Creation Story of the Wajima-nuri

Part1Large Globe “Earth at Night”

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New YorkLondon

The rapid transformation of traditional
Japanese cultures is being compelled bychanges in modern lifestyles. In order topass these cultures on to future generations, Japan designates those with highhistorical or artistic value as “importantintangible cultural properties” andcertifies organizations to be in charge of
their preservation. Wajima-nuri, which has its roots in theMuromachi period (1336 to 1573), has a history of enrichingpeople's lives while they refined their skills over hundreds ofyears. The Wajima-nuri Technique Preservation Society wascertified in 1977, and has endeavored to preserve and pass on
those skills.

Part2

Urushi lacquer art is a representative
craft of Japan with various appealing
factors. Its ability to convey to many
people world-class techniques and its
irreplaceable beauty as a craft material
are indispensable for the preservation ofWajima-nuri. The Wajima-nuriTechnique Preservation Society will doits utmost to produce work that embodies this. Wajima-nuri hasa well-established division of labor system based on occupational ability, and the Wajima-nuri Technique Preservation Society
has established eight categories for these, including: wan-kiji(wood turning to produce objects such as bowls), magemono(bending of wood to produce curved items), sashimono(assembly of wood into boxes and shelves without the use ofnails), hou-kiji (specialist carving of more complex shapes),
kyushitsu (application of Urushi layers), ro-iro (polishing),
maki-e (decoration by sprinkling gold or silver powder) andchinkin (decoration by carving patterns onto the surface andfilling the grooves with gold and silver powder). We will spend
five years working on this collaborative project.

’Large Globe “Earth at Night”

Part3The Wajima-nuri Technique Preservation
Society determined that this project would
be meaningless unless it was completed inWajima, where extremely difficult work ispossible. Following the Wajima-nuri
manufacturing method, maki-e panels
depicting four cities of the world and alarge globe using the globe (importantcultural property) of Takeo City, Saga Prefecture as a model,
were to be produced. Even skilled artisans have no experiencecreating 1-meter diameter Wajima-nuri spheres. An unprecedented challenge had begun.

Part4

The Wajima-nuri Large Globe “Earth atNight” was completed in March 2022,
made possible by the artisans’ experienceand wisdom that was leveraged during thevarious challenges faced. The fantastic,
beautiful night views of the earth floatingin space and the cities are depicted by jet
black color and the brilliance of gold,
which only Urushi art can properly express. Examining theglobe gives the viewer a bird's-eye view of the world. We hopethat it will be cherished for a long time as a work that conveys,
from one corner of Wajima to the world, the meaning of
considering others beyond conflicts and divisions.

Wajima‒nuri Large Globe“ＥａｒｔｈａｔＮｉｇｈｔ”
Opening hours
9:00－17:00(admission : 30 minutes before closing)

Closed days
During exhibition rotations
Year-end periodAccess●About 20 minutes by car from Noto Satoyama Airport●About 100 minutes by car from Kanazawa cityusing the Noto Satoyama Kaido (highway)●About 120 minutes by bus (Hokutetsu Okunoto) from Kanazawa Station.
Get oﬀ at "Wajima Ekimae"●About 15 minutes by foot or 7 minutes by car from Wajima Ekimae bus stop
11shijukari, Mitomorimachi, Wajima Shi,
Ishikawa Ken, 928-0063, Japan
phone：+81-768-22-9788
facsimile：+81-768-22-9789

https://www.art.city.wajima.ishikawa.jp

Wajima-nuri, an important
intangible cultural property, has aprescribed Urushi coating process.
Foundational processes arecarefully performed one after theother, including hardening thewood through raw Urushi
absorption, applying kokuso paste
to the joints between wood, andapplying linen cloth for reinforcement of some areas. During theUrushi application process, wealso decided to use a wood-drying
furnace to accelerate thehardening of the Urushi.

