WIRED Brand Lab | Japanese Lacquer Maker Coats Surfboards, Plants Trees To Buoy Community, Revive...

LACQUER IS USUALLY for precious, pricey stuff. Think handcrafted bowls and serving trays, religious artefacts in museum collections, and the facades of old shrines, temples and other architectural treasures. But if you ask Takuya Tsutsumi, a fourth-generation Japanese lacquer maker, there are many other uses for the viscous resin of a lacquer tree ( Toxicodendron vernicifluum). Recently, he has worked with shops and artisans in Kyoto to produce lacquer-coated wooden surfboards and skateboards, reusable straws and metal bicycle frames. “People in Japan think you should treat lacquerware with care, as if it were an expensive art piece inside of a glass display case,” says 42-year-old Tsutsumi, whose family runs Tsutsumi Asakichi Corp. in Kyoto. “I really want to change that. I want people to become more familiar with lacquer and make it part of their everyday lives.”

Tsutsumi Asakichi Corp. belongs to a niche of workshops that turn raw tree sap into a paint-like substance. The company’s 111-year-old workshop – housed in Tsutsumi’s grandfather’s former residence – has worn wooden beams and barrels and a working belt-and-pulley system rigged to a motor that’s an early 20th century relic. Every batch of lacquer is measured and mixed by hand to a specific color, consistency and gloss.