Hello everyone!
Noriaki Matui, a Japanese-style candle craftsman and Design
department of Aichi Sangyo University have recently become very
interesting in developing a new way for people to become more
familiar with Japanese-style candles. The main purpose of this
project is to let young people understand the charm of a genuine
Japanese-style candle.
This project actually started two years ago. When I took my
students to a candle studio for the first time, they were surprised
at the fact that no one knew anything about Japanese-style candles.
At this same time they were quite impressed that these candles
were
made from only refined materials through various manufacturing
processes. This visit triggered them to begin this project
The project and its design essentially started in order to answer
the following simple questions; “What is a Japanese-style
candle? How are they made? How are they used?”
Therefore, we would like to propose the following three points
to
help people understand the processing of making Japanese candles.
1) Put all the materials in one package.
2) Make a brochure describing all the materials used in making
a
Japanese-style candle, so that people can be more familiar with
it.
3) A natural colored cloth should be used when wrapping a Japanese-
style candle, so that it can be recognized from an ordinary candle.
What we would like to sell is not only a Japanese-style candle
itself, but the related story of manufacturing it. For that reason,
we named this article “Rousoku-monogatari” in Japanese.
Furthermore, we did not pay too much respect to
“tradition” but instead to the use of a genuine denim
cloth with a contemporary symbol mark as the wrapping material.
However, at a meeting at the Okazaki Chamber of Commerce there
were
some comments about this cloth wrapping style by some of the
female
clerks. For example, they commented that “cloth-wrapping looks
very nice but it’s impossible to see the candles through
it”. “Cloth-wrapping is not a proper way of selling at
the museum in Okazaki.” Therefore a new version of a
transparent boxed type wrapping was also introduced. This was
quite
successful as the candles could be seen through the box.
A candle holder was also designed by one of our students.
This mold
was manufactured by a Rapid Proto
type Machine controlled by computer. After that it was passed
on to
the cast manufacturing industry for use. In another words, it
was
made from a traditional technique using the latest technology.
It will be our great pleasure for everyone interested in Japanese
candles if our project has helped in any way.
Nobuo Satoh : Prof., Dept. of Design, Faculty of design and
Architecture, Aichi Sangyo University
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