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Japanese student spends days polishing silver skills in workshop
Kaneko says she first came to Turkey on an organized tour that took her to İstanbul, İzmir and Cappadocia and that it was then that she became very interested in the Turks' lifestyle. She returned to Turkey on four more occasions, getting the chance to see many different areas of the country.
Kaneko, whose most recent visit to Turkey began when she arrived in Antalya to learn Turkish, explains: “I moved to Antalya to begin learning Turkish. In my free time from Turkish lessons, I decided to learn more about Turkish handicrafts. I studied ebru [paper marbling], copper work and ceramics. But it was silverwork -- with its many forms of jewelry and decorative features -- that really attracted my attention. And so I decided to learn some of the traditional handicrafts that have been done from Ottoman times until the present day.”
Kaneko began receiving training in silverwork a few days a week at an atelier and, as she tells it, she learned every detail possible about this traditional craft. “I simply examined everything as closely as I could to learn from it. For a whole month I never even touched any of the materials there. Then my teacher slowly began to show me how to do silverwork. And so I began with the easiest parts and worked my way forward,” she says.
Kaneko, who has been making her own Ottoman-style necklaces and rings for the past three months now, adds: “It really is very difficult work. But still, I am learning, little by little. This craft calls for much skill and detailed work. I was scared at first, but my teacher assured me I could do it.”
Kaneko also notes that some of the other people working at the silverwork atelier helped her. She recalls: “My Turkish teacher really encouraged me. He told me about the Turkish saying ‘Sanatı ustadan görmeyen öğrenemez' [You cannot learn an art without watching the expert], and told me it would be best to see and live this art in order to learn it. And so I decided that that was how I should do it.”
Kaneko adds that she intends to continue learning the art until she leaves Turkey to return to Japan. As for silver and gold work master Alper Kaçar, he says he is very pleased with the work done by his Japanese student. Kaçar notes that Kaneko actually knows more now about this craft than many of his apprentices, saying: “She is very curious and driven. She is a very good apprentice. She does more than she even needs to and watches me closely. She repeats things that I have done when I leave the counter. Sometimes she creates designs she had in her mind. She is always trying to learn something new.”
Another master crafter at the atelier, Tugay Sabuncu, talks about how well the people who work there get along with their Japanese guest, saying: “She asks us questions when she can't figure something out, and we explain. Sometimes she teaches us Japanese. She is very talented.”
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