Industry (Craft)

Takamori pictures are made by painting Japanese lacquer (Japan, Urushi) on wood or bamboo materials, painting on this ground pictures and then heaping more Urushi on top of this pattern. Motives include seasonal motives, plants and insects.
In case of ordinary lacquer ware the material itself is carved and covered with lacquer. The Takamori pictures create patterns by repeated, alternate thick painting of red and black lacquer and subsequent carving with a needle to bring out the different colors.
Thus, this craft requires highly developed skills attained during long years of practice and careful attention not to overlook even a single line during the process of repeated painting and drying. The manufacture of small items like rice bowls, bowls for sweets, trays, baskets and jewelry boxes requires about 5 months, while the work on large items may even take more than a year.
The special refinement of the Urushi, its brilliance and profound taste that cannot be imitated make these pieces of craft to objects never tiring the eye.
Today, the Ikkokusai family, counts the seventeenth generation since the first generation that started the craft approximately 200 years ago.
To prevent crude and imperfect work, the Ikkokusai Takamori picture technique has been handed down from father to son for seventeen generations to the present day.
In 1991 it has been designated a traditional craft of Hiroshima Prefecture.