Cypress Craftsman Hiroshi Miura

"It's been a long time since I started making models.

From the mid-1960s, plastic products began to appear on the market, and wooden baths and tubs became less popular, so I started making models in my spare time.

My hobby is fishing, and I felt that the type of boat that I had been familiar with since childhood was disappearing, so I decided to start by making a boat.

Then next was the dock, then the boathouse...

The first time I made a large model was in 1981, when Mr. Jusaburo Tsujimura worked on the dolls of Yoshiwara Yukaku.

After that, I spent one to two years building each of the tenements, bathhouses, front shops, and so on, hoping to somehow preserve the lost town of Edo.

When I was a child, my father took me to the gay quarters, where the atmosphere of Edo still remained.

Those memories, and the memories of the various merchants I went to to deliver the baths that I had ordered, and the experience of making carts and carpentry after the war because I could not return to my original job, were very useful when I was creating my works.

I thoroughly research materials such as drawings and color woodblock print, but when I make it, I put in the scent in my memory or the lyricism.

If this room is for the landlady, what shape should the brazier have? or something like that.

It wouldn't be fun if I just made a model.

I think that the same product can be different if it is made by just chasing the shape of the object, and if it is made by thinking about the surrounding landscape, life, and people.

I would be happy if you could see my work and enjoy imagining the life of the common people in Edo." (Hiroshi Miura)