Otake Ryoho: the wizard of woodsculpting

Today, by chance, I happened to watch an NHK World feature on Ōtake Ryōho (大竹亮峯), a true master of woodcarving who has elevated the art to another level.


Bio (from his website):

After admiring wood sculptures from a young age, Ryoho Otake bought an expensive carving blade with the money he received for the New Year from his parents, and he used the blade to carve into his desk at school. Otake, who said that the teachers could not get angry at him once they saw his level of craftsmanship, is a wood sculpture master through and through. In 2009, instead of going to an art school, he graduated from the technical school, TASK, and with a need to master the skills of wood sculpture further, became a pupil of Katsuhiro Higashi, a teacher who created wooden relief sculptures (miyabori) in Hida-Takayama. He became independent from his teacher after about three years of training. Later, he began to produce life-like (jizai) works by carving marvellous work out of a single block of wood, alongside using his own completely original wood sculpture techniques.

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His wooden models of crustaceans are breathtaking. They are fully movable and anatomically true to the most minute detail.

Spectacled Manju Crab (眼鏡饅頭蟹):




Japanese spiny lobster (Kamakura ebi, 鎌倉海老):




His most famous work is the Bamboo Daffodil (竹の水仙), which took him four years to complete. The blossoms open when watered.




See the video below:



The NHK feature on Mr Otake can be watched here:

Link: