from Noto : December 2016

22/12/2016

Exhibition Notices

New Year Exhibition—Kazuta Furukome

Work by Kazuta Furukome will be on show at the Isetan Department Store in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The West Park gallery is on the 5th Floor. The show runs from Tuesday 3rd January until Tuesday 10th January 2017. Kazuta will be at the gallery from Wednesday 4th January until the end of the show.

Netsuke Strawberry and Sweet Chestnut

2017年1月3日（火）～10日（火）

新宿伊勢丹本店5階ウエストパーク

営業時間　10：30～20：00

存廊日1月4日～10日

To see other examples of Kazuta’s work go to:

http://www.urushi-zikichi.com/

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Visions of the Unseen—Hikoju Makie, Takashi Wakamiya

Pieces of lacquerware illustrating impressions of an unseen world, something felt more than seen or expressed in words. Inspired by the work of the novelist Kyoka Izumi (1873-1939). The show is to be held at the Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Department Store in Tokyo, starting Wednesday 28th December 2016 and closing on Tuesday 3rd January 2017.

The inside and back of a shallow drinking dish

泉鏡花の闇とは、小説から感じる目に見えない世界、また感知できるが言葉では表現できないとても豊かで心地よい感覚、人の心の奥に存在し表面からは知る事の出来ない感覚を闇に見立て漆の作品により表現してみたいと考えている。

期間:2016年12月28日（Wed.）～2017年1月3日（Tus.）

Place: 東京日本橋三越

彦十蒔絵（Hikoju Makie)

企画・広報・海外窓口(Planning, public relations and overseas window）

高禎蓮（Wawa / Kao, Chen-Lien)

Mobile:+81-90-2375-9093

Address: 1-188, Kekachidaira-machi, Wajima City, Ishikawa, Japan

18/12/2016

Lacquerware—Commentary and Impressions Three

Gouge the bark, cut into the inner layer and the

thick cream coloured sap begins to ooze from

the wound. Collect what you can and return

to the tree the next day to do the same thing.

Lacquerware All-sorts Three—Lacquerware Archive, Ninohe

This series of posts on lacquerware continues with a look at work in the Ninohe Archive in Iwate Prefecture.

The aim of my second visit to Morioka and Ninohe was to learn more about the basics of lacquerware, from source to finish.

I learned how to tap a lacquer tree to extract the sap which oozes from a wound made with a gouge in the bark. The sap is filtered and warmed to drive off some of the moisture in it, before it is filtered again and pigment is added. Then comes the job of applying the lacquer.

Keep the brush still and turn the bowl.

Simple? Well yes but not for a novice like me.

It is not so easy, especially when applying a top coat. The idea is to keep the brush more or less still and turn the bowl. I struggled at first. But even before applying a top coat, a tack cloth is used to remove and pieces of dust or hair or fluff. I did not do it carefully enough and specks are visible on the surface.

I went to the Tekiseisha facility in Ninohe to do this basic work. I was also privileged to be shown the local history museum, which holds a number items related to lacquerware made in the area. Even more of a privilege and something of a surprise, I was shown the archive of old piece of lacquerware. Some I have already presented in other posts, so I have only picked out the more surprising examples.

In the archive some of the bowls were really rustic but refreshingly unpretentious and full of character.

It is assumed that a number of the pieces in the archive were perhaps made as samples. Nevertheless, there is a spontaneity about the work which is generally unseen in the decoration used on lacquerware in other production centres.

Hand painted random squiggles but rendered with purpose and method. It is certainly not a doodle. There may not be a ground to this bowl as the mark of a turning tool is visible.

Simply speaking, the decoration is very painterly. It is not in a style that an “artisan” would usually work with. An artisan follows a prepared style of decoration but a number of pieces in the archive look as if an “artist” has used a piece of lacquerware as a canvas. And unusually each piece would be slightly different.

Here a flame effect is perfected as the lacquer is applied.

This was made clear to me when I visited Wajima last year. I suggested that it would be interesting to have a kind of chipped effect on the outside of a turned bowl. I was hoping to achieve something rather random in an attempt to make each bowl unique. I wanted to see something uninhibited and relaxed. Once again something painterly.

In this case I was working with a woodturner in mind not someone doing decoration. Nevertheless, I was told in no uncertain way that I could not expect a woodturner “craftsman” to produce something like that. He would need something to follow. In other words his job was “making” not “creating”.

Some of the pieces in the archive in Ninohe, however, bore the touch of someone who was “creating”.

The grain is visible below the surface of the lacquer. The wood could be beech and may not have been well seasoned as there is some distortion to the form. The abstraction of the images is appealing and could not be more painterly. The large collection of this kind of hana-zara is popular with many visitor to Ninohe.

There is certainly room in the field of lacquerware decoration for both of these approaches to rendering pattern or some other decorative effect. There is a stumbling block however. The use of true lacquer as a decorative medium tends to inhibit spontaneity. But I believe there are ways around this problem.

