INNOVATE

THE TIMELESS BEAUTY OF URUSHI, JAPANESE LACQUERWARE

Over millennia, the production of urushi art has elevated from a traditional Japanese craft into a high-brow art form that’s celebrated for its use of natural, long-lasting resources. It’s often synonymous with Japan itself and, as the work of award-winning artist Naoya Takayama proves, it shares a few commonalities with the commitment that Mazda pours into its head-turning designs. Mazda finds inspiration in those ancient techniques to develop perfect colour paintings with true brilliance highlighting subtle details of their award-winning Kodo design. 

“Japanese lacquerware, coated with thin layers of urushi tree sap...has been used to protect and decorate objects combining art and function for 10,000 years.” 

Touch it, and it feels as gentle as skin. Gaze at its surface, and it mesmerises with a deep lustre. Japanese lacquerware, coated with thin layers of urushi tree sap, is the pinnacle of ancient tradition and craftsmanship, and now with the world turning to environmentally sustainable products, there’s never been a better time to celebrate urushi art.

 

Urushi sap, taken from a type of tree that only grows in East Asia, has been used to protect and decorate objects, combining art and function, for 10,000 years.

An urushi-painted surface is resistant to corrosive acids and alkalis, giving it tough durability, but because it dries by absorbing the air’s moisture, it gives off a delicate glow. “That’s why the coating seems moist and soft and has a unique lustre,” says Naoya Takayama, an award-winning urushi artist in Hiroshima. “The skill lies in how you bring out this texture.”

It’s a tricky and patience-testing task: the artist applies dozens of layers of urushi coating, waiting days at a time for each layer to dry before sanding them down to 0.03mm thick. Takayama is lauded for his dexterous take on the akebono-nuri technique, creating black and red gradations over several layers rather than one, adding depth to the decoration.

MAZDA’S TAK­U­MIN­URI TECH­NO­LOGY: HU­MAN TOUCH FOR A HIGH-QU­AL­ITY PAINT FIN­ISH

 

So effective is the use of paint layers for adding depth and maintaining delicate details, Mazda incorporated the technique into its robotic Takuminuri paint technology, which, using various data points, mimics the touch and technique of a human painter to incredibly precise detail. What’s more, 2022 marks both the 10th anniversary of Takuminuri and the launch of a new, eye-catching colour Artisan Red, an extraordinary red that is reminiscent of mature wine made with unsurpassed craftsmanship. It joins Mazda’s range of premium body colours such as Soul Red Crystal, Polymetal Grey, and Rhodium White, all being comprised of three layers: a clear layer, translucent paint layer, and a reflective/absorptive layer. It combines an outstanding aesthetic appearance with a reduced environmental footprint. The bold Takuminuri paint is designed to accentuate strength and beauty through form while providing a richer depth, stronger reflections and, overall, an eye-catching aesthetic to the vehicle.

Mazda also identifies with Takayama’s well-honed craftsmanship in that he also relies on the hand and eye, an intricate balance of adding coloured lacquer and then polishing it. Urushi artists also get creative in choosing what to add to the milky white sap in order to create a new colour or texture. Takayama sources his signature ingredient, powdered oyster shell, locally in Hiroshima, also home to Mazda HQ. He adds it to his base coating, a crucial layer that makes the finished piece resistant to water and humidity so it won’t erode even if it cracks. “I want these bowls to be used every day, so I pay extra attention to safety,” he says.

RHO­DI­UM WHITE: THE PER­FECT CO­L­OR HIGH­LIGHT­ING KODO DESIGN

 

For Mazda, the meticulous application of the layers is also crucial for a successful process and a precise, high quality result. The significance of kouhaku in the Japanese culture, the combination of red and white notably embodied in the national flag, and the aesthetics of subtraction from the world of “Zen” motivated Mazda's creatives to work hard to deliver a flawlessly finished white colour. Rhodium White uses aluminium flakes to create a uniform reflective layer just 0.5 microns thick. Combined with the silky smooth, fine-grained white and a clear layer the result is “a fine white with a metal-like feel in the way the surface shines,” says Okamoto, Mazda’s Senior Creative Expert in the Design Division. With its unique metal-like shine, rich depth, radiance and fine grain, Rhodium White accentuates the shadows that have been artfully sculpted into Mazda’s Kodo design. Because colour isn’t simply the finishing flourish of design at Mazda. It’s considered an essential element of form itself. 

WHEN INNOVATION MEETS TRADITION IN THE QUEST FOR THE ULTIMATE WHITE

 

 

With urushi pieces being crafted since prehistoric times, Takayama tries not to feel restricted by tradition, and that is why innovation is key to his design philosophy, he says. “The generations before us have been developing the craft with the future in mind, so we should also strive to advance the design – I want to make new things with timeless techniques.”

 

 

This unwavering commitment to innovation is at the heart of Mazda as well, and it was not until the development of the Takuminuri technology that it was possible to create paint finishes that are so amazingly reflective to work in harmony with the subtle contours crafted by Mazda’s designers. White paint requires more layers as it is more transparent, hence the biggest challenge in developing Rhodium White was to eliminate unevenness. However, Mazda’s engineers developed a technique to handle the paint thickness at a nanometer level to achieve the same whiteness while reducing nearly 30% of the thickness and obtain precise dispersion of aluminium flakes. This enabled Mazda to mass produce paint that usually is only possible at the hand of a Takumi.

JA­PAN­ESE LAC­QUER­WARE - A PRODUCT FOR OUR TIMES

 

Made from natural materials, Japanese lacquerware is a smart choice for the environmentally conscious.“It’s light and durable, and it can be used every day by both young and old,” Takayama says. Urushi art embodies the idea, common in Japanese aesthetics, of the work being alive, of possessing an independent vitality. If a piece of lacquerware gets damaged, urushi craftsmen are on hand to give it new life. They mend it using an ancient technique called kintsugi, taking advantage of the strong adhesive properties of urushi sap to fuse chips and cracks together in an artistic way that, using gold and other metals, creates a new way of the art form being expressed and perceived.
For those trying out urushi products for the first time, Takayama recommends soup bowls. “Pour hot soup into the bowl, hold it and the heat will transfer gently into your hands,” he says. “Japanese people sip straight from the bowl. Try it and you can enjoy the skin-like texture against your lips.”

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