Originally, craft techniques have been applied to various manufacturing processes, cross-fertilized, and passed on while changing their forms from the time they were invented.
The Wajima-nuri technique also has such a background. We contacted artist and art director YOSHIROTTEN to see if we could learn from this history and create something new by cross-breeding the craft with the sensibilities of today's artists.
The Yoin speaker units were produced through a joint collaboration with EASTERN SOUND FACTORY (ESF). "Jinoko" used in Wajima base lacquer was blended with lacquer and then applied. This resulted in a chic, subdued appearance and improved sound quality.
This project produced lacquer art works under the supervision of artist Charles Munka, who lives on Sado Island. After strolling around the town of Wajima and engaging in dialogue with many local craftspeople involved in Wajima lacquerware, Munka derived a lot of inspiration from Jidaiwan Taikan (1st Edition) (compiled by Gonroku Matsuda et al), which he discovered quite by chance, and thus he started the project.
As the first step towards a series of projects about combining traditional crafts with cutting-edge technology, we created a glowing lacquered vessel called Yo-kou. The name is inspired by the idea of moonlight in the night sky shining in a cup of sake. Wajima Kirimoto, a lacquerware studio in Wajima-shi, partnered with NIPPON SHOKUBAI, a chemical manufacturing company headquartered in Osaka, to achieve that.
