Fifty-eight-year-old Joei Shimabukuro is the eighth generation in a
family of potters in Tsuboya, Okinawa's traditional pottery district.
He specializes in shisa, although his father was an expert at the
potter's wheel who used to make 300-400 bowls a day. Shimabukuro started
focusing on shisa around the time of the reversion of Okinawa to
Japan because they were popular among U.S. military service members and
their families. However, production did not catch up with demand at the
time, according to Shimabukuro.
He showed me the technique of tebineriseikei (building a figure by hand)
at his workshop. After kneading and piling the clay, he adjusted it with
his fingers and a spatula. His hands never stopped moving. A flat shisa
was transformed into a strong face and a body that was quite impressive.
The balance of the entire figure is a matter of course, but it is the
head that requires the most attention. He makes various kinds of shisa,
including chiburu (head) shisa and menjishi, the faces of a male/female
pair. "I like the menjishi because I can fully develop the faces," he
commented. Shimabukuro has a menjishi masterpiece that takes two adults
to carry. Looking at it he says, "It would be two meters tall if a body
were attached."
Potters are able to tell which shisa are made by which potters.
The shisa of elder craftsmen have a unique style even though they
are based on the Tsuboya tradition. Shimabukuro said that he aims to make
shisa with a distinctive character like those of Joga Shima or
Ikuo Takaesu. "I want to establish my own style of shisa that cannot
be ignored," he said.
Serving as chairman of a potters' cooperative and as a man with countless
awards, Shimabukuro has an active mind, from which I sensed the depths
of the Tsuboya tradition. (Interviewed in October 2002) |
