Fri, Dec 20, 2024
Decrease in demand for lacquerware affects domestic production
Urushi (Japanese lacquer), made from the sap of urushi trees, has been around and in use since the ancient times. It was used mainly as glue during the Jomon period (Japan’s neolithic period). Later, it came to be used in architecture and craft as coating material with extraordinary luster and durability. Its beauty, tactile property and depth as natural material has fascinated many to this day, although the declining demand for it and lacquerware, and the shortage of domestically produced lacquer in recent years pose a setback.
Harvesters go into the mountains in June-October to cut open the barks of the urushi trees to extract urushi, which is a mixture of sap and resin.
Depending on when the collected urushi was extracted, they are divided into three categories: Hatsuhen (early extraction: June to mid-July) with high water content suited for use as lacquer base; Sakarihen (heavy extraction: mid-July to late August), the most lustrous of the three; and Suehen (late extraction: September to mid-October). About 60 barrels of urushi were put to display at the competition exhibition this year. The judges carefully examined the urushi on display, category by category.
According to lacquer artist Toshikazu Machida, 73, who has been serving as a judge for more than 40 years, the viscosity, color, smell and other qualities of the collected urushi were significantly different depending on who the collector was. However, showing each other’s harvest at the competition exhibition helped homogenize the collected urushi. “The competition exhibition has served its purpose,” he said. “Now, it’s more a festival of sorts.”
The Joho-ji district is said to have had 300 harvesters at its prime. The number plummeted to 19 in 2014 mostly due to decline in demand for urushi. However, after efforts were made to increase supply for use in restoration of ancient buildings in Nikko (a tourist city in Tochigi Prefecture) and other areas, the number started to pick up and has reached 35, including eight who are aged 20s-30s.
According to a survey conducted by the Forest Agency, in 2023, the production of urushi in Iwate Prefecture accounted for 80 percent of the nation’s output.
The shrines and temples of Nikko (Tochigi Prefecture) were collectively registered as a UNESCO world heritage site just 25 years ago in 1999. Urushi plays a crucial role in the restoration of the Nikko Toshogu shrine.
Yomei-mon, the imposing gate of Nikko Toshogu and a designated national treasure of Japan, needed 600 kilograms of urushi for its restoration in 2013-17. According to Noritake Sato, 75, who was involved in the project, it would require 3,000 urushi trees to extract that much lacquer. “Kuro-urushi (black lacquer) is what makes the glimmer of gold stand out,” he said.
Urushi was applied as a lacquer base to increase the durability of the gate from top to bottom. It was also used to glue on gold leaf and applied over parts under metal fittings. Urushi can be damaged by ultra violet light and will deteriorate over time. However, the old techniques used to apply lacquer will be kept hidden under the new layers, which will leave room for conservators of the future to learn about bygone techniques.
Conservators have been using only domestically produced lacquer to restore the shrines and temples of Nikko since 2007. They tried mixing urushi with Chinese lacquer for some time, but Sato came to think they should go back to “Japanese urushi that agrees with Japanese weather.” What he also had in mind was the need to protect the culture of collecting urushi and pass down the techniques required to apply Japanese urushi.
In 2015, the Agency for Cultural Affairs issued an instruction indicating that conservators must use Japanese urushi in the restoration of buildings designated as national treasures or important cultural properties.
Urushi will harden only in high humidity and with the right temperature. Applying it on buildings that are affected by the weather requires advanced techniques. The Association for the Preservation of the Nikko World Heritage Site Shrines and Temples, a preservation group to which Sato belongs, was registered by the government as a holder of selected conservation techniques in 2016. In 2022, Sato was individually registered as a holder of the same techniques.
Renowned lacquer artist Yasuhiro Asai, 41, whose work was selected last year (2023) in a design for an Italian wine label, is unique in that he uses urushi lacquer ‘homemade’ in Tottori Prefecture, where he hails from.
Japan’s self-sufficiency ratio of urushi stands at less than 10 percent. Having learned that much of urushi used in Japan is imported from China, Asai decided 20 years ago to convert his grandparents’ pear orchard into a urushi tree farm. “Acquiring urushi can be difficult if there are trade issues, but it won’t be a concern if you have your own,” he said.
It is also Asai’s way of paying homage to the treasures of the Shoso-in repository in Nara, which have retained their beauty for more than 1,300 years. “Urushi is a durable coating which cannot be dissolved by anything other than ultra violet light, and excellent as base material,” Asai said. “People of the past used urushi knowingly, and have applied it to parts even unseen to the eye. I use Japanese urushi so people 1,000 years from now will see the products in the condition they’re in today.”
