Osaka Suzuki: 300 Years of Osaka Tinware
This time we visited Osaka Suzuki, a tinware maker in our own hometown of Osaka. Its tin pieces are hugely popular as gifts; before Father's Day, production can barely keep up.
A designated Traditional Craft
The workshop sits in a quiet residential area of Higashisumiyoshi, an unlikely place, perhaps, for a traditional craft. Yet nearly everything it makes is Osaka Naniwa Suzuki, a Traditional Craft designated by Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry. To earn that designation, a craft must be used in daily life, made mainly by hand, made with traditional techniques and materials, and produced in an established region.
Three centuries of tin
Tinware was already being made in Osaka by 1679, and the craft was designated in 1983. On the lathe, the craftsman adjusts the speed with his feet as he shapes each piece, and his hands carry the history of his work.
Carrying the tradition
Production of Osaka Naniwa Suzuki has fallen to a third of its 1984 peak, and so has the number of craftsmen. Osaka Naniwa Suzuki accounts for about 70% of Japan's tinware, and almost all of it is made by Osaka Suzuki. An ordinary-looking company in an Osaka neighborhood is single-handedly carrying a 300-year-old tradition.
Remarkably, many of its craftsmen are young. Tin, once mined in Japan, now comes mostly from Southeast Asia. Young people rarely want work that only preserves the past, but Osaka Suzuki keeps trying new things: tumblers, beer mugs and new sake cup designs. The president, Mr. Imai, is recognized by the government as a master craftsman. "Because we teach the techniques, you save time learning them, so use that time to try something new." That attitude draws successors.
Finding the balance
However fine a tradition is, if it never changes it will be left behind. Osaka Suzuki cannot change the techniques of Osaka Naniwa Suzuki, but it can take on new challenges while protecting them. That balance is what you hold in your hand. Knowing the story, a drink from a tin tumbler tastes even better. Our thanks to everyone at Osaka Suzuki.
