Furniture making skills (Kyoto hardwood furniture making skills)
Among traditional Chinese furniture, Ming-style furniture is the most famous. It not only has brilliant achievements in the history of ancient Chinese furniture and is regarded as a model of traditional furniture, but also occupies an important position in the history of world furniture. Ming-style furniture spread to Britain, France and other countries after Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, and had a great influence on European furniture in the 18th century. Ming-style furniture has made great innovations in materials, processing technology, design, structure and other aspects on the basis of inheriting the furniture making tradition of Song and Yuan Dynasties. Some furniture in the Qing Dynasty still followed the style and craftsmanship of Ming Dynasty furniture, also known as "Ming-style furniture". The existing Ming-style furniture in my country is mainly produced in Suzhou, Beijing and Guangzhou. It inherits the excellent tradition of Ming Dynasty furniture and forms three major systems: Su style, Beijing style and Cantonese style. In the production, hardwoods with hard texture and fine texture such as red sandalwood, rosewood, mahogany, ebony, ironwood and chicken wing wood are used as materials, making full use of their texture, material and luster, striving for simple and concise structure, generous shape, no complicated decoration, and suitable for various purposes and human needs. What is most commendable is that all Ming-style furniture adopts a frame structure with mortise and tenon joints. Various mortise and tenon joints are cleverly matched without nails or glue. The furniture is precise, firm and solid, which amazes experts from all over the world. Metal accessories of furniture made of white copper, red copper and gilt, such as corners, hinges, and feet, are also exquisitely shaped and soft in color, matching the furniture and complementing each other. There are many types of Ming-style furniture, mainly including six categories: sitting and lying, supporting furniture, bedding, storage, racks and screens. Chairs, stools, and piers belong to the sitting and lying category, incense tables, flower tables, tables, and desks belong to the supporting category, beds, couches, and bedding belong to the bedding category, boxes, boxes, cabinets, and cupboards belong to the storage category, basin racks, mirror racks, hangers, etc. belong to the rack category, and seat screens and folding screens belong to the screen category. Ming-style furniture is a treasure of the furniture industry in my country and even the world. It has research value in many aspects, such as the history of furniture development between China and foreign countries, the history of cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, the history of social life, and folklore. At present, due to the shortage of hardwood raw materials, the majority of practitioners are old, and the poor craftsmanship of young craftsmen, there are some problems in the production of Ming-style furniture. In addition, various fake and inferior mahogany furniture are rampant in the market, which also brings certain difficulties to the production of authentic Ming-style furniture. At present, it is urgent to quickly cultivate high-level successors to effectively inherit and reasonably develop this precious traditional handicraft. The production skills of Beijing-made hardwood furniture were gradually formed in the production of Ming and Qing court furniture. It originated in Beijing and has a history of three or four hundred years. It is known as the three major schools of Chinese hardwood furniture together with "Suzhou" (Suzhou) and "Guangzhou" (Guangzhou). Beijing-made hardwood furniture is adapted to the dry climate in the northern region. It pays attention to the display effect, pursues heavy shapes and huge shapes, thus forming a graceful, gorgeous and luxurious Beijing-made style. The craftsmanship of Beijing-made hardwood furniture reached its peak during the Kangxi and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty, and gradually spread to the people after the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the craftsmanship of Beijing-made hardwood furniture has been restored and developed to a certain extent due to the active rescue, protection and support policies adopted by the state. The craftsmanship of Beijing-made hardwood furniture combines practicality and artistry, and comprehensively uses a variety of production processes such as design, woodworking, carving, and waxing to combine precious hardwood materials with scientific and reasonable mortise and tenon structures, solemn and elegant shapes, and beautiful carvings to form a luxurious and elegant artistic style, achieving a perfect fusion of court art and folk art, and has high artistic and academic research value. With the development of the market economy, the production of Beijing-made hardwood furniture has become increasingly difficult, with a lack of senior technical talents and a sharp decline in the number of practitioners. If it is not inherited and protected as soon as possible, the traditional craftsmanship of Beijing-made hardwood furniture will face the risk of being lost.