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The Yomiuri Shimbun Yasuto Yonehara works in his workshop in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto.
By Minako Aima / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
15:01 JST, March 8, 2025
KYOTO — Yasuto Yonehara uses a pair of bamboo chopsticks to lift dark haku leaves and place them on the surface of a folding fan coated with glue. He also carves fine lines into sheets of gold leaf, which are light enough to be blown away, using a bamboo knife he made himself.
The Yomiuri Shimbun Yonehara cuts a sheet of gold leaf with a bamboo knife he made himself.
Wind is Yonehara’s enemy, which is why he does not even turn on the air conditioner in his hakuoshi leaf stamping workshop: Yonehara Hakuoshi Kakojo. Usually, the only sound in his quiet and calm studio in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, is the faint scraping of tools as Yonehara works rhythmically.
The main craft of Yonehara’s workshop is Kyo-sensu folding fans, which are said to date back to the ninth century at the latest. Over time, various kinds of fans were created for different purposes, such as tea ceremonies, Japanese dance and noh plays. Yonehara uses gold and silver leaf to decorate not only fans for tea ceremonies and dance, but also those for general use.
Rather than luxurious gold leaf, Yonehara likes to use yakihaku — silver leaf slowly smoked with sulfur — which has no luster, but an elegant and refined appearance instead.
“Japanese people have a sensitivity that affirms the passage of time,” Yonehara said, adding that “leaf stamping can convey that spirituality compellingly only because of being a traditional craft.”
Decreased orders
The Yomiuri Shimbun Yonehara sprinkles crumbled gold leaf on paper coated with glue.
Yonehara grew up near the workshop, but it was not until his third year in university that he started working there under his uncle Shinji, who was a master of traditional crafts. Yonehara said, although he was taught the basics, he regarded the job as part-time work to earn money. “I just did it without thinking too much about it. Since there was nothing that I wanted to do, I was allowed to work in a place close to me,” he said.
Yonehara said he was not a model student either, and he doesn’t even remember what he learned in college. Unable to find a job, he became an apprentice at the workshop after graduation in 2009. At first, he was just matter-of-factly dealing with orders from a wholesaler. But a turning point soon came.
By around May 2009, orders to the workshop decreased dramatically due to the effects of the previous year’s collapse of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers. Yonehara thought the studio would go under unless something was done, so he visited relatives who did specific tasks involved in making Kyo-sensu, such as applying designs or adding finishing touches, and learned their work processes.
The Yomiuri Shimbun Brushes made using various kinds of animal hair
Yonehara said he was feeling discomfort over the trend of favoring foreign-made mass-produced products over handmade Japanese items. Determined to “incorporate the spirituality of Japanese tradition into folding fans,” he launched the Ibushi series of folding fans, which uses non-luxurious yakihaku leaves, and fans made with imagery from traditional Japanese literature. He also began selling the fans online.
His uncle Shinji was a strict craftsperson but of a generous disposition. He allowed Yonehara to do as he pleased. Yonehara also learned crafting techniques from artisans of Buddhist altars and Japanese candles.
In 2018, when he was 31, Yonehara was chosen as an up-and-coming craftsperson with particularly high skills by Kyoto Prefecture.
Japanese mindset
The Yomiuri Shimbun Folding fans made with various techniques of leaf stamping
Yonehara said he feels the traditional Japanese mindset in a tanka poem by Fujiwara no Sadaie, or Teika (1162-1241), which denied the existence of things considered beautiful.
The poem says: “As I look around, I find neither flowers nor autumn foliage. Autumn dusk sets in around a humble thatched hut by the sea.”
Yonehara believes all Japanese people inherently possess ideas and feelings like the concept of wabi-sabi (an appreciation of spareness and simplicity), mujokan (a belief that nothing is certain) and mono no aware (pathos). He highlights the sense of fragility in his own pieces in applying fine yakihaku leaf to the surface. He highlights the sense of fragility in his own pieces by applying fine leaf to the surface as well as using yakihaku.
Recently, Yonehara has taken on new challenges. In addition to Kyo-sensu, he has begun applying leaf to resin tables and clocks on a made to order basis. He also actively exhibits these works at exhibitions.
“I want to express leaf stamping as a new art and let more people know the story and background behind it,” he said.
Shinji died in September 2024 at the age of 76. Yonehara’s efforts as the workshop’s representative has only just begun.
“What is important is what to inherit and what to convey. I have to not only do good work but also convey the meaning of creating things in Japan.”
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If you are interested in the original Japanese version of this story, click here.
