工人：佐々木 功
系統：新型　　師匠：佐々木克己（父）
Craftsman: Isao Sasaki
Lineage: contemporary kokeshi doll
Master: Katsumi Sasaki (father)

佐々木功工人は昭和54年高校卒業と同時に父克己が独立して設けた工房に勤める職人から木地挽を学びました。続けて父克己から描彩を教わり、達磨づくりから始め、5年以上経てようやく名前を書き入れ出品できるようになったそうです。新型こけしだけでなく縁起ものや特注の創作こけしの制作依頼も断らずに請けています。

「赤梅」は佐々木功工人の師匠であり父の克己工人（白石市より産業功労者を受賞）から引き継ぎ継承して作り続けられている新型こけしのひとつです。独自のまなざしの表情に作者の優しさが感じられます。幅広のロクロ模様を丹念に頭と胴体に絵付して、これに１輪１輪手彫りした梅の花模様を添えています。とても日本情緒が感じられる一品です。

＞　引き継がれる修錬の技　＜　
　父の佐々木克己（2008年没）が白石に移り住んだのはもう70年以上も前のことです。はじめは映画館の撮影技師をしながらこけし制作を学びました。こけしブームが来たことから我妻吉助工人たちと共に本格的にこけし制作に打ち込むようになりました。そして伝統的なこけしを繰り返し描くうちに自由に自分のこけしを作りたいとの思いがつよくなり、昭和29年に独立して佐々木こけし工房を開設しました。白石市で発祥した新型こけしが最盛期を迎えた頃のことです。


After graduating from high school in 1979, Isao Sasaki learned wood turning from a craftsman who worked at a workshop that his father, Katsumi, had set up independently. He continued to learn painting and coloring from his father, Katsumi, and started out making daruma dolls, and after more than five years, he was finally able to write his name and exhibit them.
“Plum coat” is one of the contemporary kokeshi dolls that has been handed down from his father Katsumi Kokeshi (Awarded Person of Industrial Merit from Shiroishi City), who is a master of Sasaki Isao. You can feel the author's kindness in his unique facial expressions. He painstakingly painted a wide potter's wheel pattern on the head and body, and added a hand-carved plum blossom pattern to each wheel. it's a work that you can feel the Japanese atmosphere.

＞　Traditional skills handed down＜　
His father Katsumi Sasaki (died in 2008) moved to Shiroishi City more than 70 years ago. At first, he learned how to make kokeshi dolls while working as a cinematographer at a movie theater. With the arrival of the Kokeshi boom, he began to devote himself to Kokeshi production in earnest with Kichisuke Agatsuma and other craftsmen. As he continued to draw traditional kokeshi dolls, he developed a strong desire to create his own kokeshi dolls, and in 1954 he opened the Sasaki Kokeshi Studio. (Kobo). It was around the time when the new type of kokeshi dolls that originated in Shiroishi City were at their peak.