On display at the Tokyo Station Gallery are “Whole-Body Listening (detail)” (right, 2002, housed by Tsuruga Resort Co.) and other wood carvings of animals, as well as Ainu ancestors. (Takumi Ono) ...

Toru Kaizawa, 61, who runs a traditional Ainu wood carving workshop in Nibutani, Hokkaido, still remembers one night from his long-ago childhood. He and his younger brother were sitting before a ...

For three years from 2011, he studied the Ainu language and learned traditional craft skills. He now demonstrates wood carvings and shares his knowhow in a hands-on program. Yamamichi is pleased ...