Kazuyuki Nakamura: On Receiving the Tradition & Form Award

2024/11/21

South of Dresden, Germany, near the border with the Czech Republic, lies a highland region called the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge). Famous for various woodcrafts such as nutcrackers, this region, spanning approximately 140 km east to west and 40 km north to south, is home to hundreds of woodworkers running their own workshops, with about a hundred concentrated in the central town of Seiffen. Originally, this was a region where people made a living from metal mining, such as silver and tin. When silver was discovered around 1168, men dreaming of striking it rich gathered here from all over Germany.

Place names derived from mining remain, such as "Erz" (ore) and "Seiffen" (ore washing). However, as the mining industry declined, woodworking became a side job during the winter months, and when mining came to an end in the mid-1800s, woodworking became the primary occupation. When the mines closed and many miners decided to make a living through woodworking, a vocational school for woodworking was established to provide technical and academic support. Although it was temporarily closed during the East German era, it reopened in 1995 after the reunification of Germany. On this occasion, the Tradition & Form Award was established in the same year to honor woodworkers who produced outstanding works.

I graduated from Juku in 1971 and entered the banking industry, but I became captivated by authentic nutcrackers when I was posted to New York in 1975. In 2003, I started a business with my wife to introduce German wood art to Japan. Since then, I visited the region about 30 times until the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, and began importing and selling the works of approximately 100 woodcraft artists. At the same time, I focused on documenting the artists' personalities, lineages, and dedication to their work to preserve them for future generations.

In the summer of 2023, I suddenly received a message from Germany. To my surprise, they informed me that they would present the Special Achievement Award within the Tradition & Form Awards to my wife and me. Considering it a great honor, I attended the award ceremony that autumn and learned that it was the first time the award had been given to a non-German foreigner, and that I had been chosen unanimously by the board of directors. It was unexpected and surprising, but I am happy that my 20 years of effort in introducing German woodcraft culture to Japan have been recognized, and I intend to continue promoting this culture in the future. I also hope that the Tradition & Form Award will become more widely known.

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.