An interesting exception is Tsugaru lacquerware. However, the pattern common to this ware is “manufactured” rather than “created”. A chance effect of layering coloured lacquer and then rubbing it back to produced a stippled effect was recognised as an interesting looking finish.

http://www.nsda-uk.com/wp-content/uploads/3_Tsugaru_Japan_Lacquerware.pdf

Tora-nuri—Smoke from a burning pine root or perhaps a candle or oil lamp produced the soot to make the smoke-like effect. The colouring is highly original but may not have been so unusual when it was decorated toward the end of the nineteenth-century or perhaps in the early part of the twentieth-century. Some how the colouring reminded me of the Pokémon character Pikachu.

The second trip to the north was especially exciting as I came across tora-nuri—“tiger ware” because of the colouring. This smoky decorative effect is never seen in contemporary lacquerware. Also after visiting Ninohe I went to three other lacquerware production centres. None of the people I showed photos of tora-nuri to had even seen the effect before. What next?

Along with many other traditional crafts, lacquerware is covered in Japan Crafts Source Book, originally published by Kodansha International. For background information on Joboji access:

http://www.japanjoboji.com/e/

Access the Tekiseisha site for more images of products under “Commodity” on the Japanese site.

http://www.tekiseisha.com/index.html

Bill Tingey Photo © Copyright

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11/12/2016

Lacquerware—Commentary and Impressions Two

The current price of a Joboji soup bowl is about £46 or ¥6800. Each one comes in its own box—ours are beginning to show their age. The profile of the bowl even at this angle seems to proclaim its low centre of gravity. The refections make it difficult to discern the depth of the finish but believe me it is there. Compared to other wares the finish is not glossy nor matt but satin.

Lacquerware All-sorts Two—Joboji Lacquerware

This series of posts on lacquerware continues with a look at Joboji lacquerware originating from near Morioka in Iwate Prefecture.

It was a friend that introduced me to Joboji lacquerware in about 1995. I was assured that it had a really modern feel and appearance, while still managing to retain its dignity by having a refined rustic quality that some other lacquerwares I felt seemed to lack. In fact I think I was complaining to my friend that Wajima lacquerware was “a bit too perfect and somehow had lost any sense of the hands that made it”. Sorry Wajima!

Unlike the extreme degree of excellence of Wajima lacquerware, which to me can inhibit a dialogue, Joboji lacquerware wanted to communicate with me. It seemed to want to be my friend. Yes, it is a slightly strange thing to say but that was how I felt on my first encounter with this lacquerware from northern Japan.

A piece of Joboji lacquerware has a presence that can really be felt. This is especially true when a soup bowl is picked up and the finish is examined closely.

First of all there is a depth to its finish. Either in red or black the layers of lacquer below the final coat can be perceived. The more a bowl is used the more this becomes evident.

Then its weight tells us that the core is of wood. It is thickest towards the base of the bowl. By placing the thumb on the inside and the index finger on the outside and running them down into the depth of the bowl, that thickness can be felt.

In fact at the lip the thickness is a little over one millimetre but at the base where the sides of the bowl meet the high foot, the thickness is approximately 17mm give or take a hair’s breadth.

Held in the left hand and supported by the right hand, soup can be sipped from the bowl. This is the refined way a woman would drink from a bowl. A man is more likely to only use his left hand and to use his chopsticks in his other hand to manage the contents of the soup.

This makes the centre of gravity, rather like that of a sumo wrestler, undeniably low and gives the bowl a satisfying sense of stability. It also contributes to the distinctive solid sound the bowl makes when placed on a wooden table.

But what of its real weight? Although there is some variation from one bowl to another, an empty bowl weighs about 118g. Filled with 150cc of fluid pushes the weight up to 268g depending on the ingredients of the soup. Nevertheless, the combined weight is not so much. In fact it is less than a small ceramic mug containing 150cc of fluid—beaker is 156g making a total of 306g. There are so many variables here but the relationship between the weight of the container and the fluid it can hold is interesting.

The satin finish of some of the Joboji lacquerware is highly appealing. At least it is to me. It is a pleasure to the eye and to the touch. The weight, the low centre of gravity and relatively high foot make one of these bowls easy to hold with confidence.

I was completely taken with the Joboji soup bowls in particular and the ones I bought often grace our table at mealtimes here in England.

I did not realise, however, that my first encounter with Joboji lacquerware would lead to some fascinating discoveries about true lacquer the material as well as the rich diversity of lacquerwares in Japan.

Along with many other traditional crafts, lacquerware is covered in Japan Crafts Source Book, originally published by Kodansha International. For background information on Joboji access:

http://www.japanjoboji.com/e/

Access the Tekiseisha site for more images of products under “Commodity” on the Japanese site.

http://www.tekiseisha.com/index.html

02/12/2016

Lacquerware—Commentary and Impressions

While this is not actually going to be a piece of Wajima lacquerware, the style of reinforcing is the same. The ridges on the wooden core provide a key for the start of many applications of true lacquer. And none of the cloth or the wood grain will be visible in the finished work.

