In Tiantai, Zhejiang, dry-lacquer and ramie sculpture is practised through making, documentation and teaching.
汤春甫
Tang Chunfu
Tiantai, Zhejiang · born September 1952
Tang Chunfu is a national representative bearer of the Tiantai Mountain dry-lacquer and ramie craft. His official profile records that he began learning from the monk-artisan Shi Guanghong at Huading Temple at the age of eleven.
汤春甫为天台山干漆夹苎技艺国家级代表性传承人。官方档案记载,他11岁师从华顶寺艺僧释广弘。
The profile describes his work recording procedures, restoring workshop practice and training successors. These activities connect the making of sculpture with the transmission of practical knowledge.
Learning involves modelling, building the lacquer body and completing its surface. Documentation helps preserve the sequence; workshop practice develops the judgement needed at each stage.
A Tsinghua institutional report records the unveiling of Tang’s Hehe Erxian at a lacquer-art alliance exhibition. It describes jiazhu construction with vermilion, turquoise green and gold leaf.
The Tiantai heritage record describes a craft with 48 stages. Reports on training and workshop organisation show how modelling, lacquer work and surface finishing can be taught and shared among practitioners.