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URUSHI (lacquerware) is one of the oldest traditional art crafts in Japan.This video shows the craftsmen's art and their work with beautiful Japanese scenery.
Japanese lacquer, or urushi, is a transformative and highly prized material that has been refined for over 7000 years. Cherished for its infinite versatility, urushi is a distinctive art form that has spread across all facets of Japanese culture from the tea ceremony to modern abstract sculpture.
We published a Japanese‐English version of the “Essential Bilingual Glossary of Japanese Urushi (Lacquer) Materials and Techniques” in 2020, and a Japanese-Spanish version in 2022. In these glossaries, we select and explain 105 essential terms for a deeper understanding of Japanese urushi art.
Gathering and purification of urushi sap. Urushi work involves the use of the sap of the urushi tree to make, lacquer and decorate objects. The first step is kakitori, the gathering of the urushi sap that flows in the xylem between bark and trunk.
In this video, ‘Living National Treasure’ Murose Kazumi offers an introduction to urushi, including its arrival into Japan around the beginnings of the Shо̄sо̄in Repository in the Tenpyо̄ period (729-749).
Urushi, Japanese lacquer, is used in temples, treasures and daily life. Travel to the forests of Joboji, Iwate; the source of most of Japan's lacquer.
Also used for restoration of national treasures, urushi is one of Japan’s important traditional cultures. While still an art-school student in London, 19-year-old Ross visited an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts and fell in love with a deep black and beautifully inlaid urushi inkstone box.
