Gargoyle-Tile Workshop Visit Part 1: Factory Tour

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1100 —
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Ornamental Temple Roof Tile

in need of a roof

at the Minobe Onigawara Workshop (美濃邉鬼瓦工房), Otsu Japan
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Japanese temples generally have tiled roofs, with ornamental tiles of various sizes and meanings sprinkled liberally throughout. For example, the demon-face tile
seen the other day on this post:

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
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Peak of a Temple Roof

In Japanese these ornamental tiles are called onigawara (鬼
瓦) — literally “demon tile” — though the word is used for any
complex decorative tile, with or without a demon. The English word
“gargoyle” is often used for these; it's not really the right word, but
it's evocative of the same concept, and I can't think of anything
better.

Earlier in the summer I had a fantastic opportunity (more on that later)
to get a private tour of the Minobe family workshop, which has been
entrusted to make these tiles for generations. Subject over the years to
weather, earthquakes, war, and vandalism, the tiles end up lasting only a
few hundred years, so much of their current work is recreating and
replacing the ornamental tiles that earlier generations of the family had
created for famous Kyoto temples.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 4000 —
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Mr. Minobe Shows the Kiln

his father is the current head of a household that's been in business for generations








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 —
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Storage Area Above the Kiln

it was hot

The huge decorative tiles seen above are still called onigawara
(demon tiles), even though they don't have demons or ogres or devils, or
anything else like that. Here's the detail from the one on the right, of
what looks to me like a phoenix...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/50 sec, f/4.5, ISO 640 —
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More Storage








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 42mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 560 —
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Garden Gnomes

( sort of )








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 60mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1800 —
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Ebisu

the Japanese god of fishermen, luck, the working man, and children's health

Side note; “Ebisu” is the namesake for one of Japan's oldest beers,
archaically transliterated on the label as “Yebisu” but pronounced the same. To facilitate distribution of this beer, the company made a train
station near the brewery in 1901 and named it after the beer. The Ebisu neighborhood
of Tokyo then grew up around it. So the station and the neighborhood are
named after a beer, but the beer is named after an ancient deity.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1600 —
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Kirin

another part of mythology that lends its name to a Japanese beer
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In front of the kirin is a title with a simple flower. There were also things
like birds and fish, and all had meanings. I might be remembering this
incorrectly, but having a bird on your roof (or in your garden) would mean
people would flock there in larger numbers, and having a fish means that
people would return time and again. The point is that there's meaning to all of this
that goes back centuries; it's not just decoration.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 —
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Wide Variety of Demon Tiles








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/50 sec, f/4.5, ISO 280 —
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Massive Tile Awaiting the Kiln

This workshop is not normally open to the public, but can now be visited as
part of an
exclusive tour by Tour du Lac Biwa
(“Lake Biwa Tours”), a new company devoted to English-language
off-the-beaten-path tours in Shiga, near Kyoto.

Prior to them opening their tour business to the public, I attended a test tour for free, as a
guinea pig. I had a great time, and contributed my photos to their cause,
so you'll see some of my photos (and photos of me) on the
tour page.

(I've taken a number of their
tours as a test guinea pig, but couldn't write about it on my blog
until they started business officially. Now that they have, I can start to
write about some of the wonderful experiences I had.)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 —
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Delicate

prior to firing, the drying clay looks quite fragile








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 28mm — 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250 —
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Freshly Fired

it looks much more substantial

The huge demon tile above is the one that I whimsically labeled as the “Japanese Gargoyle of Email Destruction” in my
post about lost email the other day:

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38mm — 1/80 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1600 —
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“Japanese Gargoyle of Email Destruction”

my whimsical name; I don't know the real name

It's interesting to compare the eyes on this one to some of the others.
With most of these demon-face tiles, the eyes are bulged out like the huge
awaiting-the-kiln unit above, or like that with deep indentations for the
pupils. But with this one right above, the eyes are empty tubes all the way
in, which means that they'll turn into deep holes of black once mounted.
(In the photo above, what looks like pupils are really holes in the
mounting bracket at the back of the tile, which would normally not be lit
when actually mounted. The lining up to appear as pupils in this photo was
quite intentional.)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/50 sec, f/4.5, ISO 2800 —
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Jumble of Old Pieces

that serve as reference for recreations








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 26mm — 1/50 sec, f/4.5, ISO 500 —
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Old and New

creating a replacement for an old damaged piece

Mr. Minobe gave a demonstration of how they work, which will become part two of this writeup.

To be continued...