Lacquerware
Urushi lacquer turns wood into something that lasts generations — glossy black, deep vermilion, or speckled and marbled. Meet the lacquer towns behind Japan's finest bowls, trays and chopsticks.
Wajima Lacquer
The most prestigious urushi lacquerware in Japan, built up in over a hundred painstaking coats. Tough enough to use daily, refined enough to hand down for generations.
Aizu Lacquer
Four centuries of lacquerware from the samurai city of Aizu — warm, decorated, and made for the everyday table where a lacquer bowl still sits at the heart of the meal.
Yamanaka Lacquer
Lacquerware built on the lathe: Yamanaka's woodturners shape the finest wooden cores in Japan, ringed with fine grooves. Countless tea caddies and bowls begin on their spinning blades.
Tsugaru Nuri
Aomori's 'stubborn lacquer,' built up in dozens of coats and polished back to reveal speckled, marbled colour — no two pieces alike. Tough enough for daily chopsticks, refined enough to treasure.
Kishū Lacquer
Wakayama's Kuroe district has made everyday lacquerware for 600 years — the honest, affordable urushi bowls and trays that actually reached ordinary tables, not just the lords'.