Hello everyone
How are you doing?
Do you know the Jao-Jinja in Oonashishi?
The Oonashishi Coast in the Nashishi area of Shimanto City is a small bay, where the waves are always calm and there is a small stretch of beautiful white sandy beach.
Occasionally you can see surfers, but it is usually a very quiet place.
If you climb the hill behind the houses scattered on the narrow flat land opposite the beach, you will find a shrine called Hebiou Shrine, which is a place of great spiritual significance.
In fact, this is a shrine for good fortune, where people in the know can get lucky with their money..
Well, it is a fresh sunny morning.
As I was relaxing after preparing to open the shop and making a pot of coffee, the mountain owner of Jao-jinja, to whom I have always been indebted, came to our shop.
He said, “I need the shrine’s stamp to be stamped on the shrine’s red seal book. Sorry to rush you, but I need two stamps made immediately.” This was an urgent request.
owner ‘Draw me a sample of what it could look like right now.’
me ‘Right now? Immediately? Can you do it well? …’
owner ‘Just draw it now.’
me ‘Well, is this how it should look like…’
owner ‘That’s great! Make it! When can you do it? Today!’
me ‘Today!!?’
owner ‘Yes, today. Can you do it around noon?’
me ‘It’s just before ten o’clock now, but I’m not sure about lunchtime… I’ll manage to make it in the evening.
owner ‘Is it made of wood?’
me ‘It can’t be carved out of wood in a day, so it will be a rubber stamp. But if you do it for a red seal book, it will be easier to stamp.
owner ‘Then make it with that. It’s in the evening. Take care of it. Call me when it’s done.”
So it was a big job in a hurry.
As we have blogged before, we hand carve any stamps for shrines and temples.
This time, because it is large, everything is handmade from scratch, including the base wood.I draw a clean copy based on a sample, transfer it to a rubber plate and carve it with a knife.If you don’t concentrate on the work, once you make a mistake, you have to start all over again. If the sharpness of the knife drops even slightly, the knife is sharpened and re-sharpened each time, and the work takes several hours.
I spent all day at my desk, except for the occasional glance out of the window, and finally finished it in the evening, just as the sun was setting. I was already exhausted.
When the owner of the mountain received it, he said, “It’s good! He was delighted.
The other is a cute snake stamp.
Please stop by our shop on your way back from Jao-jinja.
We’ll make you a lovely stamp.
Bye for now!