ax Lamb’s upcoming show ‘Urushi Wajima’
at London’s Gallery Fumi is the culmination
of a nearly ten-year love affair with the
finest Japanese urushi lacquer, and with
the craftspeople in Wajima – in Ishikawa
prefecture, on the northern tip of the Noto
peninsula – who live and breathe the craft.
‘I’ve been in Wajima four times and just
love working with all the craftspeople
involved,’ says Lamb. His designs merge
generations of tradition with his humorous
and no-nonsense approach to the creative
terrain between art and furniture.
If one can talk about a hierarchy of
lacquer-producing regions in Japan, Wajima
comes out on top. Wajima-nuri, as lacquer
products from the small city (population
25,000) are known in Japan, are famed for
superior durability. Their rigorous production
involves layer upon layer of increasingly
fine base coats, with careful drying, sanding
and smoothing between each layer, until the
final glossy top layer is applied, perhaps with
some additional decoration in fine gold-leaf
or coloured urushi.
Lamb’s first hands-on experience with
the tradition was back in 2010, when he
participated in an exhibition at the Japanese
Embassy in London called ‘Collacqueration’.
One of his early three-legged split-wood stools
was given the all-over lacquer treatment by
a Wajima craftsperson.
Since then, Lamb has developed his
own approach to the lacquering process.
In traditional Wajima-nuri, the wood
grains are almost always completely hidden
between the many layers of base coats. It
can be difficult for the untrained eye to tell
the difference between a wooden or plastic
bowl. By keeping the wood grains exposed
and doing away with the many layers of base
coatings, Lamb manages to keep the trueM
ABOVE, A FINAL LAYER
OF WHITE TOP COAT
URUSHI IS APPLIED TO
A BENCH LEG IN THE
HIKOMOCHI WORKSHOP
BELOW, MASAYOSHI
NISHIGUCHI APPLIES
BLACK URUSHI TO
LAMB’S ‘URUSHI’ TABLEnature of the wood alive, while still keeping
the luxurious finish of the lacquer.
Since 2010, Gallery Fumi has exhibited
(and quickly sold) many more of Lamb’s
Wajima works – including benches, stools
and tables – but the new ‘Urushi Wajima’
show is an attempt to push boundaries and
commit to an exhibition entirely focused
on urushi. ‘This is without a doubt one of the
most important shows we have been involved
in as a gallery. It’s all incredibly exciting,’
says Gallery Fumi co-director Valerio Capo.
In Wajima, Motoya Daiku, the sixth-
generation head of Tsutaya, one of the city’s
many lacquer companies, is a key collaborator.
In his beautiful townhouse office in the
centre of the city, he explains the difference
between Wajima-nuri and some of Japan’s
other urushi traditions. ‘Wajima-nuri is
by far the strongest tradition of Japanese
lacquer,’ he says as he brandishes a 50cm-long
piece of wood, divided into the 16 different
coats in which a rice bowl or carrying tray
would typically be covered. ‘And all this
within a total thickness of only about 0.7mm.’
At his company’s nearby workshop,
craftspeople are busy putting the final
touches to some of Lamb’s larger items for
the exhibition. There is a pitch-black pirate
chest and an impressive bookcase, as well
as a striking blood-red low cabinet with two
snugly fitting sliding doors.
Lamb is known for being very hands-on,and usually creates most of his works (^) »
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Design