Odawara lacquerware

Odawara lacquerware is tied to Odawara City in Kanagawa Prefecture and to timber from the Hakone mountain area. Around the middle Muromachi period, wood from the Hakone mountains was turned into vessels and coated with lacquer, giving the craft a foundation in wood base, form, grain, and lacquer surface.

The forests behind Odawara and the Hakone hills give these objects a precise sense of place. Wood becomes trays, bowls, plates, tea saucers, rice containers, and other everyday forms before lacquer deepens the surface. Here, regional character means a direct connection among Odawara, mountain timber, lathe-shaped vessels, and table use.

Odawara’s castle-town and post-town setting also shaped the craft. Hojo Ujiyasu invited lacquer artisans into the town to develop Odawara lacquerware, and colored lacquer techniques became part of the repertoire; in the Edo period, lacquer was used on trays and bowls as well as arms.

The continuity is visible in concrete work: turned vessels, the addition of colored lacquer, and practical lacquerware made for daily objects. Odawara lacquerware was named a traditional craft in May 1984, while the reader-facing substance remains the vessel in hand, whether a bowl, tray, or lacquered object shaped by local artisans.

Zelkova appears often in Odawara lacquerware because its grain is prominent, and the material is valued for sturdiness and lower tendency to warp. The accepted wood base also includes sen, mulberry, horse chestnut, or comparable timber, while the lacquer itself is natural lacquer.

Suri-urushi and kijiro-nuri keep the wood grain in view. The clear, glossy lacquer brings forward the turned curves, zelkova pattern, and edges of the vessel. Iro-urushi adds another surface language through vermilion or black lacquer, so Odawara vessels can move between visible grain and colored shine.

The process begins with the wood base. Material is selected, cut, rough-turned, smoke-dried, naturally dried, and then finish-turned on a lathe with lathe planes; polishing may include tokusa, the plant used to refine the surface.

Those steps determine how the later lacquer will sit on the form. The lip of a bowl, the flat sweep of a tray, and the hollow of a tea saucer depend on accurate turning before any transparent coat can highlight the grain. When lacquer is applied, the light follows the lines already made by the tool.

In suri-urushi, refined raw lacquer is rubbed directly into the wood again and again, followed by rubbing, finishing, and polishing steps. The surface keeps the rhythm of handwork: lacquer enters the grain, excess is worked away, and the vessel is brought to a quiet sheen.

Kijiro-nuri begins by hardening the wood with raw lacquer, then uses lacquer mixed with polishing powder, water polishing, middle coats, top coats, and repeated polishing to reveal the grain through a transparent finish. Iro-urushi uses black middle coats and vermilion or black top coats, shifting the vessel from exposed grain toward the glow of colored lacquer.

Odawara lacquerware is easiest to understand through objects held in the hand: trays, bowls, plates, tea saucers, rice containers, confectionery vessels, and tea chests. These forms place turning and lacquer work into the gestures of rice, tea, sweets, and serving.

When zelkova grain shows through suri-urushi or kijiro-nuri, a bowl or tray carries both material and use. Its culture is concrete: Odawara woodwork, natural lacquer, tea saucers, and rice vessels repeatedly lifted, set down, and seen in changing light.

The present Odawara community still shows the division of wood-base and lacquer work. The Traditional Odawara Lacquerware Cooperative member list includes businesses in Odawara handling lacquerware, trays, tea saucers, bowls, lacquer coating, and lacquerware wood bases, with addresses in areas such as Sakaecho, Minami-Itabashi, Nakamachi, Kuno, Itabashi, and Nakasone.

A 2018 exhibition at Seikantei gathered works by five wood-base and lacquer artisans and displayed tools used by lacquer artisan Motohiro Ikeya, who had worked as a nushi for more than 70 years. Kanagawa Prefecture’s craft institute in Odawara also supports wood-product craft businesses and treats Odawara lacquerware, Hakone marquetry, and Kamakura carving as regional craft resources.