Let's Hang Out When the Black Plague is Over ch7: Handicrafts

The year 1353,
in the Franken District of the Holy Roman Empire.

Schönwald Village, a small estate governed by a knight.
It looks like Rachel is fishing through her personal belongings.

What lies within that chest?

Warm woolen hose (trouser legs).

Her favorite sewing set.

Oh?

The more time it takes,

the more treasured the memory becomes.

Wah~
This brings back memories~!!

It's the missus' homemade wooden dolls!
...She took the time to paint them even though she was busy... It made me happy~
*Missus = Wife at her apprenticeship (live-in job).

Hmm~♪
Very cute<3

Master~

Me~

And Missus!

What shall I play with Rachel today~?

Rachel?
Pardon the intru-

MISSUS~!!
!!?

The cabinetworker?

He's good at affixing joints and stuff to wood with glue.
Glue = Adhesive made my melting down the bones and horns or animals.
...If I don't fix the head back on soon, the Missus' neck will hurt due to the law of similarity.
The law of similarity (Sympathetic magic).
In those times, there were rumors that things that look alike would be affected in the same way, such as damage to dolls.

Don't worry, Rachel.
That's just superstition!
You sound more like a priest than a magician, Ema...
*According to Christian teachings, magic other than Christian magic and natural magic (a form of science during those times) were considered superstitious.

Excuse me~
Herr Shreiner~

Oh!
It's Frau Becker and Frau Müller! Welcome!
The neighbor they ate yakiniku with, Franz Schreiner.　（Franz the cabinetworker.)
Hallo!

Wah Amazing!
You're making a bench!?

Oh?
Are you interested?
I see, I see!

I'm working on the joints right now.
I use wedges to fit the joints tightly.

Seat
Legs
Wedges

Affix the legs.
Joints are still loose.

Tighten them up with a wedge!
Heh~!

Then we cut off the part of the leg joints sticking out from the seat

and smooth it out with a chisel.

Tada!
One sturdy bench~!!
That's our Papa!!

Wow, amazing!!
Artisans are so cool!!
So, Frau Becker.
What brings you here today?

Oh right.
The head came off of this doll of the missus from my workplace back home...
Ah~ It'd be bad if the law of similarity kicked in, huh...
Sticking it on with glue should do the trick.

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Hey, Frau.
Good you fetch the glue?

Didn't you use up all the glue yesterday, Herr?
Eh!?
*Back in the day, it was popular for married couples to call each other "Frau (wife)" and "Herr (husband)" in public areas.

I-I'm sorry, Frau Becker.
Looks like I can't help you today...
Eeh~!?

Uwah!
Look, Rachel!
What now?

She's making thread out of cotton!!

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What's this, Frau Müller?
You want to see me spin thread?
Yeah, I do!!

Ema!
The Missus is in trouble!!
?

I told you, that's superstition!
Don't worry!
I can fix that doll for you later!
~

Well then, take a seat on my newly finished bench!
Danke schun!
How splendid that a future person is taking interest in our work!

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Okay!
Here's the fiber I use to make thread!
There's wool and linen,
but today, I'll be using wool.

Behold.
This is a combing tool!

I apply some oil, put on the fiber,
get another combing tool and...
Comb comb!
Comb through it.

I repeat this 4-5 times.
I'm excited to see it turn into thread~
I get it now!

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Once it's looking good, I pull out a little bit of the fiber.

Now watch.
I spin the spool~

then I pull

and spin again~

Tada~
You have a spool of thread~!

Spool of thread!

Yay~♪

Next, we hook some of the fiber onto a spindel...

add a little spin...

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and twist the fiber
to spin the thread.

How mysterious! How does it become thread!?
Try touching it for yourself.

Handmade thread...
Wah... I feel so touched...
...
You're a strange one...

You have all those amazing developments and magic in the future,
yet you're awed by this old-fashioned commonplace craft...

What are you saying, Rachel!?
...?

Just like this thread, our future world was born from the culture that you weaved!
I love how warm handmade stuff feels!
I believe everything carries a soul containing the passion and warmth of the person who made it.

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...
Carries a soul...

?

Sorry, Rachel!

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I passed off your concern about the Missus as superstition...
I don't want to believe in curses...
but I'm sure that doll is something precious that carries the Missus' heart.

