Japan · Lacquerware / Woodturning
川連漆器 (Kawatsura shikki); 花塗り (hana-nuri)
Hard-wearing everyday lacquerware from Kawatsura, Yuzawa City, in southern Akita. Bowls and trays are turned from beech, horse chestnut or magnolia, smoke-dried, then built up on a base of persimmon tannin and raw (unrefined) urushi lacquer, applied and sanded several times, before intermediate and top coats. The top coat is the hana-nuri finish: lacquer is brushed on so generously that it is left to dry unsanded and unpolished, so the brush's own flow gives the surface its curve and luster. Decoration, where used, is chinkin (incised gold) or maki-e. The craft was designated a national Traditional Craft on December 15, 1976.
Risk level: Endangered · Not inscribed; designated a Traditional Craft of Japan by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (December 15, 1976)
A way of weaving in which worn cotton cloth, usually old kimono, is torn or cut into thin strips and used as the weft, with a hemp or other bast-fiber warp (cotton or silk in later work), on a loom to make thick, warm, durable cloth.
Ryukyu raden (螺鈿) is lacquer inlaid with shell, above all yakōgai, the great green turban shell of southern Ryukyuan waters.
Edo Kiriko (江戸切子) is the cut glass tradition of Tokyo — originating in the Edo period (c.1834 CE) and producing the characteristic geometric cut patterns on colored-over-clear glass vessels using rotating grinding wheels.
Weaving from the Nanbu (southeastern Aomori) region in which worn cotton clothing and cloth is torn into thin strips and used as the weft, with cotton (formerly hemp) warps, on a ground loom whose tension the weaver holds with the body.
Tsuikin (堆錦) is Ryukyu lacquer's relief-appliqué technique.
Echizen Washi (越前和紙) is the premier Japanese paper-making tradition of Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture — producing hosho (奉書) paper for woodblock printing, calligraphy, and document certification since the Heian period (794–1185 CE), and…
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