Fukagawa hashioki (chopstick rests) | ||
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Posted 2 years ago
kwqd
(1186 items)
These Fukagawa hashioki are about 2.25" long x 2" wide x .4" high, with the Fukagawa mountain mark and a "MADE IN JAPAN" label on the back. They came in a wood tomobako with significant markings. Guessing maybe from the 1960s or 1970s?
Images not great, I will probably redo these at at later date.
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I love smalls like hashioki, so much beauty and purpose in small items.
Beautifully made and with tomoboko too
love these ones.... and what a great collection you have done, yes in 1985 I bought here in Córdoba some pieces with this decor
Thanks for your comments, Karen! They are very artsy for such small pieces.
Thanks for your comments and information, kivatinitz! My images do not show very well, the typical three dimensional depth in the glaze of Fukagawa work.
Thanks for loving my hashioki jbingham95, dav2no1, kivatinitz, Vynil33rpm, Jenni, Karen and fortapache!
Thanks for loving my Fukagawa hashioki Falcon61, fortapache, Cisum, jscott0363 and Kevin!
you breed hasioki kid ?
Maybe I do, and maybe I don't, waki! I tend to get interested in something and go all in on it for a while.... I have quite a few more of these sets..... I love learning about new things, but I learn both by research and by physically handling things...
Beautiful set of hashioki, really elegant.
They are shaped like fundo (also transliterated fundou), which are traditional Japanese weights used for measuring. You can see pictures of some here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_units_of_measurement#Mass
Fundo frequently appear as decorative elements in some Japanese designs. I've seen them appear in designs of takara-zukishi, a sort of "collection of treasures." You can read about them here (link takes you to the section on fundo) - as you can see, they are associated with wealth or abundance:
https://polinacouture.com/en/the-meaning-of-objets-representations-on-japanese-fabrics/#the-weights-fundo
Here's another link, although you'll have to scroll down to find the section on fundo:
The decoration on top of your hashioki is the traditional Three Friends of Winter -- the plum, bamboo and pine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Friends_of_Winter#In_other_places
It would be hard to find a hashioki design more quintessentially Japanese than this!
Thanks for the information, comments and links, rhineisfine! Very interesting and looks like I have some reading to do. I have another Fukagawa set that I will post this weekend. It is very different. I thought must be Imari until I saw the mountain stream mark on the box.
Three Friends is sort of like our Three Sisters; corn, beans and squash...
I love your comparison to the Three Sisters!
Bamboo, pine and plum blossom often appear on items used at the New Year (such as the kadomatsu -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadomatsu ), although not exclusively so.
Incidentally, a Japanese friend once told me that she loves hashioki but that their use is considered to be slightly formal. This really surprised me as the subject matter can also be playful and informal (for example, I have a baseball-themed pair of hashioki I bought in Kyoto some years back: one is a baseball glove, the other is a baseball bat with the ball balanced on its tip). But apparently, in traditional usage, hashioki do elevate the formality of a meal somewhat. I wonder if this explains the relative abundance of hashioki that are concerned with Japanese New Year or zodiacal animals (the latter subject also tending to be featured more at the beginning of a new year).
Anyway, I'm just thinking aloud here... In my household, we use hashioki all the time because we love them too much to restrict them solely to special occasions!
Hah, rhineisfine! I have seen some pretty bawdy sets of hashioki! They say anything but "formal"! I have not collected any of those, but maybe I will!
The article that I linked early in my hashioki posts mentions the formality originally associated with their use.
Thanks, Reise!
Thank you, Daisy1000!
Thank you, Faith.k!