Noboru Wagatsuma
我妻昇

Portrait

Noboru Wagatsuma, born in 1983 in Sendai, works in the time-honoured Togatta tradition whilst simultaneously pushing Sosaku-Kokeshi in unexpected directions: bold designs in which contemporary motifs meet the grain of hornbeam or camellia wood. His work is sought after in Japan and abroad. Before his Kokeshi career, he released albums as a singer and songwriter — music is no footnote in his work, but a recurring theme.

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Noboru Wagatsuma, born in 1983, came to Kokeshi through the family business — a company supplying machinery and tools to the craft trades. The contact with Kokeshi makers in his circle never let him go. He completed a three-year apprenticeship under master Hayasaka Masahiro and has since built a broad, distinctive body of work.

Wagatsuma-san lives and works in Sendai, the centre of the Tōhoku region. His point of departure is the Togatta style, one of the oldest Kokeshi traditions in the area. Alongside this, he develops Sosaku-Kokeshi that break with the expected: contemporary motifs, unusual forms, and woods such as hornbeam or camellia, whose grain he employs as a design element.

Before Kokeshi, he performed as a singer and songwriter and released his own albums. Music has remained — as subject matter, as sensibility, as a recurring motif. This includes Kokeshi embodying pop and rock bands, as well as NINA: a collaborative project with Adam Jaromir, inspired by the Godmother of Punk."