The lacquer masters, who is also the manager of "Urushi Art Hariya," have taken part in many contests, and received so many awards. In addition, they launched many brands such as "Bisai" one after another.
They also showed me collaboration works such as watches and pens that have their lacquer painting. I had never questioned or showed my interest in material, what was used to draw pictures on watches and pens. Because I was under the impression that "Lacquer painting is used for tea ceremony utensils," I was pleasantly surprised to see the watches and pens with lacquer painting in addition to "lacquer accessories." They say multiplicative effect is the merit of the combinations of lacquer painting and other materials and crafts. Thanks to the collaboration with various materials and crafts, the ways lacquer painting is applied for increase. That's the real value of "collaboration works with other materials and crafts."
"Urushi Art Hariya," originally, started as "lacquer designers" of tea ceremony utensils. It had been their work to design pictures and draw them with lacquer on the Natsume, one of the tea ceremony utensils, and deliver the Natsume to wholesalers. Unfortunately, they came to find the work decreasing, gradually, due to the decrease of demand of tea ceremony utensils. They had to do something to get over the hard situation, and decided to make other items with lacquer like accessories. However, at that time, none of the wholesalers accepted the new items as their commercial products. They started to sell their new items by themselves. They say they were reluctant to do so in the beginning. Because wholesalers hadn't accepted their items, they had no choice but sell them by themselves. However, fortunately, their efforts paid off. Their lacquer accessories sold so well that their business became bigger and bigger, and grew up to be what they are now. They have been ungrudgingly making an extra effort to produce new lacquer items, by improving their skills and getting along with the companies that produce the base.
I was so impressed to hear this story from Mr.Hariya. I did come to admire him as a real, professional craftworker. At the same time, I realized it was such craftworkers as him that had been protecting Japanese cultures for a long time. I got to learn it was important to get to know about those craftworkers and support them to protect Japanese cultures, not only using something in my daily life like wearing kimono. I was so lucky to meet this craftworker, and I'm pleasantly surprised.
After his guidance, I also got a chance to ask Mr.Hariya for a lacquer accessory. I told him that I'd like to make a present for foreign people who came to Japan from dangerous places like Ukrainians, and then he accepted the idea and advised me to prepare for a base and choose a picture for it. I liked the idea of lacquer accessories which makes lacquer painting look beautiful. He gave me a pamphlet to help me think about a picture. I decided to ask the craftworkers of Hida Shunkei to make a base for the accessory.
テキストをa custom-made accessory of Hida Shunkeinuri and Makie
Association Yaibi（under construction now） is going to sell this kind of product, collaboration work of Hida Shunkeinuri and Makie. If you have any questions or order something, please feel free to contact.