Lacquerware All-sorts—One

The aim of this series of posts on lacquerware is to introduce a number of different wares, which are not necessarily well-known either in Japan or overseas. While I want to show how much diversity there is, I also hope to introduce my own reaction to the wares, as a way of perhasps gaining a better grasp of the aesthetic, functional and cultural aspects of one of Japan’s most ancient crafts.

Lacquerware is not produced on an industrial scale. It is a craft, which is mostly handmade. Some items are everyday pieces of tableware while others are examples of studio craft and are therefore one-off creations. Nevertheless, the boundaries between these types of ware are blurred and may differ in each production centre, of which there are 41 up and down the country.

There is an insistence in Japan to call true lacquer “urushi”—the Japanese word for lacquer—even in English texts.

This insistence comes from a desire to make sure the public does not think that lacquerware is made using a paint or a synthetic material. Personally I find the term “true lacquerware” most fitting, although I sometimes use “lacquer”.

Wajima Lacquerware

Wajima is among Japan’s top ten production centres of lacquerware. For many it is the best especially for its robustness and quality of work as well as its makie decorations.

The ground being rubbed down with wet abrasive paper and charcoal. The result—wood turns to stone! Not literally but something closer to stone than wood

when this important groundwork is finished.

A good deal of its strength comes from the ground and primer that is applied to a wooden core. Using a mixture of true lacquer, a power of roasted diatomaceous earth and rice paste, the core takes on the characteristics of a stone—hard enough to be mercilessly rubbed down with wet and dry abrasive papers. This produces a suitable substrate onto which many coats of true lacquer are then applied.

Additional reinforcing of surfaces and vulnerable parts of that core, like the lip of a soup bowl for instance, is carried out using a piece of open weave cloth soaked in lacquer (See on this blog—A One Day Apprenticeship dated 9/01/2016).

The finished product shows no sign of the amount of pains-taking work that has been completed in order to produce a piece of craftwork that is strong and a manifestation of perfection.

My reaction to this at first was one of disbelief—is it really necessary? Is all the work justifiable? Is the finished article any better than a piece of contemporary plastic? The simple answer is “yes”.

Wajima lacquerware may be robust but if is is dropped on a stone floor it will, at the very least, chip the lacquer and may even crack the wooden core. Such damage, however, can be repaired.

Raised to the mouth, there is direct contact with the true lacquerware bowl through our hands and one of our body’s most sensitive areas—our lips which tell us much.

Better than plastic? There is no question about it. The touch and appearance of a good piece of true lacquerware is unmistakable. The way the colour and finish “mature” over time is a bonus. It mellows. What this sometimes means is that the complexity of the colour and texture of the finish will change and show signs of a “history” of use that adds to the appeal of the item. This is seen as a desired effect. I would liken it to the way a fine wine matures and the taste become more complex.

Functionally speaking, the ground/primer makes it possible to pour boiling water into a bowl, for example, with no fear that it will crack. It also allows us to hold a bowl.

A very early piece of hand-painted English pottery, which sadly is not marked. As a teacup and saucer, it follows the Chinese style of tea bowl and therefore has no handle. The decoration, however, follows English traditions.

A soup bowl in a Western dinner service is not lifted to the lips. And, simply speaking that is why a porcelain teacup has a handle.

The hand-painted decorations are deftly rendered, giving the cup and saucers an enduring lively character despite its signs of age.

When tea was first introduced into England, it was almost a medicine. It was a green tea and therefore not drunk so hot. The tea bowls were like those used in China and had no handles. It was only later with the introduction of Indian teas made with boiling water that handles became necessary.

So, you may ask why are there no handles on tradition tea cups in Japan? Because good tea is served using water at around 70 degrees centigrade. The cup, therefore, is warn not hot.

The overall finish of a piece of true lacquerware means that the experience of bringing a bowl to the lips to drink some soup is a pleasant one. What contributes to this experience is the weight of the bowl—even full it is neither too heavy nor too light. Furthermore, our senses are stimulated by the sound of the bowl being placed back on a table. Everything about a piece of lacquerware becomes a complete bodily experience—all of our senses are stimulated.

This is as important as what sound a car door makes when it is closed—does it produce a sound that instills a sense of trust, strength and reliability? Car manufacturers think about that kind of thing. Perhaps more craftspeople should do the same.

So there is much to consider when handling a piece of true lacquerware. Whether it is a piece of Wajima lacquerware or not makes no difference. But if it is, it will certainly have a character all of its own and of that, there is no doubt.

Along with many other traditional crafts, lacquerware is covered in Japan Crafts Source Book, originally published by Kodansha International. Search Amazon.