But don't worry!
Fixing toys and handicrafts are my thing!
Ema...

Thank you~ Ema~!!
I really do love you, Ema~!!

Th-There there, alright already!

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Hold on a moment~
?

Look at my toybox~!!
Wah~ So cool~

Is this made of wool?
Yep. Woolen felt!
These are iron-on beads.
Minipla!

And finally...

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Tada~!
A felt doll of myself that my little sis made.
It's "THE Onee-chan"!!

Cute, right?
No matter how much technology progresses,
the fun of making things will never die!
Your little sister must really love you, Ema~

H-Hey, Ema.
What about fixing my doll?
Oh!
Right!

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Here you go!
Eh... Wool?

Rachel.

Let the joy of making things make your worries disappear!
While I fix the Missus doll, you should try making a meisterstück out of woolen felt too, Rachel!
*Meisterstück (masterpiece) = A work that a handicraft artisan would present in an exam to earn approval from their masters back in the day.

...
Making things to make my worries disappear...

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...You're right...!

Let's both do our best!

First, try making some roggenbrot!
You can use the brown fabric!
Rye bread
This?

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Roll it out while poking it.

Once it becomes a cylinder, poke at the bottom horizontally to compress it.

Poke the areas with the most resistance and fold in the corners.
Cute~
It's starting to look like roggenbrot!

Now poke some finely torn up white fabric onto the surface...
This is actually
pretty fun!
Blur the boundary line and...

The woolen felt roggenbrot is complete~!!
It looks tasty~!!
This would pass the master's exam no problem~!!

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Okay~
Time to make something else~!
I look forward to it~

Now then, I'd better get to fixing Missus!
Guess I'll put in some brass wire to give it extra strength.

Diagram
Brass wire
Open a hole with a drill

Be sure to fix it up nicely.

Roger!
First, I'll open up a hole in the neck with a 3mm drill.
Eh!?

And one of equal size on the opposite end.
Wait!!

Hey, Ema!!
Why are you breaking it even further!?
You've got it all wrong!!
This is to make it stronger!!

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Put in some glue...
Don't bully the Missus!

insert the brass wire,

add some wood glue on the wood's surface,

connect the head and body
and wait for the glue to harden.

Breaks are important too!

It's ready!
One fully repaired Missus doll!

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M-Missus~!!
It shouldn't break anymore, so you can relax!

Thank you, Ema!
Now Missus will be saved!
Ahaha.
You really love that Missus, huh!

...

You see...
when the Missus gave me this doll, she told me
that this world has a law of similarity...
It's a mysterious law which gives shape to feelings and forms connections.

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You, me and the Master.
Take good care of these three dolls.

As long as these dolls are never separated,
we'll always be together...

Our family of three,
together forever...

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The Missus
is my other mother!

We may be apart right now,
but our hearts are always together.

Oh right, Ema. I made something
with the cotton felt~
Wanna see?
Oh!
Show me, show me~

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Tada~
It's an Ema doll~!!
W-Woah~!!
That's not the quality I expected from a beginner...!!

Here. A present for you!
Thank you for always getting along with me!
Eh...?
Y-You sure?

Wah...
This reminds me... of when my little sis made her doll for me...

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...Even if we're apart right now,
our hearts are always together.

Thank you, Rachel...!

...
...

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...Hey.
You should have this, Rachel.

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Why?
I made it for you.
It's the law of similarity...!
I want to join your family...

Pfft

Eh~?
I thought it was superstition?
H-Hey!!
Don't be mean~!!

Souls dwell within manmade things!
Just like how fiber turned into felt,
Rachel and Ema's friendship became stronger and stronger.

Let's treasure both things and people.

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Let's Hang Out When the Black Plague is Over! "Middle Age European Handicrafts" and "Souls That Dwell Within Things"

What comes to mind when you think about handicrafts in Middle Age Europe? This time, I'd like introduce woodwork and threadspinning, which were featured in this chapter. Even now, we adore the warmth that comes from handmade things! During the winter in Middle Age Germany, villagers would gather in rooms with stoves and work hard with threadspinning and woodwork while sharing riddles. Being able to work while feeling the exchange between people feels fulfilling, huh? Well then, let's start by explaining handicrafts.

