How to care for urushi lacquerware 漆

How do you care for urushi lacquerware?

Wash it by hand in cool water and dry it with a soft cloth right away; do not let it sit wet or drip dry on its own. Nippon.com's profile of Jobodji lacquerware, a regional Japanese lacquer craft, describes exactly that routine: pieces are washed in cold water and dried with a cloth. With that habit, a piece develops a mirror-like patina over years of use as the lacquer's fine graininess wears away.

Skip the dishwasher and the microwave. Wikipedia's reference on lacquerware conservation records that high temperature combined with moisture damages the surface, which is exactly the combination a hot, wet dishwasher cycle applies. A microwave heats unevenly too.

Keep lacquerware out of direct sunlight and away from very dry air. The same source notes that lacquerware is very sensitive to light, which causes fading and discolouration. Conservation Wiki's lacquer reference adds that the cured film holds a small amount of bound water that keeps it stable, so very dry conditions can pull that water out and break the film down over time. A Tsugaru lacquerware craftsman profiled by Japan's Traditional Crafts Aoyama Square makes the same point about a fridge: storing a piece there dries out the lacquer and can crack it, because the inside of a refrigerator is an unusually dry place for the material to sit.

None of this makes lacquerware fragile in daily use. It is particular about heat, light and dryness rather than water itself; cured urushi is naturally hard and waterproof, which is why a hand wash is enough.

What is Japanese lacquer (urushi)?

Urushi is the sap of the lacquer tree (Toxicodendron vernicifluum); the word also names the tree itself and the finish made from it. The raw sap contains a compound called urushiol, the same family of irritant found in poison ivy. In its wet state it can cause a bad skin rash from contact or even from fumes. Lacquer does not dry the way paint dries. It cures in a warm, humid chamber over twelve to twenty-four hours, and the humidity is what drives the chemical change: urushiol polymerises into a clear, hard, waterproof film. Once that cure is complete the surface is generally safe to handle, and the rash risk that worried people while it was wet is largely gone.

Why does it cost more than a painted finish?

Because the process is slow and almost entirely done by hand, with no shortcut that keeps the result honest. Wakasa lacquerware, made around Obama City in Fukui, is documented at around sixty separate steps to finish one piece, including a decorative technique where pine needles, cypress leaves, rapeseed, rice husk or eggshell is set into a wet coat of lacquer and later ground back to reveal the pattern underneath. Wajima lacquerware, from the city of Wajima in Ishikawa, goes further again: the base is reinforced with pasted cloth and built up in many thick layers of an undercoat mixed with jinoko, a powdered earth particular to the area, which is the reason Wajima ware is known for holding up to daily use. Both crafts also need real calendar time as well as labour, since each coat has to cure before the next one goes on. None of that scales the way a sprayed lacquer-look coating does, and the price follows.

What do we carry in lacquer?

What we stock in genuine lacquer right now includes chopsticks and a spoon, all made in Japan. The Kutani x Wakasa lacquer chopsticks come in two lengths, made in a collaboration between Seikogama (a Kutani kiln) and lacquer craftspeople working in the Wakasa style from Obama City in Fukui: the Gourd Pattern design ($13.99) and the Cobblestone design ($13.99). Each pair is natural hardwood under the lacquer coat, made entirely by one artisan. The Wooden Dessert Spoon ($10.00) uses a different urushi technique, suri-urushi, where translucent lacquer is rubbed into the grain by hand layer after layer so the wood's own texture still shows through; the maker says it is hand wash only.

We also carry lacquer coated wooden chopsticks from Aoba. The Cat design ($15.00) is hand wash only, as the maker says, while the Divine Wind design ($15.00) is dishwasher safe by the maker's own listing.

Japan's Traditional Crafts Aoyama Square, the body behind the Wakasa Nuri designation, says Wakasa lacquered chopsticks are durable enough to last five years even with daily use. Kosaku Furukawa, the third-generation owner of Furukawa Wakasa Nuri Shop, sums up why that durability takes so long to make: "There's so much to learn, so it takes at least five years just to be able to make a product." It is a small slice of what real urushi can be, but it is the genuine craft rather than a lacquer-look print. That alone makes it worth choosing. Browse our chopsticks to see these alongside the wood and glass options we also carry.

Quick answers

These are the questions people ask us most often about lacquer, answered briefly.

Is urushi lacquer toxic once it has cured? The wet sap contains urushiol, which can cause a bad skin rash, but once fully cured in a humid chamber the surface is generally safe to handle; the rash risk is a wet-lacquer problem, not a finished-piece one.

Why is genuine lacquerware more expensive than a lacquer-look coating? Because it takes many hand-applied coats with real drying time between them; Wakasa lacquerware runs to around sixty steps and Wajima lacquerware is built up over many hand-applied undercoat layers, which a sprayed or printed finish never needs.

Can lacquerware go in the sun? Best not to. Cured lacquer degrades when exposed to ultraviolet light, and prolonged exposure to extreme dryness can crack, peel or crumble it, so keep lacquerware away from direct sunlight and very dry spots.

Do you carry lacquer sake ware, or only chopsticks? No sake ware. We carry lacquer chopsticks (our Wakasa pairs plus Aoba wooden chopsticks) and a lacquer-coated wooden dessert spoon.