In a workshop in Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture, stonemason Takaaki Saida sets a chisel against stone and works it with a steady rhythm, changing his angle and force to match the stone in front of him. Saida, 48, runs Saida Sekizai, a stonemasonry shop founded in 1902 that now spans five generations.
The shop produces stone lanterns, water vessels used for rinsing hands, and gravestones. It has also contributed to temple and shrine projects, including lanterns and torii gates. Saida’s work history includes a pagoda at Jakuan Temple in Kyoto and restoration of floor stones at Byodo-in Temple in Uji, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Saida did not plan on the trade when he was younger. He took a different job after junior high school, then joined the family business around age 20. He trained alongside his father, Minoru, the previous owner, and spent years catching up to a skill level he later described as far beyond his own. Before Minoru died in 2011, the two completed a major project together, and Saida recalled his father telling him, “You’re better than I, so I’ll leave it to you.”
One of Saida’s specialties is finishing stone so it reads as aged, drawing on how real stone surfaces erode and take on moss and mold over centuries. At the same time, he says demand for stone as a material has dropped sharply in Japan, putting pressure on traditional shops to find new paths.
Saida’s answer has been outreach and market development. He has spoken in Italy at Japanese restaurants about stone’s appeal, demonstrated production processes at Japanese gardens in the United States, and taught about stone lanterns at a university in Rome, including collaborating on product development. He also hosts stone craft classes for visitors at his workshop, with about 100 participants last year.
For mason contractors and restoration crews, the business lesson is clear: skill transfer and sales channels have to move together. Saida is training a successor, his 24-year-old son, Kaito, while also building demand through demonstrations, education partnerships, and new items such as glass lampshades that use a stonelike surface texture.
Read the full, original article from The Korea Herald here.