Japan · Woodworking / Coiled Veneer
Bunaco (ブナコ); from buna (ブナ, beech) and 'coil'
A woodworking method from Aomori Prefecture in which beech wood is sliced into thin veneer, cut into narrow tapes and wound, unglued, into a flat spiral coil that an artisan then pushes and shifts by hand into a three-dimensional form: a bowl, a lampshade, a stool or a loudspeaker enclosure. It was devised in 1956 at the Aomori Prefectural Industrial Testing Laboratory in Hirosaki to use the region's beech, the largest stock in Japan, which had been written off as useless because its high water content makes it warp and rot. Shaping needs no carving, so it wastes far less wood than turning or carving, and the thin tape dries evenly, which cures the beech's weakness. Artisans shape the coil mainly with teacups, a tool unchanged since the method was invented. Gaps of under a millimeter between the layers are filled, polished and coated one by one, leaving the spiral grain of the tape visible and, in lamps, letting light glow through the wood. The method is practiced by one company, Bunaco Co., Ltd., which holds the name as a brand.
Risk level: Stable · Not inscribed (the beech forests of Shirakami-Sanchi, the source region, are a World Natural Heritage site)
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