Wood inlay Sadaji Uchida 2
- ━ Mr. Uchida, when were you born?
- I was born in 1920; I’m 89 years old.
- ━ Were you born and raised in Odawara?
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I was born in Hadano but was adopted out to the Uchida family from Odawara.
My father was a fisherman but he had a disease from the waist down called Hemiplegia, and unfortunately passed away when I was 4 years old.
- ━ Why did you start doing wood inlaying?
- From the time of my father’s death I had to help my mother while going to elementary school. My mother told me I needed to have a skill. My uncle on my mother’s side (Aburada Sadao) was a wood inlay master, and when I graduated from Jinjyou Elementary School at the age of 14, I went to learn from him.
- ━ In what order did you learn about Inlaying?
- At first I mainly did babysitting, cleaning and heating up gulue. My uncle wouldn’t teach me anything more. In my free time I made the teeth on jigsaw blades, and slowly learnt from there.
- ━ While learning your craft were there times you found it hard or thought you would like to do something else?
- From the time I started making wood inlay’s I never found it a chore and never thought of doing anything else.
- ━ How long does it take to become an Inlay master?
- People usually say it takes about 10 years, but I don’t think so, it depends on a person’s personality. If a person has the drive they can master it in 1 or 2 years. However each work is different and the process changes for each piece, therefore the learning process is never finished.
