Wood carving (red sandalwood carving)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: wood carving (red sandalwood carving)

Applicant: Shanghai

Item No.: 834

Project No.: Ⅶ - 58

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Shanghai

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Shanghai

Protection unit: Shanghai China red sandalwood Culture Research Institute

Introduction to wood carving (red sandalwood carving)

Applicant: Shanghai

Shanghai style red sandalwood carving technology is a kind of traditional Chinese mahogany carving art. Since modern times, the Shanghai style red sandalwood carving artists have skillfully integrated the Western sculpture techniques into the traditional Chinese red sandalwood carving process, so that the Shanghai style red sandalwood carving works have distinctive regional characteristics.

Shanghai style red sandalwood carving technology has a long history. It is said that it originated in the Ming Dynasty. The works of Tu Shiyu, the original founder, were known as "the wonderful skills of the Ming Dynasty". Tu Wenqing, the successor of Tu Wenqing, was appreciated by the "zaoban office" of the Qing palace, and his "Su style" red sandalwood carving technology has a high attainments. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Tu Jingshu set up a mahogany workshop in the old city of Shanghai. He was good at small pieces, especially red sandalwood carving. His son Tu Hanmin studied red sandalwood carving with his father when he was young. Later, he went to the United States to study. He was a professor at Harvard University and was proficient in Western sculpture. His works are a typical example of the integration of Shanghai style red sandalwood carving and Western sculpture. Today, Tu's descendants inherited the "red sandalwood gene" from their ancestors. After studying abroad and returning home, they settled in Shanghai and devoted themselves to the creation of red sandalwood carving, especially in the production of large red sandalwood carving works.

Shanghai style red sandalwood carving has reformed the traditional cutting tools to make them suitable for hard red sandalwood materials, which not only improves the work efficiency, but also achieves the special purpose of high standard technology. Shanghai style red sandalwood carving works have a wide range of subjects, exquisite skills, beautiful knife technique, and enjoy a high reputation at home and abroad.