> [!NOTE]+ Meta > Author:: Patricia Leigh Brown and Kentaro Takahashi > Reference:: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/arts/after-an-earthquake-preserving-a-slow-craft-in-a-fast-world.html > Date:: 2025 > Tags:: #warp/news #Japan #lacquer > WeftLinks:: [[Disaster recovery value of craft]] > Claim:: [[Claim - Craft helps recovery from trauma]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > Lacquer continues despite the destruction of the earthquake. This includes a good description of Japanese lacquer techniques. ### Highlights > A big earthquake destroyed many homes and studios of lacquer artisans in Wajima, Japan. The artisans are working hard to keep their traditional craft alive despite the damage and challenges. They hope to train new artists and revive the town's lacquerware industry for the future. > Deep in his heart, Kazuo Yamagishi, a lacquer artist designated a Living National Treasure of Japan > Before the quake, most of Wajima's 700 or so artisans had workshops in their homes. "The whole city functioned almost as an interconnecting studio to create its famous lacquerware," said Masami Yamada, the Victoria & Albert Museum's curator of Japanese art, who has visited twice since the disaster. > Today, many craftspeople remaining in Wajima are working out of 85 emergency prefabricated lacquer studios financed by the Japanese government, at a cost of $8.5 million. > He and other surface decorators are masters of challenging techniques like "chinkin," which involves deftly embedding gold, silver or platinum powder into hand-carved dots and grooves; "maki-e," or "sprinkled pictures," in which designs are drawn in damp lacquer and sprinkled with gold and other metallic powders before it dries; and "raden," the precise inlaying of cut abalone, mother-of-pearl and other shells. > There is a plan to build a youth training center to create a pipeline of artisans who would produce everyday tableware and develop new products, with the goal of helping to re-energize Wajima's economy and cultivate markets overseas. > In April, the V & A Museum will open "Urushi Now: Contemporary Japanese Lacquer," a yearlong exhibition of mostly contemporary lacquer pieces.