Japan · Lacquerware / Shell Inlay
琉球螺鈿 (Ryūkyū Raden)
Ryukyu raden (螺鈿) is lacquer inlaid with shell, above all yakōgai, the great green turban shell of southern Ryukyuan waters. The shell is ground and boiled thin, cut to pattern and fixed to the vessel with lacquer. Under the kingdom it was a state craft. The first recorded kaizuri bugyō, the royal official in charge of the lacquer and shell-work office, appears in 1612. The office made tribute pieces for the Chinese emperor and gifts for the Tokugawa shogunate, and its craftsmen studied in Fujian. Thin-shell raden, which arose in Yuan China and became the Chinese mainstream, forms part of the regional background. This record is deliberately thin. The detailed technical and historical literature on Ryukyu raden (the Urasoe Art Museum's scholarship in particular) could not be reached in this pass, so fields are left open rather than filled from other raden traditions.
Risk level: Endangered · Not inscribed. Covered by 'Ryukyu Shikki' METI Traditional Craft Product (1986) and Okinawa Prefecture intangible cultural property 'Ryukyu shikki'
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