Ettore Sottsass | Urushi no Miyabi & Urushi no Kirameki & Urushi no Kiwami
Japanese Lacquerware Collection
エットレ･ソットサス | 漆の雅コレクション＆漆の煌コレクション＆漆の極コレクション

For more than 1500 years a traditional culture called Urushi-Kogei(the art and craft of lacquerware)has existed in Japan.

Urushi is a natural lacquer obtained from the refined sap of the deciduous Urushi tree. Its deep gloss is stable against acidsand alkali and has an excellent resistance to humidity and to the ill-effects of time.

The wares, which include trays, boxes, bowls and other crockery, made of wood lacquered with numerous layers of Urushi, are called Shikki.

Shikki are handcrafted wares characteristic of the East, but those of Japan in particular are acclaimed in the rest of the world for their precise and delicate finish and for the refined and silent brightness of their Urushi prosess.

Proof of this for example is that in English the word "china" came to mean "ceramic" and the word "japan" to mean "lacquer".

High quality Shikki, prized by the nobility an by the daimyo(feudal lords), are finished with a long and patient manual process, using choice materials and the alchemi of inspired master-craftsmen.

At the end of this long process a work of supreme craftsmanchip is born.

The subject covered by this "MaruTomi Japanese Lacquerware Collection" is the relationship between nature and man, the idea being to reconsider this link and to envisage products.Whithin the contemporary world of intensive technological and digital development, in which the natural component will still be fundamental.

Together Ettore Sottsass, the internationally renowned contemporary designer, and the finest Japanese Urushi master-craftmen,"listend to", conversed and worked with natural materials : wood and Urushi.

The result is this new Urushi no Miyabi & Urushi no Krameki & Urushi no Kiwami (the refined art of lacquerware) collection; an important message from an ancient culture to the twenty-first century.