Kayura
Kainan, Wakayama Prefecture · Established 2001

Yoshihiko FujiiNuri Kōbō Fujii

A technique for bonding glass to lacquer, developed here — vessels of lacquer made for the everyday table.

Kuroe, in the city of Kainan, Wakayama Prefecture, is the home of Kishū lacquerware, a craft with more than four hundred years of history. Yoshihiko Fujii, born into a family in the lacquerware trade, was told by customers abroad that lacquerware scratches — and from that remark came his development of a technique he calls "glass urushi". Because the surface is glass, it resists the marks of knives and forks and will withstand the dishwasher. Vessels layered with maki-e (designs drawn in sprinkled gold and silver powder) and with gold and silver leaf are in use in fine restaurants and hotels.

Kuroe, in the city of Kainan, Wakayama Prefecture, is the home of Kishū lacquerware, a craft with more than four hundred years of history. Yoshihiko Fujii, born into a family in the lacquerware trade, was told by customers abroad that lacquerware scratches — and from that remark came his development of a technique he calls "glass urushi". Because the surface is glass, it resists the marks of knives and forks and will withstand the dishwasher. Vessels layered with maki-e (designs drawn in sprinkled gold and silver powder) and with gold and silver leaf are in use in fine restaurants and hotels.

01 — Letter

Lacquerware is only lacquerware when it is used

I was born in Kuroe, in Wakayama, into a family of lacquer finishers four generations deep. From the age of eighteen I travelled to exhibitions abroad, selling lacquerware. Overseas, lacquerware was regarded as something akin to a jewellery box or a confectionery case — not as a vessel for daily use at the table.

Around the age of thirty, the strong yen made exporting difficult. I stopped chasing trends and resolved to make only what no one else could make. By way of furniture finishing, I arrived at glass urushi. The technique for bonding glass and urushi I developed myself, through long trial and error.

I am not an artist but a craftsman, making things meant to be used. Even so, I believe the life of the maker shows in what is made. That is precisely why I make only what I believe in entirely, and why I keep testing myself.

藤井
Yoshihiko Fujii
02 — Glass Urushi

Glass Urushi

Scratching and the burden of care were the weaknesses of urushi; both are resolved by the bonding technique developed here, which unites glass and urushi.

A vessel born of lacquerware's weaknesses

Buyers abroad said that lacquerware scratches, and its vulnerability to heat and humidity posed a further problem. Looking for a material to make up for these weaknesses, I turned to glass. Painting on glass had long been a pastime of mine, and the starting point was the thought that, lacquered from behind, the surface in use would be protected from scratches. It was a choice made to bring the beauty of urushi into a form fit for the everyday table.

Layering urushi upon glass

Urushi is ordinarily applied to the outer surface of a vessel. In glass urushi, the layers are built up on the reverse side of the glass. Because the surface in use is glass, knives and forks leave little mark, while the colour of the urushi and the maki-e are seen through the clear glass. Urushi does not readily adhere to glass, so I developed my own technique for bonding the two. The order in which the coats are laid down, too, has been settled by trial.

A finish that withstands the dishwasher

To overturn the impression that lacquerware is troublesome to care for, we set out to achieve a finish that withstands the dishwasher. The conditions: to endure water at one hundred degrees and neutral detergent. So that plates do not chip when stacked, the lacquer film is finished a little softer. The testing, too, we carry out with our own hands.

03 — Kishū Kuroe

From the town of Kuroe to the tables of the world

The lacquering craft handed down in this town of lacquerware is spreading beyond borders, through encounters with people and through exhibitions abroad.

Kishū · Kuroe

Kuroe is one of Japan's three great centres of lacquerware, together with Yamanaka and Aizu. Along Kawabata-dōri, houses that served at once as craftsmen's dwellings and as wholesalers' premises stand in a row like the teeth of a saw. Once it was a cottage industry, the closets of the house turned into drying rooms for the lacquer, the whole family at the brush. The mild climate suited the making of lacquerware, and the craft flourished as the town's industry.

The inherited art of lacquering

Kuroe lacquerware is distinguished by its durability, its plainness, and its practical design. As a piece is used, the red urushi wears away and the black ground beneath shows through — a countenance particular to this region. Glass urushi traces the roots of its technique to this Kuroe lacquer, and that same skill lives on in its decoration with maki-e and leaf of gold and silver.

Esteemed at home and abroad

Vessels in Glass urushi are carried chiefly by restaurants and hotels within Japan. Abroad, they have been shown at Maison & Objet in Paris in 2017 and 2019, in Hong Kong in 2017, and at Ambiente in Frankfurt in 2023. The aim now is to bring them further still, to the family table.

04 — Biography
1965

Born in Kuroe, Wakayama Prefecture. Raised in a family carrying on the trade of a lacquerer's workshop

1984

Travelled to exhibitions abroad, taking up the export of lacquerware

1994

A strong yen made exporting difficult; turned instead toward making what no one else could make

2001

Founded Nuri Kōbō Fujii

2017

Exhibited at Maison & Objet in Paris and in Hong Kong

2019

Exhibited at Maison & Objet in Paris

2023

Exhibited at Ambiente in Frankfurt

05 — Visit

Visit the workshop.

Address

Nurikobo Fujii 532-4 Nadaka Kainan, Wakayama, Wakayama 642-0032

塗り工房ふじい 〒642-0032 和歌山県海南市名高５３２−４

Opening hours
SunClosed
Mon–Fri09:30–17:00
SatClosed
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