mesmerized by the complexity of the accuracy and preciseness of their mechanisms." He found out that "Moji-kaki-ningyo" requires 3 cog wheels for the doll to write the word "kotobuki (congratulations)." Now, thanks to Higashino's skillful repairs, the doll is now able to write 3 more words; "matsu (pine tree), take (bamboo), ume (plum tree)."

"Repairing is the hardest of all the aspects of restoring antiques like karakuri," explains Higashino. Most works are severely damaged, and for some of them, it is even extremely difficult to know what they originally looked like. Higashino claims, however, "I cannot fail to completely repair these dolls in honor of Hisashige's top notch skills." He adjusts the movements of the doll's neck, looking at all the possible motions from many angles. In order to seek the best mechanism for it he recreates the missing parts using his imagination. He repeats this cycle until everything fits right in. He also takes authentic materials such as polished ivory, silk, gold and genuine lacquer and uses them to recreate dolls' little props and clothing.

Hisashige studied astronomy, medicine and almanac which were introduced through studies of western knowledge that came through Holland. He came up with numerous inventions, and created karakuri dolls for show business used by local people at festivals and shrine rituals. Gradually, he became inclined to want to make use of his skills and passion in the lives of ordinary people. So he proceeded with his research. His works ranged from Japanese clocks to inextinguishable lights and steamships. It is not widely known among the public that Hisashige's skills contributed to the foundation of Toshiba, one of Japan's leading manufacturers.

The fact that these invaluable karakuri works were scattered worldwide shows that "the national government had not passed down the skills of karakuri mechanics to later generations," Higashino explains. If the mechanics behind karakuri dolls had been passed down successfully, they would have brought about Japan's industrialization earlier and been "carried on and acknowledged as one of the nation's cultural traditions along with tea ceremony, flower arrangement and Japanese dancing," he claims.

Similarly to how we are being amazed by the high-tech robots we see now, karakuri dolls and machines must have appeared astounding and innovative to the people of the Edo era. By adding Japanese artistic skills to imported Western skills, the subtle and delicate moves and facial expressions of karakuri dolls became possible. Karakuri doll's movements are made possible thanks to water, liquid silver, sand and springs, which create the unique poses, rhythms and facial expressions of the dolls. The sound and vision created by these components also help stir our sense of romanticism.

Higashino says, "scientists in the Edo era learned imported skills, applied them in practical ways and most notably, made them their own." With their playful minds, curiosity and creativity, Edo era scientists engaged their sensibilities to the fullest extent. In fact, they added their own original skills. These skills, combined with personal obsession should be the starting point of creation. Higashino is proud to say, "these elements are the foundation of modern day industrial technology in Japan."

Nippon Karakuri Society
http://www.nippon-karakuri.com/

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