Yame Traditional Craftwork Center

We went to the workshop where we could see how the handmade Yame Washi (Traditional Japanese Paper) was done. And we also had the opportunity to hands on ourselves on the paper making process. It was an unusual experience for us.

We were allowed to choose what kind of items to make into, such as a fan (うちわ), or post cards (はがき), or book marks (しおり), or message cards (めいし), or message slips (たんざく). I chose to make into book marks.

We were given a selection of dry flowers and dry leaves to design and decorate our book marks. After we were done, we handed over to the staff to assist in pressing and drying.

While waiting, we proceeded to take a look at the Buddhist alters (仏壇/ぶつだん), bamboo work (竹細工/たけざいく), traditional craftwork (民族工芸品/みんぞくこうげいひん), etc…

I saw the extremely huge lanterns (Yame Chochin八女提灯) and Buddhist alters…. Wow….
We also saw the stage of Yame Fukushima’s lantern puppets, and was told that 6 persons are required in order to operate a doll!!! No wonder the stage is so huge…. and the stage does not require any nails or bolts or nuts to assemble, basically they are making use of the slots to assemble the stage. Amazing.

As it was almost time, we went back to the workshop to collect our book marks, and headed to shop for some おみやげ，and not forgetting the soft cream to finish off the activity. Yummy….