About Tatara
Murage
The person who oversees the technical (skilled) side of tatara operations is called the murage. Over successive days and nights, the murage keeps an eye on the tatara's blaze and conditions inside the furnace from a
hole called the hodo-ana situated on the lower part of one of the sides of
the tatara. At the same time, the murage will also be giving precise directions
regarding the introduction of more iron sand and charcoal, as well as the speed
at which the bellows are walked on. His goal is to keep furnace conditions
stable.
“My father who himself was a murage taught me that the flames burn with the color
of the rising sun during the komori phase on the first day,” explained Mr. Horie,
a now-deceased former murage. “On the second [middle] day, they burn with the
color of the mid-day sun, and during the kudari phase on the last day it is the
color of the sun sinking behind the mountains to the west.”
Because they look directly at the insides of an extremely hot furnace for many
years, the eyes of a murage weaken quickly due to the intense light, and they
eventually lose their vision entirely. A murage makes iron through a truly heroic
struggle with fire.
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| Kihara-murage working at the tatara. |
Mr. Kihara has been recognized by the Minister of Education as a maintainer of the “tatara-buki” tama-hagane manufacturing technique, a Traditional Craft Designated for Preservation. |
