Japan · Metalwork / Silversmithing / Jewelry
金細工 (Kuganizēku / Kanzēku)
Kanzeku (金細工, 'metal work', read kuganizēku) was the Ryukyu court trade that made every kind of metalwork except iron under royal commission. Its best-known survivals are three pure-silver pieces. The jīfā (ジーファー) is the Okinawan hairpin. The fusa yubiwa (房指輪) is a bride's ring given by parents to a daughter at her wedding, hung with seven charms, each a wish: a fan (spreading prosperity), a flower (a graceful life), a fish (never lacking food), a peach (health and long life), a butterfly (happiness in the next life), a leaf (never lacking clothes) and a pomegranate (many descendants). The third is the musubi yubiwa knot ring. The Matayoshi family of Shuri has carried the trade for seven generations. Its first master was sent to China by the royal government to learn the craft, and the family, known as 'Tōchi Matayoshi' (China-going Matayoshi), served as court artisans near the Shurei Gate. The fall of the kingdom in 1879 and the war nearly ended the line; the family's order books and many tools burned in the air raid of 10 October 1944. In the 1960s the Mingei potter Hamada Shōji, with Serizawa Keisuke and Munakata Shikō, urged the sixth master, Matayoshi Seiboku, to 'become a Ryukyuan again', and he restored the jīfā, musubi yubiwa and fusa yubiwa. The seventh master, Matayoshi Kenjirō, carries them on.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Not inscribed. No national or prefectural designation identified for the craft
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