The most long-overdue exhibitor of the third CIIE, Kanio Arai, a Japanese contemporary casting master and president of Arai Kobo, has seen each other with the fifth Expo this year and has run the whole process.
The Expo is his day and night thought. Since the first edition, his Arai Workshop has been exhibited every year and has never been absent. The third CIIE, the global epidemic is severe, Arai Kanio did everything possible to book a ticket, flew from Japan to Shanghai, first quarantined for 14 days, until 10 p.m. on the 5th day of the opening of the Expo, the quarantine was lifted, and finally entered the venue the day before the closing ceremony, the story of this most sincere exhibitor was widely circulated; In the fourth CIBO, because the visa was not released, it was difficult for him to make the trip, but the dozens of iron pot exhibits he selected still traveled across the sea to participate in the exhibition.
This year, after learning the news of the relaxation of Japanese business visas in July, the eager Arai Kanao applied for it as soon as possible, and independently completed the appointment and information filling out with the Chinese he had studied on his own in recent years, and finally waited for his passport and visa. He flew to Shenzhen on October 22 this year, and after 10 days of quarantine according to regulations, he flew to Shanghai again. This time, from November 5 to November 10, he was stationed in Hall 6.1 booth, cherishing the blooming and amazing time at the Expo.
Masao Arai, 60 years old this year, comes from Yamagata Prefecture, Japan's main producer of iron pots. The predecessor of the Japanese iron kettle was the iron kettle, about 280 years ago, and Arai Kanao was the second generation of the iron kettle. At the age of 29, he was already the head of a large company, but when his father suddenly fell seriously ill, as the eldest son, and in order to keep the factory, Arai resigned decisively to devote himself to the family business.
Although it is not early to get started, Arai has a persistent heart. While using the most traditional iron pot making process, one mold and one pot, meticulous; On the other hand, he also innovated the technique of using gold and silver inlay technology to decorate the body of the pot with large pieces of engraved silver, and its craftsmanship became more and more popular in the Yamagata region of Japan. He insists on hand-making, and each iron pot is made in more than 60 processes.
According to reports, Japanese iron pots are divided into pig iron pots and sand iron pots. Pig iron is readily available, but iron pots are basically bought as collections. Due to the extremely high cost of sand and iron mining, there has been little output in recent years. Arai's father built up over the years to become the largest local sand and iron collector in Yamagata Prefecture. However, the texture of sand iron is fragile and difficult to cast, and the yield of sand iron pots is only 20%, even a skilled craftsman like Masao Arai often makes it into one of the two. At present, the Arai family has less than 400 kilograms of sand iron, which is only enough to restrict another 400 sand iron pots, which can be said to be one less handful. At the same time, there are less than 10 living craftsmen in Japan who can make iron pots.
Arai Kanao became associated with China in 2008. This year, the Japan Trade Promotion Agency set up a booth in a high-end shopping mall in Shanghai, and Arai brought his iron kettle to the group to participate in the exhibition. He vividly remembers selling his first iron pot in the Chinese market at Shanghai's Meilong Town Square, which sold for between 2,000 yuan and 10,000 yuan. In 4 days of exhibition, he sold more than 50 hands.
In the past decade, Japanese iron pots have become visible to the naked eye in China, but hype and fakes have also floated. For example, the domestic market sells old iron pots that claim to be 700 years old, but in fact, Japanese iron pots are less than 300 years old. On an e-commerce platform, some merchants put up the signboard of "Arai Workshop", and in order to prove their authenticity, they also posted import customs declarations and so-called testing certificates. Arai Kanao could only shake his head when he looked at it, because he had never done authorization. He also showed the reporter the raw materials of sand iron posted by the merchant, like white salt, to which he smiled bitterly, "How can sand iron be white?" ”
He has the rigor and sense of responsibility of craftsmen, and he hopes to pass on more effective information to enthusiasts and teach everyone to look at the market rationally. So before the epidemic, he came to China once every 3 months on average, participated in various exhibitions, held salons, and talked about various professional knowledge about iron pots.
