Photo: Douglas Perkins / CC BY 4.0The brush capital that supplies makeup houses worldwide — a Kumano fude is craft you use daily. The Hondori specialty shops gift-wrap for flights.
A farming town that supplies the world's make-up bags
Kumano makes about 80 percent of Japan's brushes, a trade that began when farmers took up brush-making in the agricultural off-season in the 1830s. The same workshops now supply the world's makeup brushes. The Japanese women's football team was given Kumano brushes after the 2011 World Cup.
Twenty minutes from Hiroshima, a town of 24,000 makes about 80% of Japan's brushes — and the make-up brushes in luxury counters from Paris to New York are very often made here, by hand, by people whose grandparents made writing brushes for schoolchildren.
Travelling to Nara and Osaka and returning with stock
Craftsmen brought in to teach the valley
Every child needs a calligraphy brush; Kumano already makes them
The same untrimmed-tip technique, applied to make-up
You do not need to travel to Kumano — Hondori's specialists and the department stores carry the good ones, and they pack flat.
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
See · ~4h with tramThe reason your ship stops here.
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See · ~6h door to doorThe vermilion gate in the sea, deer on the sand, oyster smoke in the lanes.
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Eat · ~3hHiroshima-style means layers, not batter — cabbage, soba, egg, and the founder’s sauce.
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