We talked with Mansuke Murayama, a researcher of the Asakura Museum of Sculpture.

Q. How and when was the Asakura Museum of Sculpture established?

Here is the studio of the Asakura Museum of Sculpture that was completed in 1935. This building is now called "Asakura Museum of Sculpture," but it was once Fumio Asakura's house and a sculpture school called "Asakura Choso Juku." Actually, there are many sculptures created by Asakura. All of these are bronze statues. The first step of creating these statues is to make clay models. At this point, their shapes are completed, but the clay models break easily. So you need to make plaster molds of them, and create positive plaster casts. Then, you make new molds based on the positive casts, and cast them into bronze. In this final step, you make casting molds, and pour liquid bronze into the molds. These bronze statues were created in this way. I briefly explained the process, but the actual process is very complicated consisting of about 150 steps, in which, for example, plaster workers and casting technicians work together to complete statues.

Fumio Asakura created clay models in this studio, and instructed students of Asakura Choso Juku. Here is the actual site where he worked and taught. This building has a reinforced concrete construction. If the concrete surface is exposed, this room looks like a chilly grey box. But, these walls are pale brown. This is floss silk. Although the detailed method is unknown, it seems that unraveled, dyed floss silk was applied to the walls in order to give warmth to the walls. Asakura himself designed the whole building giving detailed instructions, including the selection of materials. This building was elaborately built with utmost care. This studio is housed in such a building.