ANALYSIS ON EMPLOYMENT OF MATERIALS IN JAPANESE AND VIETNAMESE TRADITIONAL DAILY PRODUCTS Ngo Thi Thu Trang 1) Hiroyuki AOKI 2) Mitsunori KUBO 3) Fumio TERAUCHI 4) 1) Graduate School of Science and Technology, Chiba University 2) 3) 4)Chiba University, Yayoi−cho 1−33, Inage−ku, Chiba 263−8522, Japan 概要：技術、歴史的発展、多様性の視点から、日本とベトナ ムの伝統的日用品の調査を行った。両国の木製品、漆器、陶 磁器、金属製品、竹材の製品、石器、紙食器類を対象とした。 また、日本とベトナムの工芸家が使用している材料の頻度を 把握した。先行文献及び製品のイメージ調査に基づき、日本 では 219 タイプ、ベトナムでは 193 タイプの日用品を選び、 「食べる、飲む、住む」といった行動によって大きく三つの グループに分けた。最後に、ベトナムと日本の伝統的な日用 品に使われている材料の組み合わせの特徴について考察した。 これにより、日本の日用品には材料の組み合わせに対するコ ントラストが高いのが特徴であるのに対して、ベトナムのも のでは調和と統一感が特徴となっていることが判明した。 Key words: Employment of Materials, Japan and Vietnam, Traditional Daily Products Introduction Since the last century, people have started talking about the preservation and restoration of traditional cultures and national identity. Not to mention numerous of the cultural national and international activities, in design field the tendencies of restoring and applying traditional values in contemporary designs has blossomed. However, these applications are much up to the view point of each individual designer or just a simple integration of traditional items’ detail elements into modern forms due to the fact that so far there is almost no specific description of the traditional values. For contributing a small attempt to this extensive issue, this research gives a proposal of more general and scientific approaching to identifying national characteristics embodied in tangible proofs. In particular here is the investigation on usage of materials in traditional daily products through comparative analysis between two countries: Japan and Vietnam; regarding the utility of material is one of the vital elements contributed to the final aesthetic of product. Material’s diversity and processing This part of research explored the diversity, historical development, techniques and applied range of products of Japanese and Vietnamese materials in traditional daily products. All of those issues in turn studied in each material such as wood ware, lacquer ware, ceramic ware, metal ware, bamboo ware, stone ware, paper ware, and others. The investigation showed that although the similarities of geographic location and cultural influence bring about quite the same utility of main materials in traditional products, differences were found in many aspects of employment, for example in techniques of controlling materials, in product groups where the mediums were applied, in the taste of finish of materials, and so on. Comparing Japanese and Vietnamese employment of materials in traditional daily products a. Comparing on the level of widely use: The aim of this task is to recognize the favorite and frequency level of using of materials by craftsmen in Japan and Vietnam. From literature references and product image research, 219 types of products of Japan, and 193 types of Vietnam are collected. All were divided into 3 big groups according to the using activity: eating group (including table ware and kitchen ware), drinking group (including tea and water ware, and wine ware), and living group (including living ware and toiletry ware). The result of statistic was shown in the figure below. 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% Wood Lacquer Ceramic Metal Bamboo Ivory Stone Glass Paper Textile Botanic Other Percentage of total products Japan Vietnam Figure1. Employment of materials in Japanese and Vietnamese traditional daily products A deeper view of employment of materials in traditional products was done to explore the difference in using mediums in the various groups of products according to using activities: eating ware, drinking ware and living ware. b. Comparing on manners of combination of materials: It is common that sometimes, in one product, there are utilities of two or more types of materials. In any case that aesthetic is considered, the selection of materials with diversity of visual characteristics shows a manner in designing objects. The aim of this part of the research is to explore the characteristics of combining of material in Vietnamese and Japanese traditional daily products. The following tables present the combination’s ability of all types of materials in Vietnamese and Japanese traditional daily products. Through table 1 and 2, there is one similar that, in both