To collect lacquer sap, it is necessary to slash a lacquer tree with a
knife and then scrape and collect the oozing milk-like liquid in a container.
Some
workers scrape 150 to 300 trees a day. The season for collecting this raw
lacquer sap is from late June to October. One lacquer tree can provide only about 200 grams of lacquer. These days most lacquer is imported
from other countries such as China, but Japanese lacquer is considered
to be indispensable in spite of its high price. |
Scraping and Collecting Lacquer Sap |
The raw lacquer sap which has been collected from trees is called "arami-lacquer."
First, the sap is filtered since it contains foreign bodies such as tree
bark. Then, in order to lower the level of viscosity, the sap is put into
a pot which is then heated in hot water. |
Heated in Hot Water |
Flue is added to the heated lacquer, which absorbs impurities in the sap.
This mixture is processed in a centrifugal separator, and the flue is separated
from the lacquer. What remains is called crude lacquer, which contains
25 to 30 percent water. All the initial steps in this process, from heating
the lacquer sap in hot water through filtration, are known as "lacquer
filtration." |
Filtration |
"Kurome" is a process by which the moisture contained in crude
lacquer is evaporated by heating it. When crude lacquer is heated and thus
dehydrated, it carbonizes and becomes dark, which is why the name "kurome"
(literally: making black) has been given to this process. There are two
kinds of kurome---"tenpi kurome" (drying naturally in the sun)
and "kikai kurome" (drying under mechanically controlled conditions).
Today few people use the sun during this process, and most crude lacquer
is processed by machine. |
Kurome |
In order to make the lacquer texture even and smooth, the lacquer is stirred
thoroughly. This process is called "nayashi," and it gives the
lacquer a special sheen and viscosity. Lacquerware is shiny and solid because
of this process. While lacquerware coated with crude lacquer will change
its appearance in two to three years, a similar piece finished with lacquer
which has undergone the steps described here (kurome and nayashi) will
not change its appearance for hundreds of years. |
|
