Interior of 140-year-old 大田区 kura atelier with aged hinoki beams and natural light filtering through lattice windows

EST. 1683

Artisan Hobby Realm

Where Silence
Becomes Form

A 140-year-old kura in the foothills of Mt. Rokko still carries the heartbeat of urushi.

Dawn light filters through aged hinoki lattice. The faint, almost sweet scent of raw lacquer drifts on cool air. Here, time slows. Each brushstroke echoes four centuries of quiet mastery. This is not a workshop. It is a living vessel where the soul of urushi continues to breathe.

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FOUR CENTURIES, ONE ROOF

A family legacy written in layers thinner than breath.

Ancient wooden beams inside the 大田区 urushi atelier kura, showing 140 years of patina and smoke

In 1683, during the Genroku era, our ancestor began refining urushi in this very valley. The same hand-mixed tools, the same seasonal rhythms, the same reverence remain. What changes is only the sensitivity with which we listen to the material. Today, the fifth and sixth generations work side by side beneath the massive beams that have absorbed the smoke of countless charcoal fires.

Read the Full Family Chronicle

1683

GENROKU ERA

GENERATIONS

LIVING NATIONAL TREASURES IN RESIDENCE

Eight pairs of hands that have touched the same lacquer for 127 combined years.

Our craftsmen do not merely apply lacquer. They negotiate with it. They understand its moods, its temperature, its memory. Each master carries both ancestral technique and deeply personal sensibility.

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Hiroshi Koda

Fifth-generation master. At dawn he can be found alone in the lacquer room listening to the exact pitch of the stirring rod against the stone bowl. His signature rokuroshi technique produces surfaces so deep they appear to swallow light itself. 48 years of continuous practice.

48 YEARS • FIFTH GENERATION

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Yuko Koda

Sixth generation. Trained in both Kyoto and Paris. Her maki-e work marries 17th-century gold-sprinkling precision with contemporary spatial tension. Winner of the 2022 Japan Craft Association Prize. She still insists on grinding her own sumi ink by hand every sunrise.

31 YEARS • SIXTH GENERATION

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Kenji Nakamura

Lead finisher. His fingertips can detect a dust particle one-tenth the width of a human hair on a wet lacquer surface. 41 years spent perfecting the art of intermediate polishing using only charcoal from the ubame oak of Yakushima.

41 YEARS • LEAD FINISHER

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Sanae Ito

Specialist in nashiji pear-skin texture. Her hands move at a pace that seems impossible until you realize she is not rushing but breathing with the lacquer. Creates surfaces that catch and scatter light like morning mist on the Seto Inland Sea.

29 YEARS • NASHIJI MASTER

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Takashi Mori

The youngest full-time craftsman. Already in his 17th year. Specializes in the revival of neglected Kamakura-era techniques using only lacquer tapped from trees within 40km of the atelier. His work carries the scent of the specific mountain where the sap was gathered.

17 YEARS • REVIVALIST

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Noriko Hayashi

Restoration master. Brings 300-year-old neglected pieces back to life using techniques so precise that even the original maker would not notice the repair. She says every healed piece carries two stories — one old, one new.

36 YEARS • RESTORATION

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THE EIGHT LAYERS OF BECOMING

Each piece must pass through 42 distinct stages before it is allowed to meet the world.

There is no shortcut. The urushi must be stirred 180 times clockwise then 180 times counter-clockwise at precise temperatures. The wood must be prepared during the correct moon phase. Every layer must cure in total darkness for exactly the right number of days. This is not ritual for ritual’s sake. It is the only way the material reveals its true nature.

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1. Ki-no-kata — Wood Preparation

Only 180-year-old kaya and hinoki are used. The wood is hand-planed to within 0.05mm tolerance then left to rest for 90 days in the north-facing kura so that internal stresses release naturally. You can hear the wood sigh as it settles.

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2. Shitaji — Foundation Layer

A secret blend of tonoko clay, raw urushi and rice glue is applied in three increasingly fine coats. Each layer is dried for 72 hours at 28°C and 78% humidity before the next. The surface must feel like cool stone before proceeding.

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3. Naka-nuri — Intermediate Coats

Between 12 and 28 layers of pure translucent urushi are painstakingly applied. Each coat is sanded with progressively finer whetstones from the Yoshino riverbed until the surface disappears and only reflection remains.

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4. Uwamuri — Final Transparent Layer

The final coat is applied under moonlight when humidity is lowest. This living skin will continue to cure and deepen in color for the next 200 years. The piece is then placed in complete darkness for 40 days.

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5. Maki-e — Gold Dust Painting

Using brushes made from the tail hair of three-week-old mice, 24-karat gold and platinum powders are laid into still-tacky lacquer. The density of each particle is measured by eye under 40x magnification.

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6. Togidashi — Burnishing Revelation

The surface is covered in charcoal powder then polished with deer horn and human palm oil until the design emerges from within the lacquer like a memory surfacing from deep water.

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7. Rō-iro — Mirror Finish

Final polishing with crushed deer antler powder and the softest cotton from the Nara basin. The surface becomes so reflective you can see your own pulse in it.

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8. Yūyū — The Waiting

The completed piece rests for minimum 120 days in the deepest part of the kura. Only then is it allowed to meet light and human touch. Many pieces wait longer — some for years.

Watch the 9-Minute Process Film

THE PHILOSOPHY WE INHERIT

We do not own these techniques. We are temporary custodians.

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Material Honesty

We never hide the urushi. We never accelerate its curing with modern chemicals. The natural color progression from amber to deep obsidian is part of the object’s biography.

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Seasonal Rhythm

Lacquer tapping happens only between June 15th and September 10th. The atelier adjusts its entire production calendar to this biological reality.

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Invisible Perfection

The most important surfaces are those that will never be seen — the inside of lids, the undersides of bases. These are finished to the same standard as the exterior.

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Repair Over Replacement

Every piece we make is designed to be repaired. We maintain complete records of every object’s construction so that in 150 years it can be restored using identical materials and methods.

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Local Sourcing

All urushi used in our pieces comes from trees within Hyogo and Kyoto prefectures. The distance between tree and finished object is never more than 87 kilometers.

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Quiet Luxury

We reject ostentation. The highest compliment is when a guest holds one of our pieces and cannot immediately tell how many years of work it contains.

CURRENT WORKS IN PROGRESS

Pieces that have lived with us between 7 months and 4 years.

These are not products. They are living beings in the final stages of their becoming. Some will be completed this season. Others will wait until the exact right moment reveals itself. Touch them with your eyes only.

ALL

TRAYS

BOWLS

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QUESTIONS FROM THE STUDIO FLOOR

Answers spoken directly by the masters themselves.

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THE KURA DOORS ARE OPEN ON SPECIFIC DAYS ONLY

Come Sit With Us

There is a particular quality of silence that can only be experienced inside these 127-year-old walls. A particular scent that cannot be replicated. We invite you to witness the next chapter of a story that began when your ancestors and ours still spoke different languages but shared the same reverence for material and time.

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Where SilenceBecomes Form