Mournful Crafts: Treasure House of Ivory, Izu

Ivory was widely used to make carvings because of its hardness and whiteness. Now, the ivory trade is limited all over the world in consideration of animal preservation and protection. However, until two decades ago, there were so many ivory markets everywhere. In particular, old China had produced enormous ivory carvings and Japan imported so many products. There was a private ivory museum in the Izu Peninsula: The Treasure House of Ivory, which was founded by Mr. Yoshimitsu Yamamoto. He made a fortune by inventing the production method of preserving the cherry leaf. When you have a sakura-mochi, the rice cake with bean paste, you find the rice cake is wrapped with this kind of leaf. Yes, that soft, salty leaf is his invention! Since then, he has transferred his method to Chinese companies several times. When he went to China, he collected ivory carvings frequently and his ivory collection became bigger and bigger.

So he decided to open his private ivory museum near his factory in Izu. There were over one hundred carvings in the museum, mainly Chinese products, but some crafts were made in Japan. Generally speaking, Chinese carvings were more elaborate than Japanese ones, with surprising technique. I couldn’t figure out how they were made. The other fantastic exhibition was the stone inlaid folding screens, which depicted the story of Ms. Yang Guifei. It was 75 meters long. I visited there in 1998 for the first time, because I happened to get their brochure when I was hanging around Izu in my Miata. The second time I went there was in the winter of 2005, and I had permission to take photos of the inside.

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This museum closed in 2014, because the owner retired from his business. But the new manager, the son of the founder, built the next museum on the east side of Izu Peninsula in the same year. All of the carvings were transferred to the new place. The name of the museum is Jewlpia – Museum of Ivory and Stone Sculptures. It is easier to access from Tokyo compared with the old one. Unfortunately, I’ve never visited this new museum. It is worth taking a look because of the quality and quantity of their exhibition. Ivory carvings are becoming more and more precious!
http://english.jewelpia.com/