History
In 1639, the Matsudaira clan became rulers of the Kanō Domain and brought with them umbrella artisans from their former home in the Akashi Domain (modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture). By 1756, the umbrellas became more fully developed and the modern shapes and designs first appeared.
During the end of the Edo period, approximately 520,000 umbrellas were shipped north to Edo each year. By the beginning of the Meiji period, production increased to 12 million umbrellas each year and international sales first began on a widescale. Production continued to increase until its peak during the Shōwa period, which 15 million umbrellas being produced each year, but modern production has dropped to just tens of thousands of umbrellas.
Read more about this topic: Gifu Umbrellas
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“For a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“I am not a literary man.... I am a man of science, and I am interested in that branch of Anthropology which deals with the history of human speech.”
—J.A.H. (James Augustus Henry)
“The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–c. 120)