From "After an Earthquake, Preserving a Slow Craft in a Fast World/In Wajima, Japan, where hundreds of homes and studios were destroyed, master-class artisans are struggling to keep lacquer alive and nurture the next generation of creators" (NYT)(gift link, so you can read more and see many good photographs of the laquerware and of the earthquake destruction).
20 జనవరి, 2026
"It is a slow craft in a fast world, learned through years of hands-on apprenticeships.... Each piece, including utilitarian bowls, art objects and more, requires over 100 steps..."
"... and a retinue of specialists — from shapers of the wooden bases to artisans who apply layers of lacquer to produce a veneer thick enough for artists like Yamagishi to carve or incise.... The speed of contemporary culture is also light years removed from the patience and precision required to produce lacquerware, originally intended to store paper, inks and brushes for calligraphy and for writing poems and haiku, said Hiro Minato, the owner of Design Work Studio in Nara. 'In lacquer and other hand crafts, you have to feel each moment'...."
పోస్ట్లు
12 కామెంట్లు:
"Safer than firing up the old kiln" - Fawn Leibowitz.
I see they have a problem that infects many other arts and hobbies. Young people are just not interested in pursuing this anymore. "...but the income is not great so they will choose an easier livelihood."
Also, Japan is located on the Pacific Rim, known for earthquakes and volcanic activity for millennia. California is also on the rim, but doesn't seem to suffer the same consequences from earthquakes. I know (from listening to Adam Carolla) that California has many laws and architectural standards that address earthquake survivability. I wonder if the same standards are applied in Japan?
Beautiful stuff, nonetheless.
a terrible sound
oh no there goes Tokyo
go go Godzilla
He picks up lacquerware and throws it back down
As he wades through bowls to the center of town
CC, JSM
Thanks for the link, Prof! I learned that the laquer is based on the sap of the "Urushi tree"... that name seemed familiar so I googled it. It's the root of the name of the oil Urushiol, the irritant in Poison Ivies (including Poison Oak and Sumac). The Urushi tree is from the same genus, Toxicodendron, and reactions from the hardened laquer are rare but possible.
But that also means that if anyone is up for harvesting the sap of Poison Ivies, they could make similar laquerwares in North America. (If they could find similar clay.)
This is one of the jobs of the future in a world of AI abundance. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to create beautiful things and be paid for it. No more email and PowerPoint careers. People really underestimate what AI is going to do for us.
He gotta go, Mr. Mosby! 😁
A NYT article actually worth reading. Color me shocked.
I'm reminded of a friend of mine when I was studying groggily, whose minor (but first love) was art - specifically thrown pottery. He changed all the university "recipes" for glazes to make them all food safe, just because he wanted everyone to be able to use his pots any way they might want to. He used to man a stand at just about every street fair and market he could find.
It frustrated him that more than once, he would have potential customers pick up one of his pots, heft it, and say, "This just feels too light to be durable." (Usually) in vain would he explain that he'd studied and worked for years to get good enough to throw pots that thin that were also strong.
I have also related the story here of the icon-painting workshops my church used to have annually, and how one of us total greenhorns could bring up an icon that looked like Monkey Christ to our iconographer/teacher and she would fix it with like three invisible strokes of her brush.
Craft: there is no substitute for the hard and time-consuming work.
Hahahaha, "studying groggily" - I was studying GEOLOGY!
I have two small Japanese lacquerware bowls. They were purchased in Okinawa in the early seventies and remain beautiful. Thanks for the gift link… :)
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