The most important part of the
globe is the sphere. The smallest
units of the sphere were rings
made by thinly cutting andbending planks of reaction wood.
There were 295 wooden rings ofvarious size prepared based on
careful calculations. They werethen assembled from large tosmall, with Urushi used forbonding. Several assemblies ofrings were created.

Draft sketching basedon reliable data wasindispensable forexpressing thefantastic appearanceof the earth at night asseen from space.

The Kanazawa College of Art
assisted in creating the draft
sketches from satellite images.
Numerous trials were conducted
to reproduce these using thetechniques of maki-e and chinkin.
The horizontal ring that surrounds
the sphere was decorated withpatterns depicting the atmosphereand water. In consideration ofreflections on the sphere,translucent Urushi wasapplied over themaki-e, which also
used mother-of-pearl.

Preparing the wood

The greatest characteristic of
Wajima-nuri is the use of Wajima
Jinoko (powdered diatomaceousearth) in the base Urushi layers.
The name and order of applicationdiffers depending on the size of
the Jinoko particles: ippenji,
nihenji then sanbenji. Ippenji has
the largest particles and is applied
first. Layers of Jinoko and Urushi
were repeatedly applied andpolished.

The assemblies of rings that madeup the sphere were then shapedusing a lathe. The largest was over
1-meter in diameter. A
curve-guide was used to shape therings into the required curvature.
If they were carved even a little
too much, the shape of the spherewould be spoiled, so work
proceeded with great care. After
joining all the assemblies of rings
together, the resulting shape was aperfect sphere.

Applying the Urushi
Jibuchibiki is one of the traditional methods of Wajima-nuri, andincreases durability. Raw lacquer
was applied to areas that areeasily chipped, such as the cornersof the legs and the edge of thehorizontal ring, each time a baselayer was applied.

Zelkova and magnolia were used
for the sphere’s pedestal. The
horizontal ring around the sphereis a wooden mosaic made bygluing small parts together withUrushi, one by one. The curve of
the outer edge was created using
various kinds of planes.

The central pillar and legs thatbear the weight of the sphere wereturned on a lathe. Careful shaping
was performed while using theelegant appearance of the model
globe as a reference. Once thesphere and pedestal parts werecomplete, they were temporarily
assembled to checkthe work’s overallbalance.

Numbers representing the latitude
were drawn on the latitude ringusing maki-e, and the gradations
were drawn using chinkin. Since
the material is metal, a base layerthat could withstand carving bychinkin chisel and careful carving
were required. Meanwhile, thesphere was charcoal-polished andreadied for decoration.

In order to maintain the beautiful
line of the perfect sphere, the land
areas were only very slightly
raised. All coastlines were drawn
with a maki-e brush, and dry
Urushi powder was sprinkled
within them and sealed. On top ofthese, the bright, glittering urban
areas of the world were drawn
using maki-e.

For the middle and final Urushi
coatings of the sphere, thecollective knowledge of theartisans was utilised to make thebest choices in regards to thevarious factors that greatly affectthe finish, such as the viscosityand hardening speed of theUrushi, the thickness of the coat,and humidification adjustments.
In addition, the metal latitude ringconnected to the sphere was alsolacquered black so it matched theappearance of the wooden parts.
All the lacquer work was now
complete and the full pictureof the Wajima-nuri
globe emerged.

The whole structure was polishedfollowing the maki-e work. The
final polish was done with thepalm of the hand, wrapping thesphere in a mirror-like luster thatreflects everything. Next, chinkin
was applied for the finishingdecoration. The countless grainsof light that make up the nightview of the world were engraved
one by one. After the extensive
engraving work, gold leaf andgold powder were set in placewith Urushi, and the “Earth atNight” was shining brilliantly.

Bringing out the shine

The four panels surrounding theglobe are the night views of thefour cities of Tokyo, Beijing,London, and New York, and were
finished using mainly gold andplatinum. "Earth at Night" wasnow complete, a story of theinnumerable human lives
contained in each glittering point
and within the darkness.