Traditional Stone Carving Headstone Craft in Kyoto's Nishijin Area Faces Generational Inheritance Challenges
Kyoto News — In March 2025, the long-established stone carving workshop "Sande Stone Materials" located in Kyoto's Nishijin district celebrated its 120th anniversary. However, behind this celebration, the century-old business faces a severe succession crisis — the only son of the seventh-generation successor, Yuji Sande, has clearly expressed no intention to inherit the family trade.
The Nishijin area is world-renowned for its high-end textiles, but few know that it also harbors one of Japan's most exquisite traditional stone carving techniques. From the late 19th to early 20th century, following the introduction of Western funeral culture after the Meiji Restoration, stone carvers in Nishijin began combining European monument carving techniques with traditional Japanese stone craftsmanship, gradually forming a distinctive "Nishijin stone carving" style characterized by smooth lines and clear layering, especially skilled at expressing thread-like textures on granite surfaces.
"My great-grandfather learned Western-style chiseling techniques while assisting a British craftsman in a church," said 68-year-old Yuji Sande, sitting on a wooden bench in the workshop, his cloudy eyes gazing at old photos hanging on the wall. "At that time, Western-style headstones became popular among Kyoto's upper class. My grandfather seized this opportunity to blend Eastern and Western elements."
According to statistics from the Japan Stone Industry Association, the number of artisans engaged in traditional headstone carving nationwide has dropped from about 8,000 in 1990 to fewer than 3,000 today, with an average age over 58. This trend is especially evident in Kyoto — at its peak, Nishijin had more than 20 stone carving workshops, but now only three remain taking orders.
Rising costs are considered one of the main reasons driving away younger generations. Sande revealed that hand-carving a medium-sized headstone traditionally takes two to three months, with material and labor costs totaling about 1.5 million yen (approximately 70,000 RMB), but in a fiercely competitive market, the workshop's profit margin has been squeezed to less than 15%. "Young people nowadays feel that spending so much time on one product is less profitable than working on a factory assembly line," he said.
On the other hand, changes in Japan's social structure are fundamentally altering the demand pattern for headstones. Statistics show that single-person households in Japan exceed 35%, and when elderly people living alone pass away, there are often no relatives to handle traditional funerals; meanwhile, the number of people choosing "natural burials" such as tree burials or sea burials continues to rise. Sande admitted that the orders he received last year decreased by nearly 40% compared to five years ago.
To save this traditional craft, the Kyoto City Cultural Affairs Bureau announced in March this year that the "Nishijin stone carving technique" would be included in the city's intangible cultural heritage protection list, providing a total of 6 million yen in special subsidies to establish free training courses for young people. Additionally, the workshop cooperates with Kyoto Seika University's Craft Department to offer a special lecture series titled "Stone Art and Modern Funeral Design," attempting to academically redefine the aesthetic value of carved headstones.
"Tradition is not unchangeable," Sande said, running his hand over an unfinished granite headstone surface. "My grandfather's generation introduced Western techniques, my father's generation integrated modern machinery into the production process. Now it's time for the younger generation to think about how to proceed for the next 120 years." He paused and added, "But my own son doesn't think that way."
Three months ago, Yuji Sande officially accepted his last apprentice — a 26-year-old woman from the Sculpture Department of Hyogo Prefectural University. She said she was attracted by a chisel video posted by the Sande workshop on Instagram and decided to learn here. "Stone doesn't lie," she explained her choice. "Every chisel strike is real. I can't find this feeling in digital sculpture."
Outside on the streets of Kyoto, tourists are raising cameras to photograph historic buildings. Inside this old workshop filled with stone dust, the young apprentice grips a steel chisel, aiming at an uncarved bluestone. Beside her, a master craftsman in his sixties patiently demonstrates the angle of holding the chisel. The 120 years of craftsmanship quietly await the next century, one chisel strike at a time.
(End)
Reporter: Misaki Sato, reporting from Kyoto