Preservation of Craftsmanship at National Level

[Antonio Cejunior]

Greetings all,

The reading of the Timonium paper on Mark Bowditch's page has prompted me to think not about collections only but what steps can be taken in order to further
preserve the tradition of sword making in Aranyik, Thailand, in the Philippines, as well as in Indonesia and India.

Allow me to explain futher. In my very modest narrative on



I have noticed that everyone is trying to survive by making different and more commercial stuff such as bowies, katanas, etc.
It is an entirely private venture with possibly no connections between Museums and smiths, hence that most things are just very simple swords aiming for no particular public (my humble opinion).

The thing is that I believe there might be a small hope that Governments or even Private Foundations may provide a grant that allow these smiths to survive doing what they know best. This may of course require some evolution and change of design appearence the same way Jim Thompson revolutionized the silk industry in Thailand.

Let's say that while in Japan you have an organization that cares and strtuctures the making of Japanese swords, classifies them and keeps them, there is nothing out of Japan like this, except Solingen perhaps, which to some extent represents the condemnation to extinction into a matter of time for it becomes an obsolete craft that is overlooked, until Museums give them enough significance and quality produced pieces become available to the general public in hotel shops and slowly spreading into specialty craft shops taken as decorative items.

Let me be pragmatic enough. I view that the continuity of the craft requires a commercial strategy based on quality as an alternative to the present quantity. In other words, while the antiques market continues to exist, I find it to be necessary to create the antiques of the future, which will undoubtly arise from a different context.

I recall that in 1995 I came out in the open to speak about the need for a Creative Center in Macau, a strategic move using the multi-cultural context of Macau to become the creative software for the mainland China resources, as we were able to better discern, due to a different cultural context and cultural heritage from mainland China, which would allow for the redesigning of, i.e. Chinese furniture, beauty acessories, silk designs and so forth.

It was indeed created in the year 2000, as Center of Creative Industries, but it was entirely misunderstood. It caters for a list of designers and artists not the relationship of an ideas factory, if I may say so, to revolutionize what is not being spread.

This was not what I had in mind.

Incurring into the risk of boring you all, I would like to express my concern on the future and of the future of the past, which cannot rely by itself on the most commendable work of collectors or even of Museums, but on what the Medici did during the Rennaissance: Il Mecennato. Patronage, sponsorship.

How this could be achieved through the governments of each of the countries mentioned is, I hope not a fight against windmills.

Your precious comments?

[VANDOO]

THE ONLY PLACE THAT I KNOW OF THAT HAS A PROGRAM TO PROMOTE AND HELP FUND CRAFTSMEN OF NOTE IS JAPAN. THEY HAVE MANY PEOPLE WHO EXCEL IN MANY CRAFTS SUCH AS PAPER MAKING, CALIGRAPHY, CERAMICS, ECT. THEY ARE JUDGED AND IF WORTHY DESIGNATED AS NATIONAL TREASURES FOR LIFE. I DON'T KNOW WHAT GRANTS OR FUNDING GOES WITH THAT HONOR BUT IT WOULD HELP THEM SELL THEIR CRAFTS IF NOTHING ELSE. I DON'T KNOW IF THERE ARE ANY SWORD MAKERS AMONG THAT GROUP AS I FEAR MANY OF JAPANS OLD CRAFTS HAVE DISSAPEARED AS HAS HAPPENED ELSEWHERE.

[Antonio Cejunior]

Thank you Vandoo.

In fact Japan has the National Living Treasure and it also applies to sword makers and other crafts.

Portugal also has a program through the Gulbenkian Foundation but it does not apply to sword making and this art has disappeared in Portugal.

[tom hyle]

Many if not most large sovereign polities (ie "countries" etc.) have such programs, though not as extensive etc. as the Japanese one. I don't know that these are at all the way to preserve real traditions, though, but more, as I see happen in institution after institution, some (usually dogmatized, of course) institutional concept of them. A great example is "Western" academia/music establishment trying to study the blues; trying to define it and ending up saying things like "the blues is a 12 bar music in key X with repetitive themes.....(etc.)" which prompted Willie Dixon to say "That is a white, college definition of the blues....(and thus not at all valid or useful to actually understanding the blues which must be understood from the inside; the inside is a culture that doesn't have "bars" or "keys" in the "Western" sense, yet Euro/academic culture talks as if they have defined it and confined it with their foriegn terms, their nonunderstanding outside definition, which in practical reality is used to say this or that is not "real" blues.)" A bit unclear, perhaps, but my concern over this sort of institutionalization of knowledge, etc. Also, I say, as always, that weapon cutlery is a living art, and its supposed obsolescence is an "over-culture" (mis)perception, and is "news" to a great number of living working cutlers, living martial artists, and ordinary people who are sword owners.

