Globe amaranth 千日紅
Wishing Fruitful Season of Autumn
Globe amaranth 千日紅
Wishing Well of the People
Golden Cosmos キバナコスモス
Praying For Revival
Jerusalem Artichoke Flower 菊芋の花
Pray to Regain a Normal Life
Rise for Resurrection
We appreciate your support for the victims of the Noto Peninsula Earthquake happened on Jan. 1, 2024
We would be donating a portion of our sales to our partner lacquerware manufacturer/artist those who lost all of their physical assets.
- Wajimaya Zen-ni
- Wajima Kirimoto
- Junichi Hakose
- Other Craftsmen in Wajima
Most of them are suffuring from the complete destruction of the house/building and the loss of all of their belongings.
Our business will not continue unless they are back in business.
With deep prayers.
Fine Lacquerware Online
Welcome to Japanese Lacquerware Specialty Store
Welcome to Kogei Styling, the Japanese Lacquerware specialty store online.
"Lacquerware" is "Shikki" in Japanese and writes "漆器". Here the first character "漆" means "Urushi" and the second character "器" means "ware", so it is "Urushi-ware", by definition.
With more than 7000 years of history as formal or festive items, Japanese lacquerware has evolved to create highly artistic items. Then this tradition was carried on to create fine and beautiful yet durable tableware.
Unfortunately, nowadays, this tradition is diminishing and it is becoming rarer and rarer to find genuine lacquerware in stores. We Kogei Styling will assure you with our pride that you will be able to find a genuine Japanese Lacquerware here.
Please come on in!
Well-made robust everyday lacquerware
Kijiro Selection
The Most Respected Tradition
Wajima Nuri 輪 島 塗
The Work of Art
Junichi Hakose 箱瀬 淳一
Excellence in Wood Work
Yamanaka Shikki 山中漆器
Young and Talented
Kanazawa Artists 金澤の漆芸家
The Red Beauty
Hida Shunkei 飛騨春慶
The Lustrous
Echizen Shikki 越前漆器
Japanese Consumption Tax
Duty Free
We are Japanese Duty Free to foreign customers. Our price tags DO NOT INCLUDE Japanese consumption tax.
Unless it is duty free sales, the Japanese regulation requires all the retail price tags to include Japanese consumption tax in its price amount.
For domestic customers, please be on notice that our price tags DO NOT INCLUDE Japanese consumption tax and the tax will be applied to you and is calculated in the cart based on your shipping address.
Offering FREE
GIFT Wrapping
We offer a free gift wrapping like the package shown.
For this free gift wrapping please mention that you want the "GIFT WRAPPING" in the MEMO when you make your order or please e-mail us as soon as you made your order.
The color of the wrapping paper (Japanese handmade Washi 和紙 paper) is currently limited only in purple shown and the ribbon color could be chosen from pink or brown(shown).
Please allow us additional 1 day for this gift wrapping, before shipping.
Urushi
Valuable Natural Resin
Urushi lacquer is a natural resin extract from the Urushi trees. The Urushi resin is a curing aid medium of the tree itself while the tree is harmed. Therefore, the Urushi resin has many outstanding characteristics for protections.
Only about 200 ml (one cup) of the Urushi resin could be collected from an Urushi tree of 15years of age, and that's it. The tree will be mostly cut down after the resin is collected, for a new tree to be planted.
The resin collection is a total work of hand by Urushi resin collector, who is becoming extremely rare in Japan.
Raw Urushi
Ready to be Used
This Urushi is raw Urushi, collected and just filtered and cleaned. It is ready to be used in the base coatings, since it has the best adheision strength. For other coatings, such as the middle or top coatings, the raw Urushi resin is refined and adjusted and adding various pigment colorants for a distinctive look.
(courtesy of Wajimaya Zen-ni)
Wood Carving
Fine Craftsmanship
Our lacquerware, especially all of our Wajima lacquerware is carved by hand, which has become a rare case in Japan. But the warmth that you feel from the lacquerware that fits in your hands is also a result of the fine works by the woodworking craftsmen.
Base coating
Wajima-nuri
This thick base coating is one of the most distinctive process of Wajima-nuri. The photo is showing the Sanpen-ji (三辺地,The third Wajima urushi base lacquer) coating, the finest particle of Wajima Diatomite mixed with urushi lacquer is applied. This is close to the last of total base coating process of Wajima-nuri, which consists of 14 to 16 individual processes by itself. This extensive Wajima base coating is done to make the lacquerware durable.
(courtesy of Wajimaya Zen-ni)
Most important but not known
Polishing
The polishing is a very important process in Japanese Lacquerware, especially in the case of Wajima-nuri. The polishing is amazingly done each time by hand after various coatings are done. So the polishing and coating is a set and functions to create each layer more durable and finer. The polishing process is often hidden and not mentioned, but it has a huge role. And remember, each time coating or polishing is done you need at least a day to cure.
(courtesy of Wajimaya Zen-ni)
Becoming Lacquerware
Urushi - Nuri
The Picture is showing a middle coating process. Urushi coating is a work of hands.
(courtesy of Wajimaya Zen-ni)
Fine Urushi Decoration
Maki-e
The craftsmanship seen in Maki-e（蒔絵）is the highlight of the Japanese Lacquerware. Drawing a fine and elegant line with an Urushi is an extremely difficult task since the Urushi is very sticky. The masters of Maki-e will use a special fine Maki-e brush made by the hair of a rat, which is no longer available, sadly, due to the diminishing of the Maki-e brush making craftsman also with the rat hunter who prepared the fur. The brush shown is the brush made of the hair of a rat.
(courtesy of Junichi Hakose)
Let us help answer your questions on Japanese Lacquer
What are you looking for ?
Please feel free and ask us anything about Japanese Lacquerwork.
We value your time and effort to let us know, so we will do our best to answer your questions.
Literally, any question is fine, as long as it has something to do with Japanese Lacquerwork. Please utilize our expertise to explore your interest in the deep and lustrous world of Japanese Lacquerwork.
- Are you looking for any products ?
- Are you looking for any solutions ?
- Are you looking for any information ?
We believe your question may be the door to the future of Japanese lacquerwork!
No obligation is attached. We guarantee it!
Why we are here
Endangered Species
"Japanese lacquerware" is a sort of "endangered species".
Mr. Katsuro Nakamuro, Wajima lacquerware manufacturer owner, an advocate of Japanese lacquerware, and an author of books on the history of Japanese lacquerware, states so.
From the old days, authentic Japanese lacquerware had been extremely well mass-produced by hand to meet mass-market demand, thereby horned to have efficient production and cost-competitiveness as an everyday item.
Everyday item competes for price and volume in the mass market dynamics. The lacquerware market price has long been suppressed by the competition with so-called "lacquerware" made of plastics.
If the supply does not meet the market price-volume demand, production could not exist.
In addition, the current production of authentic Japanese lacquerware depends heavily on highly veteran craftsmen with an income from pensions already. They will not be participating in manufacturing 10 years from now and the cost for craftsmen could not be the same as those veterans in the future.
So there is very little room for everyday true lacquerware to exist in the market unless we find more avenues for demand.
Therefore, we thank you very much for your interest in Japanese lacquerware. Your warm thoughts and interests are profoundly helping us to sustain our valuable tradition of Japanese lacquerware for the future. This means; that our grandchildren may still have a chance to make authentic Japanese lacquerware tableware themselves and use them in their hands.