Ohayo Shoten ("shoten" means "shop") operated during the Taisho and early Showa eras (1910s ~ 1940s) in Kyoto, Japan. It was run by the Nakamura (中村)
family and was located at the Shinmonzen street, the same street at which the famous Komai family workshop was located (see
the Kyoto map from 1933 for more). The main focus of the company was in manufacture and sales of damascene works, but
they also made items from bamboo.
According to records from the old books, business cards and maps, at least two members of the Nakamura family were involved in the business:
T. Nakamura and Yashichi Nakamura (中村彌七). Perhaphs those were the successors of
K. Nakamura,
a lacquer ware manufacturer who was in business during the late Meiji era (1910s) and whose shop was located at the same place.
It wasn't an easy task to find high-quality damascene items in Japan during 1920s and 1930s. The golden era of Nunome Zogan ended in late 1910s, when
the Second Industrial Revolution resulted in appearence of a large ammount of factories across the country, that among other goods also started to produce artworks.
Many of the famous Nunome Zogan manufacturers of the past, that produced hand-made products, closed their businesses unabling to compete against the industry.
Damascene products
from Y. Abe, Ogurusu, Y. Fukushima,
K. Shimokado and others were too simple in their designs. Even the Komai family had been going through hard times. Their works
became much less complex and elaborate. Suprisingly, Ohayo Shoten was an exception from this list, producing high-quality Nunome Zogan items, which are sought after up to day.
An article, published in the magazine "Bamboo Breezes" distributed for U.S. forces in Phillipines, says: "Bamboo Breezes: United States Naval Station", June 9, 1928. Where Genuine Damascene is Made
In the service man's hunt for antiques and curious while touring the Orient, Damascene ware is one of the most attractive articles he finds.
Genuine damascene is made in Kyoto, Japan, in a place called "Ohayo", pronounced "Ohio", the Japanese term for "good morning".
On entering the work room of Ohayo's shop you will find him sitting cross-legged before a low bench covered with chisels,
hammers and balls of gold thread. All genuine damascene must go through many processes before it is ready for marketing. Steel is the usual foundation
for the articles, although silver and gold are occasionally employed.
A design is first drawn on a piece of tissue paper and placed over the metal surface. It is then traced with a fine chisel into the metal and
removed. The outlines thus copied are undercut four times crosswise, and four times diagonally, to form something like a silken texture. Into the
minute grooves these gold threads, almost as fine as cobwebs, are hammered into tile intricate pattern almost invisible to the eyes. A deer horn
hammer is used to smooth the surface and tap down any rough edges of the gold thread.
The articles are then put into a cabinet and made to corrode by the use of nitrate acid which is later removed with hot soda water. When quite dry,
they are washed twice in thin salt water and baked over a fire. Eight or nine times a day for periods of five days in summer and seven days in winter,
these articles are washed and baked until all the rust in the steel has been conducted out completely. The clean surfaces are then dipped into thick mud
of red clay and baked again over hot fire and the process repeated from fifty to 100 times.
The next step is to coat the surface with charcoal powder and oil, bake over a fire and repeat from ten to twenty times, adding more charcoal and
oil in each instance. The black powder is cleaned from the article with a small piece of cryptomeria wood, and a steel rod is used to rub the surface
to a polish. The last step is to add some fine carvings to any part of the inlay where it is necessary, and in the case of tourists it can be their
monograms or names.
The shop contains showcases of beautiful Damascene boxes, cufflinks, screens, pins, powder jars and others things of interest.
While Ohayo Shoten still was in business by 1937, there are no post-WWII records of the company.
The trade mark of the Ohayo company:
オハヨ製
オハヨ (Ohayo) 製 (make)
Ohayo sei
Made by Ohayo
Ohayo (オハヨ) means "good morning", or, literally, "early",
hence the "rising sun" pictorial representation.
The most common mark of the Ohayo company:
A pictorial representation of the "rising sun" ("Ohayo", オハヨ)
with a 製 (make) kanji inside
Ohayo sei
Made by Ohayo
