THE TIMELESS BEAUTY OF URUSHI, JAPANESE LACQUERWARE

Over millennia, the production of urushi art has elevated from a traditional Japanese craft into a high-brow art form that’s celebrated for its use of natural, long-lasting resources. It’s often synonymous with Japan itself and, as the work of award-winning artist Naoya Takayama proves, it shares a few commonalities with the commitment that Mazda pours into its head-turning designs. Mazda finds inspiration in those ancient techniques to develop perfect colour paintings with true brilliance highlighting subtle details of their award-winning Kodo design. 

Touch it, and it feels as gentle as skin. Gaze at its surface, and it mesmerises with a deep lustre. Japanese lacquerware, coated with thin layers of urushi tree sap, is the pinnacle of ancient tradition and craftsmanship, and now with the world turning to environmentally sustainable products, there’s never been a better time to celebrate urushi art.

Urushi sap, taken from a type of tree that only grows in East Asia, has been used to protect and decorate objects, combining art and function, for 10,000 years.

It’s a tricky and patience-testing task: the artist applies dozens of layers of urushi coating, waiting days at a time for each layer to dry before sanding them down to 0.03mm thick. Takayama is lauded for his dexterous take on the akebono-nuri technique, creating black and red gradations over several layers rather than one, adding depth to the decoration.

Mazda also identifies with Takayama’s well-honed craftsmanship in that he also relies on the hand and eye, an intricate balance of adding coloured lacquer and then polishing it. Urushi artists also get creative in choosing what to add to the milky white sap in order to create a new colour or texture. Takayama sources his signature ingredient, powdered oyster shell, locally in Hiroshima, also home to Mazda HQ. He adds it to his base coating, a crucial layer that makes the finished piece resistant to water and humidity so it won’t erode even if it cracks. “I want these bowls to be used every day, so I pay extra attention to safety,” he says.

This unwavering commitment to innovation is at the heart of Mazda as well, and it was not until the development of the Takuminuri technology that it was possible to create paint finishes that are so amazingly reflective to work in harmony with the subtle contours crafted by Mazda’s designers. White paint requires more layers as it is more transparent, hence the biggest challenge in developing Rhodium White was to eliminate unevenness. However, Mazda’s engineers developed a technique to handle the paint thickness at a nanometer level to achieve the same whiteness while reducing nearly 30% of the thickness and obtain precise dispersion of aluminium flakes. This enabled Mazda to mass produce paint that usually is only possible at the hand of a Takumi.

Made from natural materials, Japanese lacquerware is a smart choice for the environmentally conscious.“It’s light and durable, and it can be used every day by both young and old,” Takayama says. Urushi art embodies the idea, common in Japanese aesthetics, of the work being alive, of possessing an independent vitality. If a piece of lacquerware gets damaged, urushi craftsmen are on hand to give it new life. They mend it using an ancient technique called kintsugi, taking advantage of the strong adhesive properties of urushi sap to fuse chips and cracks together in an artistic way that, using gold and other metals, creates a new way of the art form being expressed and perceived.
For those trying out urushi products for the first time, Takayama recommends soup bowls. “Pour hot soup into the bowl, hold it and the heat will transfer gently into your hands,” he says. “Japanese people sip straight from the bowl. Try it and you can enjoy the skin-like texture against your lips.”