Seventy-year-old wood craftsman Satoshi Kumano produces beautiful and durable wooden bags suitable for daily use. These bags feature simple designs that highlight the wood grain, combining elegance with playfulness. Kumano began making them around 2000, applying techniques from Sendai Tansu chests.
Satoshi Kumano was born in 1955 into a family of Sendai Tansu craftsmen and learned skills as an assistant in the workshop during childhood. At university, he studied industrial design and created wooden play equipment for his graduation project. Until around 2000, he mainly produced music boxes, then shifted to bags. "Because higher-level skills are necessary [to make bags like these], I wanted to take on the challenge," Kumano said.
For bag production, he thoroughly dries wood from over 10% moisture content until completely dry, then leaves it unattended to prevent deformation or cracking. To ensure lightness and strength for hand-carrying, he thickens joint parts and rasps handles to make them round. In 2000, his wooden bags won the grand prix at the Miyagi Monozukuri Taisho contest, and his cake-shaped music boxes received an excellence award in the 10th Tohoku new souvenir design contest.
He has held solo exhibitions in Tokyo, and recently his works have gained popularity among foreign tourists. "I want people to use [the bags] for as long as possible," reflecting his unchanging philosophy from traditional crafts. After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, to brighten hearts, he began full-fledged production of shortcake-shaped music boxes, extracting pigments from trees and mixing wood powders with adhesive for a fresh cream appearance, decorated with crushed eggshells and sawdust. "Though what I pursue is different from others in making wooden bags, I want people to enjoy beautiful sounds along with the attractiveness of wood," Kumano said. At 70, "I feel my skills as a craftsman are improving with each passing year. My ideas never run out and I have many more to come."