Cooper

From the Showa Shokugyo Emaki, this print shows an okeya, a Japanese cooper specializing in the construction of staved wooden vessels—rice tubs, sake casks, bath barrels, and washtubs—bound with split bamboo hoops rather than the iron rings used in Western coopering. The craftsman is typically shown working at floor level, drawing a curved plane along the inside of a stave or hammering a hoop into place with a wooden mallet. Wada's composition emphasizes the radial geometry of the assembled tub and the orderly arrangement of tools, conveying the disciplined economy of the trade. The palette is restrained: pale wood tones, a touch of indigo on the worker's happi coat, and the grayed neutrals of the workshop floor. As cheap stainless steel and plastic vessels began to displace wooden ones in mid-Showa Japan, the okeya's craft was already in retreat, lending Wada's documentation an elegiac undertone consistent with the preservationist aim of the series.