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Making a stool in the middle ages
First, let's start with woodwork. The word "stool" might not be all that familiar to us Japanese folk. These are chairs without footrests or backs intended to be used by one person, and was the most common type of chair in Western Europe at the time. Chairs with backs were still reserved for nobility and the rich back then. Well then, let's head to the middle age forest so we can make a stool!

German forests
When you think of German forests, you probably think of spruce trees, right?

German Spruce
Pine cone

Mongolian Oak

Actually, most of the present day German spruce forests were planted. Connifer trees forests make up 60% of today's German forests and are what we imagine when we think of German forests. However, middle age Germany was a completely different story. Back then, deciduous broadleafed trees such as Mongolian oaks and beech trees made up 75% of Germany's forests, resulting a fairytale-like middle age European world.

The village's woods were ruled by its feudal lord in accordance with the Van Forst (Forest Stewardship). In order to gather lumber, we should get permission from Lord Erwin. The woods are jointly owned by the lord for hunting and by the villagers for their daily lives, so they shared the lumber too.
I want to make some furniture!
Very well!

There are two types of trees; tall ones that are grown from seeds and short ones grown from stumps to be used as building materials. For the purposes of woodwork, we'll be getting our supplies from this short tree.

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Wood production

So what is used during wood production? On top of familiar tools such as saws, chisels, augers (drills), which were also used in place of pencils, hammers and compasses, there were also hydraulic saws and pole lathes that made use of the wood's elasticity.

Pole lathe
Chisel
Saw
Auger (drill)
Hammer

Cabinetwork without iron tools
I love watching cabinetwork videos on social media. The way the joints between wood and wood mesh together so neatly feels great! This cabinetworkmanship is often introduced as a traditional Japanese craft. As a Japanese person, I am proud of that, but of course, Europe has been using this technique since long ago too!
Since iron was a precious resource at the time, wooden joints and glue (adhesive made by melting down animal bones and horns) were used to join things together. In chapter 62 of the 14th century German play "Till Eugenspiegel's Merry Pranks", there's a scene where the protagonist Till uses glue to combine wooden pegs together, which gives us an idea of the material lifestyle at the time.
I'm gonna prank them good...

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Putting together a stool
Most woodwork from back then at since decayed, so it's difficult to tell what materials they used. Therefore, as an example of something that was made without iron nails, we'll show how to build one using wedges. By using wedges, we can make sure the joints are fit tightly and securely.

0
Items
Wedges - Legs - Seat

1
Attach the legs.
The joints are still loose.

2
Secure with a wedge!

3

4
Smooth out the remainder.

5
Complete!

Tada! It's revised from the original, but we've made a splendid stool! Through this method of using wisdom and ingenuity as opposed to iron nails, the people back then made all sorts of essential furniture. Exquisite industrial goods are nice too, but I'll always have a fondness for the warmth that comes from handmade things! And that was "Making a stool in the middle ages"!

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Spinning thread
Now that the stool's finished, let's take a look at threadspinning! Between looking after livestock and children, cooking and cleaning, making cheese and tending the garden, the women in the middle ages did a lot of work. With a spool of thread always under their left armpit, they would use any spare time they had from their work to spin thread. This is a threadspinning that became part of the daily scenery in the middle ages. Let's focus on how these women spun thread!

Before we make the thread, we need to choose our fiber! Women in the middle ages would often spin thread from linen or wool. Cotton and silk were luxury items.

Wool
Linen

After choosing the fiber, next comes combing through it to remove the trash and neatly gather the fiber. The combing tools would use teeth made from iron, bone or wood. The use of iron teeth apparently spread from Flanders, France in the 13th century. We showed how wool was combed in the chapter, but linen was slapped on and combed through as shown in the graphic on the right. Through this work, we get some nice and tidy fiber.

Once the fiber is tidied, it's time to wreathe it onto the spool! Please wind it up as shown below!

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Once the spool is ready, attach the fiber to the spindel, and then spin it like a spinning top.

And just like magic, the fiber twists to become the thread we're familiar with. Of course, thread was made by machines too, but a lot of thread in the middle ages was made my women in their spare time or gathering together. The fairytale-like outfits that we all look forward to are the result of the effort women in the middle ages put in!

