Lacquer (Wajima Ware)

Lacquer (Wajima Ware)

 

Designated a traditional craft by the government of Japan, Wajima lacquerware is produced in the area around Ishikawa Prefecture’s Wajima City. Its glamorous, graceful, and sophisticated products are widely known as a top-quality utility lacquerware. For its base, (wood material), Wajima lacquerware uses cypress, Japanese Zelkova, Japanese Judas, or Magnolia, and in some cases other trees of equivalent quality, all coated in premium lacquer. The products are characterized by beautiful techniques such as Chinkin (gold-inlaid lacquer), where in gold sheets are embedded into utensils, then painted with lacquer, and maki-e, whereby materials such as gold and silver metal powder, as well as other colored powders, are affixed to an object that is then lacquer-painted. 

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