Fine Work by CCR—Aizawa Woodwork

Small dishes in wood for some of the delicacies of a Japanese meal.

A Challenging Future

The best pieces of lacquerware have a wooden core.  The preparation of this is just as important as any of the many stages that a piece goes through before reaching completion.  (See BLOG dated 28/07/2018 All together, Division of Labour)

It is the skill with which the wooden cores are completed that is so important.  It is so easy to think that it would be possible to get away with mistakes at this stage, simply because so many application of a primer, ground and countless coatings of true lacquer are to follow.

The platter resembles the leaf of the ginkgo nut tree.

It is little wonder then that in Wajima there are a number of suppliers of the wooden cores of innumerable pieces of lacquer tableware.  Some are made like boxes others are turned on a lathe.  Some pieces are made to order in small batches while others are one-off creations but all, without exception, are finished to the highest of specifications.

The Boss and his wife.

Aizawa Woodwork is just one of the companies supplying woodwork for the lacquerware industry in Wajima.  The company is run by Kouji Aizawa with valuable support from his wife Youko.  The company was established in 1948 and has always made an effort to develop new techniques and yet still relies on handwork when absolutely necessary.

The tool is guided by a template ensuring a perfect cut.

John Ruskin and William Morris—figureheads of the Arts and Crafts movement—both championed good design and fostered the continuance of handwork while deploring the standard of machine-made goods at that time.  Although they may not have condoned the use of machinery per se, I have a feeling they would have embraced the use of Numerical Control Router (NCR) technology if they had been able to see the results.

A small selection of a full display of router bits.

Developed during the 1950s, it subsequently became possible to program one of these routers with a computer to cut and finish wood to a desired shape and form.  Nowadays the quality of the work produced by what are now Computer Controlled Routers (CCR) is outstanding.

For those difficult shapes only a small plane will do.

This does not mean to say that a skilled craftsperson could not produce work of a similar quality.  However, once programmed a CCR can produce staggeringly fine work over and over again and relatively quickly.

Armed with such a powerful tool, some of the work produced by Aizawa Woodwork does not necessarily become a piece of Wajima lacquerware.  Recognising how many people including the young these days enjoy seeing woodgrain in a piece of tableware, a coating of a food safe oil or beeswax is used to satisfy a demanding and discerning public.  This is even true in Japan as well as beyond its shores.  In fact not being able to see the woodgrain of a piece of lacquerware is a disappointment to more than just a few.  So for Aizawa Woodwork a challenging future lies ahead.

Even on a wet day some planks of wood rest in the dry while they season.

For Japanese and English site:  https://azw-woodwork.jp

Bill Tingey Photo © Copyright, Aizawa Woodwork Design © Copyright

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