Urushi Studies – tagged "wajima-nuri" – ZenKiln

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Handcrafted modern Japanese ceramics & craft

Curated in Tokyo · Hand-packed and shipped from Japan

Mindful crafts from Japan

Maki-e: The Japanese Art of Sprinkled-Gold Lacquer In maki-e, the image is dusted onto wet urushi in gold or silver powder, then sealed and polished...
Wajima-nuri: Japan's Most Durable Urushi Lacquerware Tradition Wajima-nuri is the urushi lacquerware tradition of Wajima city on the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture. Its diatomaceous-earth...

Insights

Deep dives into kilns, glazes, and the wares behind them.

Seto ware vessels displaying yellow, black, white, green, red, and ash glazes.

Seto

Seto Ware: The Kiln That Named Japanese Pottery

Seto ware is so old its name became setomono, the everyday Japanese word for pottery. A guide to Seto-yaki: its many glazes, its place among the Six Ancient...

A hand-painted Arita blue-and-white porcelain bowl with cobalt pine, bamboo and plum on pale linen and hinoki wood.

Arita

Arita Ware: The Story of Japan's First Porcelain

Banko Ware: The Mie Tradition Behind Japan's Donabe

Kiln Study

Banko Ware: The Mie Tradition Behind Japan's Donabe

A hand-built Shigaraki bud vase with a torn rim and natural ash-glaze drip, on linen and hinoki by a shoji screen

Shigaraki

Shigaraki Ware: Fire, Clay, and Japan's Six Ancient Kilns

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Rituals

Living with and caring for handmade Japanese pieces.

View all care guides

Series

Four ongoing series from the workshop — pick a thread and follow it.

Teabowl Studies

Teabowl Studies

Reading the chawan — kilns, glazes, and how a bowl is held

Urushi Studies

Urushi Studies

The craft of Japanese lacquer, layer by layer

Color of Utsuwa

Color of Utsuwa

How Japanese ceramics found their palette

Object Care

Object Care

How to live with handmade objects

Archive

Every story in the Journal, newest first.

Ochoko, guinomi, and sakazuki sake cups arranged beside a ceramic tokkuri.

How to Choose a Japanese Sake Cup: Ochoko, Guinomi, Sakazuki

Japanese ceramic bowl examined upside down beside a loupe, brush, and paulownia box

How to Tell if Japanese Pottery Is Handmade and Authentic

Paired Japanese Kutani cups and Edo Kiriko glasses arranged as wedding gifts on warm washi paper

Japanese Wedding & Newlywed Gifts: Ideas and Etiquette

Freshly chūsen-dyed cloths hanging to dry at a demonstration, colors bleeding softly where each motif ends

Chūsen: The Pour-Dyeing Craft Behind Tenugui and Yukata

The HandMade In Japan Fes 2026 hall at Tokyo Big Sight, filled with makers' booths and visitors

The Warmth of the Handmade: Notes from HandMade In Japan Fes 2026

A folded sheet of plain washi holding a pink wagashi sweet beside a celadon cup of green tea

Washi at the Tea Table: Where Paper Meets Ceramic

A papermaker's hands rocking a bamboo screen of white kozo pulp over a wooden vat

Hosokawa-shi: The UNESCO Paper of the Ogawa Valley

Hands holding a translucent sheet of washi up to window light, long fibers visible in the paper

What Is Washi? A Guide to Japan's Handmade Paper

Three small Japanese cups of Shizuoka green tea — cloudy sencha, thick jade gyokuro, and golden genmaicha — with loose leaf on linen.

fukamushi-sencha

Shizuoka Green Tea: How to Brew Sencha, Gyokuro & Genmaicha