Inden craftsman interview report
July 20, 2014The city of Kofu flourished as the capital where the family of Takeda was based. Takeda was the warlord during the Sengoku period in the 15th century (also known as the Warring States period.) The name of Kofu was given by Nobutora Takeda, the father of Shingen Takeda, and designated Kofu as "the regional capital of Kai Province." A castle town was formed in Kofu as the base of Shingen during the Sengoku period, and Kofu went on to become prosperous in the early modern period as the center of business, as an important Western defense position for Edo and as a post-town along Koshu-Kaido which was a route connecting Edo and Kai Province.
"The Chronicles of Japan", the second oldest book of Japanese history, says that artifacts made with deer skin were brought to Japan around the end of the 5th century by leather craftsmen from Goryeo, one of the ancient Three Kingdoms of Korea. Today it is the oldest leather craft in Japan. It was not until the middle of the Edo period that Inden came to be made in its modern way by drawing designs on deer leather using lacquer. Even so, deer leather crafts saw great advancements in the time of the development of samurai society and amidst war disturbances, since the supple and light but sturdy characteristics of deer skin were valued as a material suitable for armor and harnesses. Today, we can still see a bag called "Shingen-bukuro" (Shingen bag). One theory states that the name originates from the bag made of deer leather that samurai generals used to hold their armor.
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The Miniature of Lacquered Deer Leather: Koshu-Inden