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Hida Shunkei Lacquer Ware Hida Shunkei | ||||||||
They say that the major craft traditions of the Hida region are incorporated in the single craft of Hida Shunkei lacquer ware. The specialist crafts of making the cores and applying the lacquer are the work of separate craftsmen working as one. I talked to two core makers with different specialties and a lacquer craftsman. | ||||||||
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Making flat items I first visited Shigeru Noguchi, who makes what is known in the lacquering trade as "itamono" (flat wares). He was in the midst of making a cypress tray and was executing the delicate hegime grooves that are carved out between the wood grains. The plain cypress wood was soft and pale and I was impressed by the beauty of the hegime in its unlacquered state. |
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| Choosing the wood Mr Noguchi tells me that the wood grain and the softness of the wood differs with each piece of timber and it takes a while to be able to discern the best pieces for lacquering. The artisan must season and then cut the wood in accordance with its particular qualities, a job requiring considerable experience and skill. |
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| Protecting the forms One characteristic of Hida Shunkei is that the craft is full of rules about what size and shape each type of product must be, because this was a craft that started for the tea ceremony, which has strict requirements for its utensils. For example, with bentwood pieces, after attaching one end to the other with an animal glue, the joint is further strengthened by "sewing" it with the bark of the mountain cherry in a process called kanbasashi. In the world of tea, even numbers are shunned, so it has to be sewn with an odd number of stitches only. "There are some craftsmen who are ignoring the fixed forms these days," Mr Noguchi tells me, "but I think it is important to protect our 400-year tradition." |
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| In the shoes of the buyer Mr Noguchi's belief is that in craft work you only get back what you put in and he does not believe in taking shortcuts or chances. "It's better to make the necessary effort to get good results." From the beginning to the end of the interview he spoke with a soft expression which revealed the gentle spirit of this craftsman who thinks first of the relationship of trust between lacquerer and user, which he must back up as the maker of cores. |
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| Turned wooden cores Next I spoke to Kenichi Kawakami, a craftsman specializing in turned cores, called hikimono. He is the youngest among seven hikimono specialists in the local Hida Shinkei cooperative association. |
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In Mr Kawakami's workplace there are 50 different types of tools lined up, mainly chisels. Mr Kawakami tells me it takes three years to make your own tools and then five to seven years to really get to know the idiosyncrasies of the timbers that are used. So it is likely to take 10 years to be able to do basic turning work. "That's about how long it took me, but then sometimes I get an order for something I have never done before and it's like starting all over again -- there is no end to what you can learn." |
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| No short cuts Mr Kawakami tells me that part of his skill involves avoiding pieces of timber where a branch would have been joined, because these portions have a high oil content. This oil repels the lacquer. Mr Kawakami has been doing this work for 30 years and he says that out of every 50 cores there will be five to 10 that come from the joints and are oily. This is especially critical in the case of Hida Shunkei, which is a clear lacquering style, because you can see everything through the lacquer. So he says a piece that is scratched or has any other mistake, no matter how small, cannot be sent to the lacquerer. "This is a job where you can't cover up rough work," he says, and that's a good thing." |
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| Lacquering Lacquerer, Mr Toshifumi-Yoshikata Suzuki, confesses that when he gets a good core he "cannot help but lacquer it." Mr Suzuki is the 15th generation head of the Naritaryu Soke family of lacquerers. He takes 3-4 months to finish one lacquering job with repeated applications of lacquer followed by burnishing and finally a lustrous top coat, to make a glorious-looking and durable piece of work. |
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| The lacquerer makes his own lacquer The urushi lacquer used on the top coat is blended by the lacquerer himself and this blend is often a trade secret. Mr Suzuki tells me the interesting fact that if he takes urushi blended to his own specifications to another lacquer artist they are likely to complain that it is "terrible," and this is because each lacquerer makes a lacquer that suits himself alone. The quality of the lacquer is affected by the tendency of urushi to change its disposition according to the conditions of a particular workshop -- everything from the air direction in the house, to the light coming in, and the temperature and moisture in the air. Urushi which has been processed to remove water content is left for five or six years before using it. Mr Suzuki says this makes it finer, to provide a more beautiful finish. |
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| "Living" urushi The lacquerer also uses a different batch of lacquer for each job depending on the season that the urushi was processed and the temperature that day. He tells me that when you spend your life working with urushi there are times that "the urushi will actually help you out, and cover up for you." This is when he really feels that urushi is a living thing. |
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It is the job of the lacquerer to further accentuate the beauty of the wood grain that has been accentuated by the wood turner and Mr Suzuki says his object is to be able to bring out the very best in all the different grains. I left these three craftsmen holding the impression that they really get along well and have a strong relationship of trust between them. I also came to feel that Hida Shunkei was a much more approachable craft than I had previously thought, as it had always appeared so highbrow and precious. Without even realizing it, I had come to feel its warmth. |
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