Before the arrival of summer, the making of wind chimes is at its peak at the workshop of the traditional craft "Izushi ware" in Toyooka City, Hyogo Prefecture.
"Izushi-yaki" is a white porcelain that has been handed down in Izushi-cho, Toyooka City. At the workshop of Hitoshi Nagasawa in the center of the town, wind chimes are made every year before summer.
On the 19th, a veteran craftsman made a prototype of a wind chime by crushing locally-grown stones into small pieces and pouring a liquid called "mud" into a mold.
And Mr. Nagasawa carefully drew the pattern of Wakaayu one by one with a dark blue pigment on a light brown wind chime that was unglazed.
After that, when the wind chime is baked at a high temperature of nearly 1300 degrees for one day, the surface becomes glossy and pure white, and the dark blue pattern is clearly visible and completed.
Wind chimes are sold at workshops and local souvenir shops, and in the summer they are displayed on the moat edge of the nearby Izushi Castle Ruins to entertain tourists with a cool, clear, high-pitched tone.
Due to the influence of the new corona, the number of pieces made was reduced to 700 last year, but this year we want to make 1500 pieces, which is the same as usual, by the beginning of July.
Mr. Nagasawa said, "Tourists are returning little by little. I want them to survive the hot summer with the sound of wind chimes."