Traditional craft
Osaka Karaki Sashimono
大阪唐木指物
Furniture in rosewood, ebony and other rare hardwoods, joined without nails and polished to a deep, calm sheen with rubbed lacquer.
Key facts
- Officially recognised
- 14 October 1977
- Type
- Wood and bamboo
- Region
- Chubu, Kansai
- Official name in Japanese
- 大阪唐木指物
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 大阪市他、兵庫県／姫路市他、奈良県／奈良市他、和歌山県／有田市、福井県／越前市
Rare woods, deep sheen
Osaka Karaki Sashimono is made from karaki, rare hardwoods such as shitan (rosewood), kokutan (ebony), karin and tagayasan. Display shelves, tea shelves, low desks and flower stands are the main products, known for their sturdiness and calm, deep colour. It is made mainly in Osaka, and also in parts of Hyogo, Nara, Wakayama and Fukui.
Years outdoors, then handwork
- The hardwoods are dried outdoors for four to five years.
- Almost all the work is done by hand.
- Joints use many kinds of interlocking kumite, with no nails or screws at all.
- The piece is finished by rubbing in refined raw lacquer and polished with tonoko powder.
Wood from Tang China
Karaki products first came to Japan with envoys returning from Tang China in the Nara period. They used woods unknown in Japan, called kara-ki, Tang wood, which gave the craft its name. In the Edo period all karaki timber arrived through Nagasaki and was handled by medicine wholesalers in Osaka, and Osaka's craftsmen have adapted the traditional techniques to modern life.
Good to know
- Notice the soft curves and calm, deep colour that set karaki furniture apart.
- Kanto taste prefers simple, clean tea shelves; compare styles if you shop.
Questions travellers ask
What does karaki mean?
Tang wood: rare imported hardwoods such as rosewood and ebony.
Why did Osaka become the centre?
In the Edo period the timber came in through Nagasaki and was handled by Osaka medicine wholesalers.
Where it comes from
More crafts from the same area
Local foods from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
- Aizu's 33 Kannon pilgrimage: faith with a day out
- Ako: the town that made Japan's finest salt
- Asuka: the women who shaped the birth of Japan
- Awaji: the first island in Japan's creation myth
- Date Masamune's dazzling culture in Sendai and Matsushima
- Echizen-Fukui: 400 years of towns built in stone
- Esashi: the herring town that outshone Edo
- Gyoda: the town of tabi storehouses
- Hida no Takumi: 1,300 years of master woodworkers in Takayama
- Hinenosho: a medieval estate next to Kansai Airport
- Hirokawa: the tsunami levee built for a hundred generations
- Iga and Koka: in search of the real ninja
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.