Urushi
Urushi-wan.
Urushi is the Japanese lacquer, made from sap of urushi tree. Some professionals say that the philosophy behind urushi work is to return the lacquer into the tree.
Urushi is a traditional Japanese handcraft, meaning generally urushi-lacquer applied on tree. Common examples are urushi-wan, and other Japanese kitchenware or scabbard of katana.
The common wood for making urushi is hinoki (japanese cypress), katsura, shioji, icho, sugi, kiri (Paulownia tomentosa). Hiki-mono, turning wheel is commonly used for making round objects, such as bowls or plates. The wood often used with hiki-mono are for example keyaki, shioji, or beech or turbinata (Japanese horse chestnut).
Mage-mono boxes are made traditionally from katsura or hinoki.
Applying another layer of urushi using "urushi-bake".
For a products in large sometimes plywood is also used.
Applying the lacquer is a complex and time consuming process. Specialized brush, urushi-bake is used to apply the lacquer into the wood in several phases. Urushi-bake is a flat brush, made from hair of human female, and is made like a pencil, it is possible to cut the wood around it and expose more of the brush after it wears out.
The drying phase is the real challenge, because it requires right temperature and air humidity. Professionals use specialized cabinets (furo) to keep the humidity inside and the dreadful insects and dust outside.
If the air is too cold or dry, the lacquer will not dry properly. In addition the place where urushi is left to dry must be extremely clean - because an insect, or a piece of dust will ruin the lacquer.
