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JAPANESE
LACQUER
Lacquer has been used in Japan to coat objects, initially
for preservation and later for decoration, for about
fifteen hundred years. Raw lacquer is harvested as sap
from the Rhus verniciflua, a tree related to poison
sumac. The lacquer process is very complex and time
consuming. Each layer of lacquer must be applied, cured
to make it hard, and then polished before this step
can be repeated with many more layers. For luxurious
objects this may take months or a year.
Here are merely a few of the many different lacquer
techniques and terms the Japanese artist employs:
Urushi
lacquer is the milky white latex-like sap of the lacquer
tree which is exuded when the bark is cut off the tree
and which consists of urushiol, water, gum, a nitrogenous
element, and oil.
The special art of Japanese lacquer is that it incorporates
pictorial images, often with the help of gold and silver
sprinkled onto the damp lacquer to create a pattern.
The lacquer acts as an adhesive to these metal particles.
Esoteric as well as utilitarian objects were thus turned
into precious objects.
Maki-e
(gold lacquer picture) designs are created with gold
flecks - in the form of metal or pigment powder- often
sprinkled with a screen to create a design. Maki-e can
be flat gold (hira maki-e) , or polished-out (togidashi
maki-e) or raised gold (taka maki-e).
Taka
maki-e
or raised maki-e involves building up design patterns
above the surface through a mixture of metal powder,
lacquer and charcoal or clay dust. In togidashi maki-e
black lacquer without oil is put on the metal decoration
as an additional coat. And with hira maki-e the design
is created using urushi lacquer and raw lacquer which
is then coated with gold powder.
Shibayama
- zaiku or lacquer is a technique in which thin flakes
of ivory, animal horn or shell, often painted in various
colors, and with incised design motifs, are inlaid on
the surface of a lacquer object.
Negoro
- nuri lacquer is a type of hana-nuri technique where
the final finish is with red lacquer over a black lacquer
undercoating.
Nashiji
-
technique whereby irregular shaped fine gold dust is
applied.
Rade
- inlaid decoration as it refers to lacquer.
Chinkin-bori
- technique where a pattern is engraved in fine lines
into the lacquer surface which is then rubbed with gold.
Kamakura-bori
- is made by carving patterns in wood, and then lacquering
it with layers of red,blue,yellow and other colors,
before polishing it.
Ban-e
-
a circular design in lacquer.
I-kakeji
- densely sprinkled gold ground of lacquer decoration.
Roiro-Nuri
-
application of glossy black lacquer.
Japanese lacquer has been admired and collected for
centuries. But it is only recently that 20th century
Japanese lacquer art has attracted more attention. I
just read an article about Takahashi Setsuro (1914-2007)
who used many new and contemporary forms for his lacquer
art, in addition to the more traditional screens and
boxes. Takahashi was a painter and a poet and a lacquer
artist. The Museum for Lacquer Art (Museum fuer Lackkunst)
in Muester, Germany has a splendid exhibition of his
traditional and non-traditional works of art. Let me
know if you want to read this article.
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