[Gt Obach]

I thought japan had a sort of tradition of "deadly elegance"..... and that you could be summoned by the ruler to prove your steel (or lose your head)

-it could be that you need the formative levels of sword culture before society will embrace the idea of a "national treasure".
-I see the "National treasure" idea as the pinnacle of the institution.... now what were the roots or seeds that grew?
- my point is that you can't build a pyramid by starting at the top.... I would think you need a good base..... and if the base is already there.....then progress can be nudged along !!

say in the instance of the patternweld keris blades..... it seems that they're smiths still use the old ways... and they're still part of the culture and beliefs....
-- i would think that a national treasure idea could take hold here... ?

oh well.... just thought i'd throw some ideas out there.... bout the infrastructure of such an institution


Greg

[tom hyle]

And mind you, not neccessarily government sponsorship, but over-culture/academic interest of some type is often the only thing (other than certain layers in the soil ) that ends up preserving any knowledge about a thing. However, a surprising amount of knowledge often lives at a folkloric level that is often unfortuneately dismissed by over culture experts as "legend" urban or otherwise, as not presented in the proper way by the proper person to suit the rules of that tribe, or as "not real blues (bowie knife, Japanese sword, insert category) because it doesn't fit our definition." Also, it does seem to me there is an insidiousness in the way it does its preserving; by replacing deep and broad genuine and ancient traditions with its often shallow and outside understanding gleaned from studying a subject with a (relatively) few socially designated experts for perhaps a matter of a few decades, or at very most the two or three centuries in which the overculture has been at the point of advancement (in its own terms; wealth and magic, mostly) to have begun to take more of an interest in other cultures than what can be gotten from them in direct material or economic terms and how.

[Antonio Cejunior]

Originally Posted by tom hyle

A great example is "Western" academia/music establishment trying to study the blues; trying to define it and ending up saying things like "the blues is a 12 bar music in key X with repetitive themes.....(etc.)" which prompted Willie Dixon to say "That is a white, college definition of the blues....(and thus not at all valid or useful to actually understanding the blues which must be understood from the inside; the inside is a culture that doesn't have "bars" or "keys" in the "Western" sense, yet Euro/academic culture talks as if they have defined it and confined it with their foriegn terms, their nonunderstanding outside definition, which in practical reality is used to say this or that is not "real" blues.)" A bit unclear, perhaps, but my concern over this sort of institutionalization of knowledge, etc. Also, I say, as always, that weapon cutlery is a living art, and its supposed obsolescence is an "over-culture" (mis)perception, and is "news" to a great number of living working cutlers, living martial artists, and ordinary people who are sword owners.

I fully agree
Please note that my main intention is to bring about a constructive discussion about allowing things to exist through hybrid methods as blues itself know no bars but had records and now have CDs

[fearn]

Hi Antonio,

There are models other than the Living Treasures and national foundations. For instance:

I'd point to a phenomenon that has revived interest in the essentially dead western martial arts, and which has given birth to a large sword-making industry: the reenactment movement. Groups like the Society for Creative Anachronisms, Living History, etc. (including Civial War reenactors) have created multiple industries feeding their needs for accurate replicas, and for the materials to make them.

In places with an emergent middle class (parts of Thailand, Indonesia, PI, etc), encouraging reenactors might be a good way of encouraging people to get back into weapons making. This could be in the context of the Thai-Burmese wars (take your pick), the many conflicts within Indonesia, or PI, etc. Getting people interested in arming themselves as their ancestors did and restaging critical battles might not be entirely bad, especially if they keep the blades dull and the guns fire blanks ...

After all, if Americans can start the SCA from books (reviving an extinct martial tradition with some success) then it might be a lot easier in a place where the traditions are simply moribund.

I'd also point to the Himalayn Imports model (paying native smiths to make traditional blades for a largely foreign market) as another way to go.

My 0.02 cents,

Fearn

[Tim Simmons]

Does this arguement not depend on what you call craftsmanship.The concepts of achievment and artistic merit depending on the weath and education and prejudice of a questionable elite.Tim

[tom hyle]

that's a point, Tim, as far as the art of fance goes, though not 100% I must say, and in two aspects (let's see if I can remember the second by the time I've said the first ): one is that rural tribes with no ruling class, etc. as well as the poor within stratified tribes, often adorn themselves and each other and their goods very lavishly; two is that "the concepts of acheivement and artistic merit depending on the wealth and education and predjudice of a questionable elite" (wow; I LIKE that!!) is, as Tim seems to hint at awareness of (?) is not the only standard or perspective of art, or even of craftsmanship.
As far as the art of design and construction go, of course there are expenses, but they are nowhere near the factor they are in the art of fance. Much high quality work is and has been produced relatively cheaply by traditional people for their own use.

[Tim Simmons]

In a nutshell Tom

[Battara]

As for the Philippines, there are still folks that make small knives under their homes in Batangas, but for the quality of the past, say, around the turn of the 20c, well, that is another story. There are still those who make laminated blades in Sulu, but very few and the quality does not compare to that of a century ago. Those in Mindanano are not even laminated from what I have seen, though some of the better gold and silver fittings are of some quality. Again for consumption, although programs in Marawi city associated with the university there offer some support.

Outside of something like what Japan has, these arts die because they are no longer needed. Moros value their machine guns now like their ancestors did swords and bolos. Why use a sword when a gun is more effective? And thus the dilema.

Personally, I guess it may be some folks like me that keep some of the tradition alive. Problem is that although I am part Filipino, I was not born nor raised in the PI and thus am somewhat removed from the cultural roots of the art, even though I am an artist (as well as a minister fulltime) and do what I do in silver, gold, etc. by studying what those artists and craftspeople have done before me. This is one of the reasons I do restorations - I wish to restore some semblence of original dignity to these artifacts, and thus I research the work done from a specific tribe or region to bring back the spirit and elegance to a piece as best as I can. Even then, I am still learning and feel myself humbled when comparing my work with these unsung masters of the past who have been studying their craft for more decades than I.

If those wealthy enough or those in government (often the same thing) could set up competitions and prizes for judging crafts in the PI like in Japan, that might be a better avenue for a poor country like the PI. Unfortunately, outside of what Emelda Marcos did, the country has more problems on its plate than sponsoring craftmenship. Thus I collect, grieve for the past lost, and play my meager part in hopes that something will live on. May Bahala forgive us for our squandering of human resources and living treasures.