Magemono - Magemono

A container made by bending a thin board of cypress or cedar into a circle or oval shape and attaching a bottom plate to it. It is also called wagemono or himono. In Japan, its existence is known to date back to the Yayoi period, but looking at picture scrolls from the Middle Ages in particular, wooden containers were widely used in daily life, and except for hollowed-out wooden containers, almost all of them were made of bent wood. Before the early modern period when hoop-fastened buckets and barrels became widespread, hollowed-out or bent wood containers were used even for storing water or soy sauce. Magemono are made by soaking thinly peeled planks of cypress or other wood in boiling water or heating them over a fire until they become soft, bending them, gluing them together with a paste called sokui made from kneaded rice grains, and without using a hoop, sealing the joints with thin strips of cherry or birch bark and attaching a bottom plate, and most of them have lids. Products include lunch boxes called wappa, menpa, and mentsu, as well as sanbo (three treasures), ladles, sieves, hemp trays, steamers, and rice cookers. Magemono was a technique used to make a variety of containers, and was often handcrafted in mountain villages. The craftsmen who make Magemono are called cypress craftsmen. Magemono are now only used in a small number of tea ceremony utensils and miscellaneous utensils.

[Mizuo Miyamoto]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

ヒノキやスギなどの薄板を円形、楕円(だえん)形に曲げて、これに底板を取り付けた容器。綰物(わげもの)、檜物(ひもの)ともいう。日本では、その存在は弥生(やよい)時代から認められているが、とくに中世の絵巻物などをみると、日常生活において、広く木製容器が用いられており、それらは刳物(くりもの)以外は、ほとんど曲物が使われていて、箍(たが)締めの桶(おけ)や樽(たる)が普及する近世以前には、水やしょうゆなどを入れるにも、刳物か曲物が使われていた。曲物の製法は、薄く剥(は)いだヒノキなどの板を熱湯に浸したり、火にあぶって柔らかくなったところで曲げ、飯粒(めしつぶ)を練ってつくったソクイという糊(のり)ではり、箍は使わずに、継ぎ目をサクラやカバなどの皮を細く裂いたもので綴(と)じ、底板をつけたもので、多くは蓋(ふた)がある。製品には、ワッパやメンパ、メンツウとよばれる弁当入れをはじめ、三方(さんぼう)（三宝）、柄杓(ひしゃく)、篩(ふるい)、麻小笥(おごけ)、蒸籠(せいろう)、飯櫃(いいびつ)などがあり、曲物はいろいろの容器をつくるのに用いられた手法で、山村の手仕事としても多く行われた。なお、曲物を製作する職人を檜物師とよぶ。曲物は、現在、茶道具や雑器の一部にわずかに使用されているにすぎない。

［宮本瑞夫］

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