However, the fact remains that domestically produced lacquer is costly and short in supply. Consequently, much of the lacquerware produced in Japan is made using Chinese lacquer. Asai has no objection to this. “Japanese or Chinese, so far as the ingredients contained are concerned, they are not much different,” he said. Regardless of when it was collected and where, Chinese lacquer is imported in huge volumes, which results in it being more homogenized and easy to use. Urushi, on the other hand, can vary depending on when and where it was collected. “The good and bad of it is that with urushi, you have to figure out ways to bring out their particularities.”
Asai’s interest in lacquer art started to develop when he was still in high school. He came to admire the works of lacquer artist Kazumi Murose, a “Living National Treasure” (government-certified holder of traditional techniques deemed as important intangible cultural properties), and became an apprentice in 2005.
Maki-e is a technique which involves drawing a design onto lacquerware and then sprinkling metal powder onto it before the urushi hardens. Urushi is very adhesive and hardens slowly over a period of time. The technique takes advantage of these qualities, giving the artist a variety of ways — adjusting the shades, adding a three-dimensional feel, etc. — to make his work glimmer in the way he pleases.
Asai’s “Sun” (see photo above) is a box that comes not only with maki-e but also with raden (inlaid mother-of-pearl decorations) and hyomon (metal sheet cutout embeddings). The decorations are bedazzling, but the lustrous pitch-black surface of the box, too, is captivating. “Actually, it’s the hard part,” said Asai. Light will refract with the slightest bump on the surface and make it seem like it’s warped. “The surface will become flat by applying urushi repeatedly and polishing it with charcoal. The wisdom of our forbears has been passed down to us with great accuracy.” Asai is thankful to the traditions of the art.
In Japan, urushi has been around in use since the neolithic Jomon period. Urushi-coated earthenware and woodenware are commonly excavated at archaeological sites in various locations. A relic from the Shimoyakebe ruins in Higashimurayama, Tokyo, indicates the series of steps from sap collecting to the making of lacquerware, which makes it more than likely that the site was a major production center of urushi in the late Jomon period (4300-3400 years ago).
Urushi related objects found at the Shimoyakebe ruins are exhibited at the Hachikokuyama Taiken no Sato, a cultural facility in Higashimurayama. Pieces of wood with vivid traces of sap collecting on display suggest that sap collecting techniques of ancient times resemble those of today.
About 300 of the earthenware found there were with red lacquer coating. According to a curator at the Higashimurayama Furusato History Museum, people of the Jomon period likely had a fondness for the color red, “because it evokes life force.” Wooden bows were coated with urushi after they were wound up with string and bark, which made them highly efficient as a weapon as well as durable and unbreakable. Combs, hairpins and other products coated with urushi were also found at the site.
The Shimoyakebe ruins is located on a swale with abundant groundwater. Under ideal conditions, the urushi products were well kept underground. The excavated items, telling of the urushi culture that flourished during the Jomon period, have been designated by the central government as important cultural properties of Japan.
Urushi is gaining worldwide recognition. Swiss manufacturer and retailer of luxury watches and accessories Chopard decorating its watch dials with maki-e provided by Japanese lacquerware manufacturer and retailer Yamada Heiando (based in Tokyo) is a case in point. The collaboration kicked off in 2009.
More than 20 maki-e designs have decorated the watches of Chopard’s L.U.C. XP URUSHI series. The watch dial canvas is only 3.4 centimeters in diameter, and the height of maki-e is limited to 0.4 millimeters so as not to touch the watch hands. Refined takamaki-e (raised maki-e) of decorative motifs including a phoenix in dynamic motion, elegantly forming an arc with its tail feathers (see photo below), and butterflies and bees floating around among flowers and trees.
Japanese lacquerware, like most other, are usually associated with bowls, dishes and other tableware. However, in times of the samurai, according to Kenta Yamada, 52, the Yamada Heiando president, maki-e was applied to sword sheaths and portable inro cases as a way to demonstrate their social status. “The more elegant, the higher the status,” Yamada said. Under the notion that watches serve as a status symbol today, he brought the idea of decorating watch dials with maki-e to Chopard. Yamada Heiando’s craftsmanship was welcomed with empathy.
“I’m very delighted that Chopard is making the beauty and excellence of maki-e known to the world,” said Yamada. “Chopard’s watch is proof that Japanese lacquerware can be sold outside Japan, and I think the future and potential of urushi may depend on it.”
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun and other sources)
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