Ta-da! Here is my kintsugi tool holder. 

It’s important to keep your tools clean and well-organized so that your tools could work properly and last long. I am terrible at sewing stuff, like I cannot even sew button, so I asked my friend to make this. 

金継ぎ道具の収納に長らく頭を悩ませていて、なかなかちょうどいいのがないので手ぬぐいにくるんでたのですが、このたびお道具ホルダーを作ってもらいました。私は壊滅的に裁縫が苦手なので、友人を介してプロにお願いしました。

はぁ、まんぞく。

I have to admit that I am a lazy perfectionist in kintsugi. When I find my kintsugi work will not be completed as I want it to be, I cannot move forward any more. It breaks my heart especially when I have to sand off sprinkled gold just because I don’t want to compromise. I need time to get over the feeling. In most of cases, I leave it for a while until I feel like redo the work. In this way, this lazy perfectionism leaves me a lot of unfinished projects.  

It’s getting warm here in Tokyo, so I decided to move forward with unfinished stuff. Each project requires different tool/material, so I categorized all of them by procedures. I usually do it in my mind, but sometimes I get frustrated because I forget things like painting lacquer after I have cleaned paint brush and dish, etc. These post-it instructions made my work much more efficient.

 I know I know! This is what organized people always do. 

わたくし、金継ぎに関しては特に「怠け者の完璧主義者」でして、思い描いたようにならないなぁと気づいた途端、もう１歩も進む気をなくしてしまうのです。このまま進めてもそれなりの仕上がりにはなるだろうとわかっていても、せっかく蒔いた金を研ぎ落としてしまったり、やり直すこともしばしば。気を取り直してすぐにやり直せるほど勤勉でもなく、心のダメージが回復するまで放置して、その気になったら開始する・・・という次第で。

そんなこんなで溜まり続けるやりかけの作業を一気に進めようと、器ごとに必要な作業を整理して、付箋の通りにやってみたら、これがかなり上手くいった。いつもアタマの中で考えてたつもりだけど、筆を洗ってお皿も拭いてから中塗りしなきゃいけないものが残ってた・・・なんてことが起こらない。こーゆー準備をナメてるからダメなんだなと改めて反省しました。

そろそろ漆よく乾く季節なので、ガンバロー！

Finally I sprinkled gold on green porcelain plates after removing fake gold.

やっと金蒔けた！

My kintsugi tools from right to left.
Names in Japanese kanji, reading and English. 

私の金継ぎ道具。右から

彫刻等 / chokokuto / carving knife x 2

蒔絵筆 / makie fude / drawing brush x4

毛棒 / kebo / sweeping brush x 3

鯛牙 / taiki / fish tooth

瑪瑙 / meno / agate

漆刷毛 / urushibake / lacquer paint brush x 2

竹箆 / takehera / bamboo spatula x 6

竹串 / takegushi / bamboo stick x 6

粉匙 / funsaji / powder spoon

粉筒 / funzutsu / powder sleeve or powder cylinder x 4

You do not need to have all of these to start kintsugi, but I just LOVE working tools. Always looking for reasons to get new tools.  

道具への異常な愛情がとまりません。格好いい道具を見ると、それが必要な理由を必死で探すのですが、なかなかねー。ちなみに今すごく欲しいのは沈金刀です。
誰か必要な理由を思いついたら教えてください。

Finished kintsugi on Nakagawa Jinembo’s sake cup. 
This work is for owner chef of my favorite Japanese restaurant in Osaka. Hope he likes it. 

中川自然坊さんのぐい呑みの金継ぎが完了。（だいぶ前だけど）
これは大阪の大好きな割烹の大将がまかせてくれた。この大将、器だーい好きな人で、行くたびに新しい器を自慢してくれるのだ。あー行きたいよー。

There is a famous UK guy named David Atkinson, a former banking analyst who quit Goldman Sachs partner position in 2007 and now chairs restoration company of Japanese traditional art. Here is a link to his interview. Recently, I read his article on Japanese lacquerware industry, “Selfish Japanese ruins national treasures.”

99% of urushi lacquer used in Japan is made in China. Japanese urushi is extremely rare and expensive (5-10 times of Chinese one). There are many regions famous for lacquer art in Japan, but most of them do not produce urushi lacquer any longer, because import of Chinese lacquer has grown after WWII. So, in Kyoto and even in Wajima*, they use Chinese urushi to make lacquerware.

Even Japanese people do not know this fact. Genuine lacquerware has become unfamiliar to most of us in the past five decades. People use lacquerware-like miso soup bowl every day, but it’s urethane painted. Plus, lacquerware designs looked outdated because traditional craft artists/shops did not care much about product design until recently. Many don’t know the difference between urethane paints and urushi lacquer.

Having read the article, however, I was surprised by the fact that even in restoration projects of national treasures, they have used  70% Chinese and 30% Japanese urushi mix. Japanese Minister of Culture recently decided that they have to use 100% Japanese urushi in restoration works of national treasures from April 2018.

David Atkinson’s point was… using Chinese urushi to make lacuerware and selling it as Japanese traditional craft is cheat. Urushi lacquer is called “japan” in dictionaries, so they should not sell “china.” The art of traditional lacquerware is inseparable. Its definition means everything from ingredients to technique. If you use Chinese one, you cannot call it “Japanese tradition” any more.

Actually, I did not know that they use Chinese urushi lacquer to restore Japanese national treasures. If national treasures don’t use Japanese lacquer, why non-treasury lacquerware should use it? In 2014, Chinese lacquer price rose by 30% mainly due to Japanese yen depreciation and increase of Chinese labor cost. What if Chinese government bans lacquer export to Japan in the future? Will 99% of Japanese lacquerware go extinct? 

I think it’s time to seriously think about restoration of Japanese lacquer production and increase its self-sufficiency rate. Also, lacquerware shops should indicate if they use Chinese lacquer, so that consumers could make their own choice. 

What do you think?

* Wajima is the most famous place for lacquerware and genuine Wajima-nuri products are very expensive. There are strict definitions to call a product as “Wajima-nuri” and some ingredients are exclusively supplied for members of Wajima lacquerware guild.