High quality homeTimesEnjoy the new daily life, add color to Kiso lacquerware

While there are lacquerware that have developed as art and crafts in castle towns, such as Kyoto lacquerware and Wajima lacquerware, which has flourished as a post town on the Nakasendo road, has developed as a daily necessity directly connected to people's lives.
There are approximately 100 lacquerware shops in the Kiso Hirasawa area, Shiojiri City, a major production area of ​​Kiso lacquerware, and many craftsmen are active. "There are many craftsmen who can respond flexibly and are enthusiastic about studying," says Ota Hiroshi, executive director of the Shiojiri-Kiso Regional Local Industry Promotion Center, which sells and promotes local products in the Shiojiri-Kiso Regional Local Industry Promotion Center, which operates projects to revitalize production areas, and more. The efforts and technical skills of these craftsmen have been recognized, and for about 20 years, they have been working together as a producer to restore cultural assets, and have been working on restoring the works of Hiroshima's Itsukushima Shrine, Nagoya Castle Honmaru Goten, Ueno Toshogu Shrine, and more.

The Kiso Hirasawa area has been selected as the first lacquer town in the country to preserve the important traditional buildings. "The reason why Kiso craftsmen are able to create cultural assets is probably because they have a history of flexibly creating everything from small items to large furniture," says Ota. It is also apparently that Kiso lacquer craftsmen are able to work united as producers because of their cooperation.

Ito Hiroshi Shoten
伊藤 寛茂さん
At Kiso Hirasawa, each craftsman is working hard to make his own ideas every day. Among them, Ito Kanshi Shoten, a long-established company founded in 1830, stands out with its unique coating called "Ancient Akane lacquer."
"Ancient Akane lacquer is dark vermilion immediately after applying it, but as you use it, its gloss and brightness increases," says Ito. It is said that there are differences in the lacquer composition, the proportion of pigments, the humidity in the room, and the drying method.

It was born about 40 to 50 years ago. The trigger was that as the main product of Kiso lacquerware, the zataku, gradually became less and less used in everyday life, and the production shifted to making accessories, the father of the previous generation, Ito, received a consultation from a department store in Tokyo.
"The idea was that a department store buyer asked if they could make lacquerware in a calmer colour than traditional vermilion. The previous and uncle completed the research, and after about a year of trial and error, the colour was completed. It is a colour that only we can produce."

There are many fans of this "Ancient Akane Laver," and in response to requests from regular customers, he also made pasta plates, and he also made lacquerware knife and fork that can be used on this pasta plate if he were to do so.
"It's great that customers say, 'I'm glad I used it' and 'I feel like the usual food has improved a few times', which is what makes it a great gift for the maker.'
Ito cherish tradition and develops with flexibility. From now on, we will continue to create a variety of carefully selected items using DNA that creates new things that have been handed down from the previous generation.

Lacquer is painted in a lacquerware (left of the photo), featuring a large window on the second floor. It is craftsmanship to pay close attention to dust and quickly apply it to the uniform thickness. Each bowl is made over two to three months. High-quality Japanese lacquer is soft and easy to apply, and even when it dries and hardens, it doesn't feel heavy. The craftsmen make their own tools, use different equipment and machines, and work efficiently by thinking about the steps they need to do.

Okochi Furniture Workshop
Okochi Jun
Sowazen is a lacquered four-legged meal. The Kiso Hirasawa craftsmen were the ones who came up with a rational and uniform technique in the mid-Taisho period, combining alternating legs from a single piece of wood to remove wood without waste, and then using the technique of grinding (hikimage). Attracted by this technology and the beauty of the unique curve, Okochi Jun, a traditional Kiso lacquerware ware and daily necessities that are familiar to the present day, using the techniques of "Sowazen" to bending the grinding technique under the brand name "NOKO" is Okochi Jun, and is also a traditional craftsman of Kiso lacquerware.

The NC machine tools handled by young craftsmen are programmed using traditional grinding groove machines that were handed over from Kichiya, a closed-off area. The young craftsman who paints lacquer is currently attending Kiso Urushi Art Institute, Shiojiri City, where he studies lacquer painting.