The Journal
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The craft of Japanese lacquer — the trees, the technique, and the workshops keeping urushi alive.
Negoro-nuri: Japan's Red-and-Black Lacquer Tradition
Negoro-nuri is medieval Japan's red-over-black urushi lacquer: vermilion laid over black, worn by generations of use until the dark layer...
Chinkin: The Sunken-Gold Carving of Wajima Lacquerware
Chinkin is Japan's sunken-gold technique: designs carved into cured urushi lacquer and filled with gold leaf. How it works, why...
Tsugaru-nuri: Aomori's Layered, Polished Urushi Lacquerware
Tsugaru-nuri, the layered lacquerware of Aomori in northern Japan, is built from dozens of colored urushi coats polished back to...
Yamanaka Lacquerware: Japan's Wood-Turned Urushi Tradition
Yamanaka lacquerware is Ishikawa's wood-turned urushi tradition — one of Japan's Three Great Lacquerwares. Discover its lathe-turned bases, fuki-urushi wipe-lacquering,...
Maki-e: The Japanese Art of Sprinkled-Gold Lacquer
Maki-e — literally "sprinkled picture" — is the Japanese art of building images in gold and silver powder on wet...
Kishu Lacquerware (Kishu-shikki): Wakayama's Everyday Urushi Tradition
Kishu-shikki is Wakayama's urushi tradition, built for the dinner table rather than the display cabinet. Inside Negoro-nuri's red-over-black wear, Shibuji...
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 foundation coat...
ゼンキルン 誌
Stories, studies & care from the workshop
Deep dives into kilns, glazes, and the wares behind them.
Banko ware from Yokkaichi, Mie produces about 80 percent of Japan's donabe clay pots. A guide to its tea-merchant origins, petalite clay, shidei teapots, and how to choose...
Living with and caring for handmade Japanese pieces.
Four ongoing series from the workshop — pick a thread and follow it.
Every story in the Journal, newest first.
