Wagata Bon

The tray, called Wagata-bon or Tasuke-bon for its distinct style, is typically made of chestnut wood that was abundant around Wagatani, Ishikawa, Japan. Wagatani village was flooded under a dam in 1965 and the tradition of the tray making became lost. Its rim and bottom are carved out of a single piece of fresh, un-dried wood and there are vertical chisel marks that feature on the tray.

This style of tray appears to have been made by several woodworkers in the village and came in various sizes that depended on what scrap materials were available for use at the time. Very few of the original trays have been found outside the vicinity of Wagatani, so this suggests that they may have been locally bartered for food and daily necessities by the woodworkers.

Shinichi Moriguchi has been in the heart of reviving this once lost tray making. He has been making the tray and teaching Wagata-bon making to pass the tradition to young maker in Japan.

Hiroshi has learnt this skill in 2017 in Japan under Shinichi Moriguchi. Hiroshi is aiming to revive this style of tray making in Australia, to connect with chestnut project in Sassafras Nuts farm, in his Japanese way.