Before the epidemic, Arai Kanio held an iron pot salon in Gubei, Shanghai.
He can also endure loneliness. His iron pots are complex and purely handmade, and he and the eight workers in the workshop can only produce about 500 a year. Domestic powerful e-commerce companies found him, "Believe it or not, this amount, I can light up in a few seconds online." Then, he encouraged Arai to put on the "Arai Workshop" brand and ask domestic foundries to mass produce it and quickly become bigger and stronger. But Arai declined, and as a craftsman, he only wanted to concentrate and never expected instant swelling.
China is the market he looks forward to cultivating. Since the first CIIE, his nine-square-meter smallest booth could not block the light of all handmade cast iron pots, and nearly 100 high-quality iron pots were booked; For the second edition, his booth expanded to 27 square meters; The third edition, he was late and saw very limited customers, but he had no regrets. He said that even if he enters the museum at the last minute, he will come, as a craftsman, since he decides to do something, he will definitely do it from the beginning to the end;
At the third CIIE, Arai Kanio became the most long-overdue exhibitor. The picture shows him finally coming to the scene the day before the closing. (Photo by Li Ye)
In the fourth session, he worked hard until he was powerless, but still could not get visas and air tickets, and three employees of his Shanghai company also due to temporary reasons, and finally only one employee, Zhu Lei, entered, becoming the "loneliest platformer"; This year, Arai Kobo's booth was transferred from the service trade exhibition area to the food and agricultural products exhibition area, and he arrived in Shanghai three days before the opening to make up for the previous shortcomings with his greatest sincerity.
Arai is not good at talking, but he always smiles and chats carefully, only to realize that he has experienced the darkest moments over the years. Under the mechanized mass production and fast-paced lifestyle, the pure handicraft of Japanese iron pots is on the verge of extinction, and there are less than 100 craftsmen worthy of the name in Japan, and the 60-year-old like Masao Arai is considered "young and strong". Under the epidemic, the iron pot business withered, which accelerated the departure of craftsmen, and the eight workers of Arai Workshop could only work two days a week and take five days off. But with the government coming up with a little, Arai himself subsidizing a little, the workers' wages were maintained with all their might. Zhu Lei, a Chinese assistant to Masao Arai, told reporters that it was too easy to lay off people, but the president said that once the layoffs were made, workers could change careers and be overwhelmed. Therefore, this craftsman is still single-handedly preserving tradition and original intention. Zhu Lei also secretly revealed that at the darkest moment, Arai Kanio submitted a loan application to the bank for the first time...
The reporter asked him, when he couldn't hold on, did he ever think about giving up? Arai said that since he chose to start, he would definitely stick to the end. There is an old saying in China that if you don't hit the southern wall, you don't look back, "I may hit the south wall and don't look back." ”
The reporter asked him again, is the Chinese market really worth sticking to? He said that his biggest gain in previous editions of the Expo was to meet many Chinese collectors who were obsessed with Japanese iron pots. Some people are ignorant at first, but follow all the way and come to the booth every year. Often the first session did not start, waited and watched for a few years, was moved by the spirit of craftsmanship, and by the fourth and fifth sessions there was an order.
Since the first CIIE, Arai Kanio has sold the most expensive sand-iron pot to Chinese customers, with a price of 70,000 yuan. The regular sand iron pot has a capacity of one liter, but the Chinese buyer specially customized the seven-liter sand iron pot to Arai. Arai spent six months making five at the same time, two of which were successful. Arai said, "This is the trust that customers place in me, and it is also the reason why I stick to it. ”
Thirty-two years ago, Kanio Arai took over the mantle from his father. Today, he intends to guide his 32-year-old daughter to continue her business. He picked up a pig iron dragon pot and said that it was his father's favorite type in the 70s, and he wanted to continue these beautiful and glittering traditions in China and make Japanese craftsmen go further and longer.
Source: Author: Li Ye