Princess Kako Appreciates Craft Exhibition in Kanazawa

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:51 JST, October 30, 2024

KANAZAWA — Princess Kako, the second daughter of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, visited the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art in Kanazawa on Tuesday to view the 71st Japan Traditional Kogei Exhibition.

The princess serves as the president of the Japan Kogei Association, which organized the exhibition of kogei, or crafts.

The princess went to the exhibition venue after listening to Ishikawa Gov. Hiroshi Hase’s briefing on the extent of damage on the field of crafts caused by the disastrous rainfall in September. She stopped in front of black lacquerware on which bamboo trees and birds are painted with gold powder and other materials. The work is a creation by Fumio Mae, 84, a local Wajima-nuri lacquerware maker and a living national treasure specializing in chinkin, or gold-inlaid lacquerware.

“It feels like winds are blowing softly, and I can almost hear the sounds as well,” the princess said as she looked at the work.

Mae used to live and work in a workshop-cum-home in central Wajima in the prefecture, which was burned down because of the Noto Peninsula Earthquake in January. He now lives with relatives in Kanazawa.

Ahead of going to the exhibition, the princess took time to converse with Mae and other craftspeople who had been affected by the disasters.

“Those were terrible disasters. I was very concerned how you were doing,” she said to them.