Iwayado Tansu

Wood grain and iron

Iwayado Tansu are heavy, traditional Japanese chests. Lacquer lets the grain of zelkova glow, and hand-beaten, hand-engraved fittings show dragons, tigers, lions, vine scrolls and pine, bamboo and plum. Locking fittings let a chest work as a safe. Many have zelkova outside and paulownia inside, which resists fire and keeps insects away from clothes. They are made in Oshu and Morioka in Iwate.

Solid boards, two lacquer finishes

• Solid boards are dried naturally and then dried further.
• Chests are built from boards at least 18 mm thick.
• The surface is finished with fuki-urushi, lacquer rubbed in and wiped off again and again, or kijiro-nuri, clear lacquer built up and polished.
• Hand-beaten metal fittings are attached last.

From a castle lord's idea

Iwayado Tansu began in the late 18th century, when the lord of Iwayado Castle had his retainers develop wheeled chests and storage trunks as products. Iwayado, now part of Oshu, was the base of Fujiwara no Kiyohira for about 30 years before he moved to Hiraizumi, and it had long traditions of metal casting and woodwork. Around 1820 a smith named Tokubei devised the engraved fittings. In the Meiji period the chests travelled across Tohoku by boat on the Kitakami River.