The Taichung City Government fears the art of zhuang fo (粧佛) is in danger of being lost and has named it one of the city’s traditional handicrafts, with plans to start classes and pass on the art to those willing to learn, Taichung Cultural Affairs Bureau director Wang Chih-cheng (王至誠) says.
According to the city government, across the whole municipality, only one man, 76-year-old Yeh Yung-chu (葉勇助), still practices the art, which involves the decoration of Buddhist statues, including carving, hand painting and lacquer.
The lacquerware statue business has been hard hit by modern innovations, Yeh said, adding that if he were to produce a statue by hand using traditional processes, it would take him about three months, whereas producers using glass or fiber materials poured into casts can finish three statues per day.
Photo: Su Meng-chuan, Taipei Times
The artisan first produces a clay cast of the statue, after which they start placing layers of cotton gauze on the cast and layering the gauze and cast with a coat of raw paint, Yeh said.
The entire cast, including the basic form, facial features, clothing folds and posture, must be done all at once, which increases the difficulty of producing lacquerware statues significantly, Yeh said.
The process usually takes about a day to complete, and the drying of the paint takes another day, Yeh said, adding that usually it takes between four and nine layers of gauze to give the cast a firm shape.
The job is arduous and time-consuming, but the reason most would-be apprentices shy away from the trade is that it requires handling raw paint, which, if spilled on the skin, can cause swelling and itching, Yeh said.
As the clay cast is only a base for the gauze and paint and is shattered afterward, it is customary to make the clay cast one size smaller than the finished product is intended to be, Yeh said.
However, Yeh said that often customers do not understand the intricacies of his work and mistakenly assume the clay cast to be the size of the final product, adding that he often has to add another layer of clay to the cast to appease such customers.
“Once they leave, however, I immediately removed the newly added layer,” Yeh said, adding with a laugh that although such clients often praise him after seeing the final product, they do not know the amount of work they put him through for nothing.
The origins of the art of lacquerware statues could extend back to between 265 and 420 AD, Wang said, but only Taichung, Yunlin County and Changhua County still have practitioners of zhuang fo.
Wang said the city government hoped that by recognizing the artforms as one of the city’s official traditional handicrafts, it could help Yeh spread and teach his art to others, Wang said.
Yeh said that although technological innovation has greatly reduced the willingness of people to learn the art of creating lacquerware statues by hand, he had never considered stopping because he felt the artform must not die with him and needed to be passed on.
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