Inspiration – Matsumoto Katsuya Woodturning

The other day I went to see some work by a woodturner, Matsumoto Katsuya, who makes really beautiful functional tableware like plates, bowls, etc. I’ve been following his work for a while now, but until now I had never had a chance to see any of his work first hand. From pictures his work has always looked flawless, so when I heard that Matsumoto-san would be in Tokyo selling some work, I thought it’d be a great opportunity to check things out and perhaps chat him up a bit about his process.

In woodturning one of the biggest challenges to overcome is clean cutting against the grain… in other words avoiding tearout. Cutting against the grain is inevitable, so sharpening and learning to use your tools to get the cleanest surface possible is a must, but that’s much easier said than done. Ultimately the step that follows cutting tools is sanding, but sanding a surface with torn grain takes a long time. You usually have to start with pretty course sandpaper and slowly work your way up to the finer grits. It’s dusty and tedious. Heavy sanding also makes it really hard to preserve fine edges and details, since sanding tends to soften everything as the paper rolls over edges. So the transition from cutting wood to finish sanding is critical. The better the surface you can leave off the tool, the less sanding you have to do, ultimately saving time and allowing you to preserve fine detail.

That’s where Matsumoto-san’s work is really inspiring. Overall his designs are simple but the details are incredibly clean and well done. His work incorporates a lot of small beads, coves and grooves, and all are crisp and sharp. Looking at several of his pieces I couldn’t see any evidence of torn grain or errant tool marks. And on top of that he told me he can produce 25 of these plates in a day! That blows my mind. If he’s working a 10 hr day, that’s less than 1/2 hr per plate.

It’s pretty clear looking at his work that he’s mastered his craft, and knows how to get a really clean surface with cutting tools eliminating the need to do a ton of sanding. It’s inspiring work and humbling. I think it’s also a testament to the level a person can reach if they devote themselves to a specific craft as is so common here in Japan. I’m much more of a generalist when it comes to woodworking, and my interest are broad from timberframing, furniture, carving, turning, kumiko, etc… I don’t think I’m completely alone in that regard and I think quite a few people in the West tend to be jack-of-all trade types. But things are a bit different here, at least amongst a certain group of old school shokunin like Matsumoto-san.

At the end of our chat we talked about the possibility of a shop visit, so I’m crossing my fingers that I can make the journey sometime in the near future and see more of his process in person. In the meantime you can see some photos below of a small plate I ended up buying.

Thanks for reading.

-Jon