URUSHI | Traditional Japanese Lacquerware

22-24 January 2023

ARTISANS' is proud to present the Traditional Japanese Lacquerware of artists Yukiko Yagi and Gaku and Ayako Hirai.

Traditional lacquerware from Japan is simple, graphic, almost stark. It is not just a luxury collectible, but demands use, inviting you to touch, to hold, to cup, to sip... The gleam of reflected light off a lacquered surface calls to the soul in search of stillness, and timelessness.

The word Urushi comes from the Asian tree from which sap is extracted and used to make lacquer. Each tree can only be harvested of its sap once in several years and the extracted Urushi liquid is matured for more than one year in a particular barrel. This is then filtered through layers of special paper, giving a clear lacquer that varies in colour from dark to very pale amber.

Handmade and genuine lacquerware is rare and takes time, effort, skill and that something extra which takes generations of knowledge and refinement.

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