Tokyo, Nov. 6 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Friday it has chosen and recognized 141 craftspeople as contemporary artisans who have mastery skills and serve as leaders in their respective areas.

They include Takashi Nakazawa, a 73-year-old foil-stamping specialist who helped reconstruct the keep of Azuchi Castle in Shiga Prefecture, western Japan, and Hisako Ishizuka, a 48-year-old confectioner for Japanese sweets, who is the first woman to have won the top prize at a national confectionery exposition.

The oldest on this year's list are barber Hajime Yonekura and Hiroaki Nagasawa, a craftsman of Hakata Mizuhiki decorative cords, both 86. The youngest is 41-year-old Kohei Yamamoto, manager of a French restaurant at Palace Hotel Tokyo.

This year, contemporary masters were selected for the first time from nine areas, including gardening and dried seafood manufacturing.

Of the 141 people, 19 work in Tokyo, 16 in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, 11 in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, and 10 in Kyoto Prefecture, also western Japan.

Hisako Ishizuka (left), the first woman to have won the top prize at a national confectionery exposition in Japan, and Kohei Yamamoto (right), manager of a French restaurant at Palace Hotel Tokyo, both on this year's list of 141 craftspeople recognized for mastery skills

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