Traditional craft
Hida Shunkei
飛騨春慶
Clear, amber lacquerware from Takayama and Hida in Gifu, where a see-through coat lets the beauty of the wood grain glow.
Key facts
- Officially recognised
- 17 February 1975
- Type
- Lacquerware
- Region
- Chubu
- Official name in Japanese
- 飛騨春慶
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 高山市、飛騨市
See-through lacquer
Hida Shunkei is finished with suki-urushi, a clear lacquer, so the natural beauty of the wood stays fully visible. The craft is especially skilled at bending thin boards into three-dimensional shapes. It is made in Takayama and Hida in Gifu as trays, vases, stacked boxes, sweet dishes, tea ware, document boxes and Japanese furniture, mostly from hinoki and sawara cypress.
Woodworkers and lacquerers
The wood is dried naturally for a long time so it will not warp, then shaped by specialist woodworkers. Lacquerers turn raw lacquer into a clear lacquer by their own method and finish the piece with it. On split sawara trays, the grain between the growth rings is carved up to create hegime, a soft rippled texture.
A carpenter's lucky split
Early in the Edo period, a master carpenter working on shrines and temples in the castle town of Takayama happened to split a sawara log and noticed its beautiful grain. A tray was made and lacquered from it. Its colour reminded people of Hishunkei, a famous tea caddy by the potter Kato Kagemasa, and so it is said to have been named shunkei lacquer.
Good to know
- Look at a Hida Shunkei tray against the light to see the wood grain glow through the lacquer.
- Takayama's old town makes a good base to explore Hida crafts.
Questions travellers ask
Why does Hida Shunkei look golden?
It is finished in clear suki-urushi lacquer, which lets the natural wood colour and grain show through.
Where does the name shunkei come from?
It is said its colour resembled Hishunkei, a famous tea caddy by Kato Kagemasa.
Where it comes from
More crafts from the same area
Local foods from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.