By Porter Lang
Start with the parts, because that is where a wagasa differs from the umbrella in your hallway. A culture magazine lists them: washi paper stretched over bamboo main ribs, called oya hone, on a bamboo shaft; the rokuro, the opening mechanism; the zukami, a paper cover over the rokuro; supporting ribs on the inside; and a handle with a reinforced tip.
Wagasa and its older cousin
A Japan-culture site explains a structural difference. In the older continental design, smaller supporting ribs are inserted into the main ribs, so the main ribs must be thicker and the closed umbrella is bulky. In a wagasa the smaller ribs sit on either side of the main ribs. Both can be thinner, and the closed umbrella is slimmer and lighter. That site says wagasa arrived in Japan in the Heian period and were at first rigid, used mainly by aristocrats; folding versions appeared in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. The culture magazine agrees that folding designs existed by the sixteenth century, and says the Edo period made wagasa common.
Why Gifu
A Japanese government publication says Gifu City is still Japan’s largest maker of traditional wagasa. Umbrella making there dates to the first half of the seventeenth century, it says, but grew only after the mid-eighteenth. It names Nagai Naonobu, lord of the Kano domain, as the man who encouraged lower-ranking samurai to make umbrellas to cover living costs. A foreign-ministry atlas page gives the same mid-eighteenth-century start in the Kano district but calls him only a newly assigned lord, and says floods had hit the local economy. A national craft page says samurai were encouraged to make umbrellas as a side job during the Edo period.
The region had what the trade needed. The government publication lists fine bamboo, washi, vegetable oil, kakishibu (fermented unripe persimmon juice) and glue, and says the Nagara River carried the goods to demand in Edo and Osaka.
What goes into one
The craft page names the frame bamboo as madake or moso, the lathe wood for the rokuro as Styrax japonica, and the covering as Japanese paper or silk. Production areas it lists are Gifu City, Mizuho City, Kitagata Town and Ginan Town. The atlas page names Mino washi and bamboo from the Kiso River valley, with sesame oil and lacquer for waterproofing. The culture magazine says canopies are coated with linseed or vegetable oil. The government publication says perilla oil, and says the oil gives the umbrellas a distinctive scent. So the waterproofing is a matter of local oil, and the sources name four different ones. We list them and do not rank them.
The craft page sets out the techniques: rough splitting of the main ribs at the bamboo nodes with a bamboo saw; smoothing the ribs with a small knife; bamboo nails that fix the handle to the rokuro head; glue brushed on the ribs to fix the paper; and a final fold with a bamboo spatula and tightening ring.
How many hands
The government publication says production was divided into over 100 processes, each by a specialist, under wholesalers who managed the artisans. The atlas page says one umbrella takes several months, with about a dozen skilled craftworkers. Those are not necessarily in conflict; one counts processes and the other counts people. Our reading: one worker can do many of the steps.
Numbers that do not match
Peak output depends on whom you ask. The government publication says more than 10 million umbrellas a year around 1950. The culture magazine says about 15 million a year in the 1950s. The atlas page says “over a million” a year in the early twentieth century. Today, the atlas page says, local craftworkers make a few tens of thousands a year, and the culture magazine says three workshops remain and only one Gifu artisan makes the rokuro. The craft page gives a designation date of 18 March 2020.
The kinds
According to the craft page the products include rain umbrellas (janome-gasa and ban-gasa), parasols, dance umbrellas for kabuki and other theatre, and outdoor tea-ceremony umbrellas. The government publication says most wagasa used in buyo dance are reportedly made in the region. The culture magazine adds that hi-gasa are for sun only and are not waterproof, and that wagasa today appear mainly in ceremonies, photoshoots, museums and kabuki.
Care, as one source states it
Practical, and from one page only: the culture magazine says to store a wagasa untied and loose in a dark, airy place after it is thoroughly dry, and not to dry it in the sun, since sun can bleach the washi. It adds that repairs are difficult outside Japan.
Dates in order
- Heian period: wagasa reach Japan, according to the Japan-culture site.
- Late 16th to early 17th century: folding versions, according to the same site.
- First half of the 17th century: umbrella making in Gifu City, according to the government publication.
- Mid-18th century: the trade grows in Kano, according to the government publication and the atlas page.
- About 1950: peak output, by two differing accounts.
- 18 March 2020: designation, according to the craft page.
What kind of sources these are
A Japanese government publication; a foreign-ministry atlas page; a national traditional-craft page; a Japan-culture site; and a culture magazine. No museum and no maker’s own site.
What we left out
Prices, shop names, workshop names, and how to buy.
Quick answers
What is a wagasa made of? The craft page says washi paper, bamboo ribs and a bamboo or wood handle, with oil applied depending on use.
Why is Gifu famous for umbrellas? According to the government publication, the region had bamboo, washi, oil and glue, and a lord encouraged lower-ranking samurai to make umbrellas as extra income.
How do you store a wagasa? One culture magazine says to store it untied and loose in a dark, airy place, fully dry, and not to dry it in the sun.
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Roam first. Shop later.