Japan · Structural Craft / Paper and Bamboo
岐阜和傘 (Gifu Wagasa)
Gifu Wagasa (岐阜和傘) is the traditional Japanese umbrella of Gifu City's Kano district, built from a washi paper canopy pulled taut over 30-70 carved bamboo ribs radiating from a wooden hub (rokuro) atop a bamboo shaft. The craft arrived in Kano in 1639 when the Matsudaira clan, newly installed as rulers of the Kano Domain, brought umbrella artisans with them from their former Akashi Domain; the umbrella's now-familiar form was established by 1756, and by the late Edo period the district was shipping around 520,000 umbrellas a year north to Edo. Kano's location — near the Mino Washi papermaking district and close to the Kiso, Nagara, and Ibi rivers, all sources of high-quality bamboo — made it a natural center for the craft. Production divides into named specialist stages, including honekezuri (carving bamboo down into the umbrella's ribs) and rokurozukuri (shaping the rokuro hub from Ehretia acuminata wood); a single umbrella passes through more than ten different craftsmen and takes half a month to a month to complete. Fewer than ten Gifu umbrella makers remain active today.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Not UNESCO-listed
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