Ongakuka Maru -1720 "It Takes A Village" Diorama

[refugee]

This diorama was built around a merchant ship kit from Japan, the "Higaki Kaisan."* In addition, the village structure shown (tea house) was also purchased from the same company. However, all the figures were sourced from the U.K., including miniature rice bales. The figures had to be painted - they are nicely designed metal castings, not 3D-printed. The painting required me to do some research on fabric colors available in Japan in the 18th-C.
The merchant ship is anchored close to shore, allowing the sailors to offload provisions for the village. In this era, Japan was divided into fiefs with ruling overlords known as the shogunate. The Lords would be responsible for their constituents and their well-being. A wonderful fact I learned while building this diorama was that rice from the island furthest in the Japanese archipelago would be shipped north to the islands that couldn't grow rice - however, the northernmost island, Hokkaido, was rich with abundant seafood that they would share with Southernmost citizens including a critical fish by-product: fertilizer great for southern island rice fields.
The shoreline was crafted with sculpted plaster set on an XPS foam base (Pink Panther insulation foam basically), this in-turn mounted to a plywood base. Water was crafted from a combination of a poured acrylic and various tinted add-on acrylics. Painting was all done with acrylics, including water highlights and a gloss acrylic finishing coat to achieve the "wet" appearance.

In one photo you'll see a frame with postage stamps. This series of stamps are commemorative ones documenting the various ships of the Edo period era (Tokyo shogunate was dominant).

I loved doing this build, despite some resin pouring challenges I had to overcome. The landscaping elements are from a favorite source familiar to model train layout hobbyists, Woodland Scenics.

This diorama won a People's Choice, First Place prize for "General Maritime " in a 2022 Northeast Conference exhibition.
* BTW: Ongakuka Maru" means "Musician. Ship." I hope some will crack a smile with my humor...

Any questions, happy to answer!

 

[Ignatius27]

Refugee - This is an incredible diorama. Thank you for sharing. Your workmanship is top notch!

I have a new interest in the classic age of Japanese sailing ships and I recently purchased the Higaki Kaisen model kit from Woody Joe. I also have on my build list the Sant Juan Bautista Japanese tall ship and the Nippon Maru training ship. Also saving up to buy one of the large Atake Bune model Japanese battleships kits from WJ.

I hope you share more about your journeys with classic Japanese sailing ships with our members at SoS...there is definitely a place for more ships from Japan, China, Korea and other Asian countries here at SoS.

 

[refugee]

Refugee - This is an incredible diorama. Thank you for sharing. Your workmanship is top notch!

I have a new interest in the classic age of Japanese sailing ships and I recently purchased the Higaki Kaisen model kit from Woody Joe. I also have on my build list the Sant Juan Bautista Japanese tall ship and the Nippon Maru training ship. Also saving up to buy one of the large Atake Bune model Japanese battleships kits from WJ.

I hope you share more about your journeys with classic Japanese sailing ships with our members at SoS...there is definitely a place for more ships from Japan, China, Korea and other Asian countries here at SoS.

Thank you kindly, Ignatius27. The Woody Joe kits are excellent. They do a decent job with instructions and it helped me to know some Japanese. The instructions are heavily illustrated which helped immensely since some of the construction details of the hull are demanding. Other than the "Tea House" kit shown in my diorama I haven't built other WoodyJoe kits ( but they have tempted me!). The site for WoodyJoe purchasing is called "zootoyz" I recall. You should be able to Google this and get to their website. Good Luck. I look forward to seeing your Higaki or the Atake Bune. I've attached a work-in-process photo for this diorama.

 

[Dematosdg]

Incredible!!!! Well deserved the award !! I have the same model waiting in the box . Was it difficult to built?

I will save this link, just in case I have questions in the future.

Thank you for posting this fantastic diorama!!!

Cheers

 

[refugee]

Incredible!!!! Well deserved the price !! I have the same model waiting in the box . Was it difficult to built?

I will save this link, just in case I have questions in the future.

Thank you for posting this fantastic diorama!!!

Cheers

Hello Daniel. You are quite welcome and Thank You for your kind words.
I see you've built many "international" models. I have similar interests, eclectic! Some aspects of the Higaki hull build were completely foreign to my knowledge of building a ship model's hull, so this was challenging- but solvable with patience as well as a couple jigs that helped to align parts that could easily slip out-of-place. A wonderful benefit of the WoodyJoe builds is the pleasing aroma of the Hinoki Cypress: lovely! There is nothing in the kit about rigging and when I do ship dioramas I make sails for them. I found a good amount of photo detail online to help me figure out the sail and rigging configurations. I also sent queries to a Tokyo ship modeling club (the "Rope") and they were, ironically, not aware of details...so my guesswork was as good as my Japanese colleagues!
Cheers,
Ron

 

[Dematosdg]

Thank you for those images. I will save them. I already saved this thread as a pdf.... just in case "Gosh forgive us to happen here the same as MSW".

I replace my word "price" for "award" (better English).

Thank you !!!!