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Mamoru Nakagawa

中川衛).jpgBiography
Born in Kanazawa, Mamoru Nakagawa studied industrial design at the Kanazawa College of Arts. Three years after graduating, however, his encounter with Kaga inlay at an art museum represented a watershed in his life. He apprenticed for 5 years under the Kaga inlay master Kaishu Takahashi, who passed his expertise on to him. Nakagawa is a distinguished successor to the generations of Kanazawa craftsmen who have kept alive "Kaga Zogan," the highly refined metal working tradition of the region since their heyday in the Edo period. He specializes in a sophisticated form of hirazogan (flat inlay) in which different metals and alloys are inlaid into each other to build up multi-colored decorative patterns. His commitment to excellence in both his design and his mastery of this complicated technique earned him the honor of being designated a "living national treasure" in 2004.