New PHS product featuring traditional Ryukyuan culture

New PHS product featuring traditional Ryukyuan culture

At the Ryukyu Shimpo office, Koin Maeda (right) showed the Willcom Okinawa, Ie-Denwa, the lacquered fixed-line style PHS with Raden decoration.


March 23, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo

Willcom Okinawa, a PHS company in Naha, has produced an Okinawan traditional lacquered Ie-Denwa, a fixed-line style PHS, as one of their products. The receiver is designed using raden, a Japanese decorative technique, featuring a design of great green turban shells. Koin Maeda, a lacquer artist and a holder of the status of prefectural intangible cultural asset, helped to make the product.

Ie-Denwa is a PHS that has the same design of land-line phone. No installation is necessary, and it can be battery-powered so you can also carry around it outside.

The lacquering on the receiver and part of the PHS itself uses a design with the grape and squirrel motif of the raden style. According to Maeda, this is one of the representative designs for Ryukyuan lacquer-work. Maeda visited the Ryukyu Shimpo office and said, “We can use it not only as a telephone, but also as a craft item. By utilizing traditional techniques for this modern device, everyone can feel closer to traditional culture.”

The price is 130000 yen, including tax. They produce the product to order. For further details, call Willcom Okinawa at (0120) 546300.

(English translation by T&CT, Lima Tokumori and Mark Ealey)

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