And that's threadspinning in the middle ages. The cloth made from this was not only used for outfits, but also things like tapestries. These wall-hung rugs, considered a luxury item, were hung on the walls of castles and were effective in protecting against drafts and keeping things warm. There are pages worth of other things I want to right about, but I'll keep this brief. Now that we're done with making things, let's go over the supernatural customs that were brought up in this chapter.

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Souls That Dwell Within Things

Now then, moving away from handicrafts, let's talk about the tales of souls, spirits and personalities that resided in objects the people of the past used. This chapter revolved around the tale of "the law of similarity" (in which similar things are affected in the same way) and how souls reside inside handmade things, but let's talk about the old German concept of things have personalities.

Curiously enough, the original theories behind magical culture tended to be similar across the world, before taking on regional characteristics as their own culture. The "sympathetic magic" that includes "the law of similarity" is one of these. Now then, what do you think of when you think of something residing within objects? We Japanese have an idea that we're very familiar with. When it comes to souls residing in objects that are used with care, we have the artifact spirits from Japan's Shinto faith.

This familiar idea also spontaneously spawned in other regions with almost identical natures. The Māori tribe of New Zealand had a custom of gifting spiritual possessions (taonga) with spirits (hau) residing within them, with the partner needing to give an equivalent gift in return to return the spirit.

German people also had a similar gifting custom. It's a little complicated, but basically, as objects are said to have life and personality residing within them, when something is given, something of equal value must be offered in return. This gifting custom created created a unique world view from the mid-to-late middle ages.

With the beginning of the unfamiliar monetary economy, people felt guilt and disgust over the cold exchange of money, which had no supernatural properties. For those of you who don't really get it, imagine you just moved house and your neighbor gives you money as a housewarming gift. That feeling of buying and selling is always with you. German traders had to seek profit to compete in this economy, so the guilt of accumulating wealth and the gap between the norm and reality really weighed down on their souls.

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The souls residing within things grow cold, they become unable to feel them, their wealth accumulates, and they're left with nowhere to go. So what saved these traders' mental health? Contributions to the church and city authorities, or almsgiving. In Nuremburg, contributions would go towards various social welfare projects including the Holy Spirit Hospital, foster homes, scholarship systems and the Zwölfbrüderhaus (old people's home), as well as other monetary programs to help those who couldn't work due to depression. (In these cases, a third party would mediate to keep the contributor's lifestyle a secret so their pride wouldn't be damaged.) Other forms of almsgiving include giving bread and drink to poor people and opening up the public bathhouses.

Zwölfbrüderhaus
Herr Schneider, dinner is ready!
Thank you for everything.

One form of these contributions that still exists to this day are cathedrals (bishop's church or town church).
What do you all think of when you see a cathedral? Simply that it has a beautiful exterior? At the start of this chapter, Ema could easily grasp Rachel's broken doll as an object, but couldn't sympaphise with Rachel's feelings about Missus. But dolls can take on very different forms depending on the souls dwelling inside within them. If you look at the cathedral after learning about souls residing within objects, maybe you're able to see a more abstract concept of consideration towards others and connections between people beyond what your senses tell you?

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And that covers middle age European handicrafts and souls that dwell inside things. Making things sure is fun, huh! Through full-scale projects like DIY to simple things like plastic models and even the recent crafting video games, we can enjoy making things! Have you ever thought about buying something new to replace what's old, only to change your mind and fix it, becoming so attached that you wanted to treasure it forever? I'm sure a part of your soul resides within that object.

When it comes to convenient products brought about by the science and infrastructure that has existed since I was born, I don't feel the same soul I feel from things that exist naturally. However, you can make just about anything with handicrafts, so try making something yourself once in a while, even if it sounds illogical since you can just buy the finished product. Do that, and you might be able to see the soul dwelling within. When you're surrounded paved roads that are easier to walk on, safe water that we can get by turning on a tap, and smartphones that connect everyone, doesn't the world seem like a happier place when you can feel the souls of the people behind them? When buying something, why not try saying "thank you" to the cashier? Those two magical words will put a part of your soul and personality into the notes and coins in your hand. If we can reclaim the spiritual that had been fostered and lost throughout history, you, the people around you and society as a whole can conquer anymore problem and make the world more ideal.