My Neighbor Totoro Evokes a Line of Conventional Japanese Handicrafts

We sup­pose it’s con­ceiv­in a position {that a} reward of a wooden­en Totoro fig­urine, hand-carved from a sin­gle block utilizing 50 dif­fer­ent sorts of chis­els, would possibly spark a rev­er­ence for tra­di­tion­al Japan­ese craft and nature within the subsequent gen­er­a­tion…

Or, they could be left want­ing you’d giv­en them an enormous­ly extra hug­gable machine-made plushie ver­sion, espe­cial­ly when you can’t assist suck­ing in your breath each time they begin fum­bling with that exquis­ite­ly craft­ed ￥330,000 yen inheritor­loom-to-be. (That’s $2341.81 in US dol­lars.)

After all, direc­tor Hayao Miyaza­ki’s 1988 ani­mat­ed fea­ture My Neigh­bor Totoro has legions of followers of all ages, and a few will con­sid­er them­selves fairly fortunate in the event that they win the lot­tery that grants them the abil­i­ty to pur­chase such a trea­positive.

They’re not solely carved by expert arti­sans in Ina­mi, the town of wooden­carv­ing, however the wooden can be that of a cam­phor tree — the nat­ur­al habi­tat of the mys­te­ri­ous, magazine­i­cal Totoro! (It’s additionally con­sid­ered holy by prac­ti­tion­ers of the Shin­to reli­gion.)

Nonetheless, if it’s unclear that the recip­i­ent will tru­ly appre­ci­ate such thought­ful­ness, you’re prob­a­bly wager­ter off going with anoth­er supply­ing from Stu­dio Ghibli’s Totoro-themed col­lab­o­ra­tion with Nak­a­gawa Masashichi Shoten, a pur­vey­or of tra­di­tion­al Japan­ese crafts.

Per­haps a￥4180 bud vase fired in Ure­shi­no Metropolis’s Edo-peri­od Yozan Kiln, fea­tur­ing Totoro or a clus­ter of susuwatari, the pom pom-like soot sprites infest­ing the Kusak­abe fam­i­ly’s new house, who additionally play an element in Spir­it­ed Away.

Perhaps a tiny Totoro bell amulet, mould­ed by crafts­males in Odawara, cel­e­brat­ed for the qual­i­ty of their met­al­work for the reason that ear­ly 1500s, once they out­match­ted samu­rai with weapons, armor and hel­mets?

What a couple of Totoro-embla­zoned trea­positive field from Yat­suo, manufactured from sten­cil-dyed hand­made washi paper? There’s noth­ing inher­ent­ly mistaken with stash­ing your acorn col­lec­tion in an previous Altoid’s tin, however this ves­sel comes along with his­toric pedi­gree:

As one of many lead­ing cities alongside the trunk street, Yatu­so flour­ished by means of … professional­duc­tion of wrap­ping paper for the nation-wide well-known “Toya­ma Med­i­cine”. At its gold­en age, from the Edo Period to the start­ning of the Mei­ji Period within the nineteenth cen­tu­ry, many peo­ple have been engaged in paper­mak­ing by hand­work of their houses. Yat­suo Japan­ese paper was count on­ed to be unbreak­in a position as a result of it was used as pack­age for expen­sive med­i­cine and on the similar time it ought to look bril­liant. It needed to be thick and stout in order that it may very well be imper­vi­ous to water and the label print­ed on the sur­face wouldn’t be smeared.

The record of Totoro-inspired tra­di­tion­al crafts is impres­sive. A rep­re­sen­ta­tive sam­pling:

Chusen-dyed tenugui hand­ker­chiefs and t‑shirts…

Dish­tow­els comprised of 5 lay­ers of Kayaori fab­ric that “was intro­duced to Japan dur­ing the Nara peri­od and is alleged to permit wind to go by means of however preserve mos­qui­toes out”…

Tiny Ari­ta ware acorn plates that reward mem­bers of the clear plate membership with a view of the Cat­bus… 

View the col­lec­tion and be taught extra about February’s lot­tery for an opportunity to pur­chase a Cam­phor wooden Totoro right here.

Arms-on followers could pre­fer to cul­ti­vate an appre­ci­a­tion for tra­di­tion­al Japan­ese hand­i­crafts by try­ing a DIY Totoro.

By way of Spoon & Tam­a­go/Colos­sal

Relat­ed Con­tent 

Stream Hun­dreds of Hours of Stu­dio Ghi­b­li Film Music That Will Assist You Examine, Work, or Sim­ply Chill out: My Neigh­bor Totoro, Spir­it­ed Away & Extra

A Tour of Stu­dio Ghibli’s Model New Theme Park in Japan, Which Re-Cre­ates the Worlds of Spir­it­ed Away, My Neigh­bor Totoro, and Oth­er Clas­sics

Construct Your Personal Minia­ture Units from Hayao Miyazaki’s Beloved Movies: My Neigh­bor Totoro, Kiki’s Deliv­ery Ser­vice & Extra

– Ayun Hal­l­i­day is the Chief Pri­ma­tol­o­gist of the East Vil­lage Inky zine and writer, most up-to-date­ly, of Cre­ative, Not Well-known: The Small Pota­to Man­i­festo and Cre­ative, Not Well-known Activ­i­ty Guide. Fol­low her @AyunHalliday.