Traditional craft
Kishu Shikki
紀州漆器
Simple, sturdy everyday lacquerware from Wakayama, born in the old lacquer town of Kuroe on the Kumano Kaido road.
Key facts
- Officially recognised
- 6 February 1978
- Type
- Lacquerware
- Region
- Kansai
- Official name in Japanese
- 紀州漆器
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 和歌山市、海南市、海草郡紀美野町
Made for daily use
Kishu Shikki is mainly lacquerware for easy everyday use, with a simple, solid look. Its best known finishes are Kuroe-nuri and Negoro-nuri. It is made in Kainan, Wakayama and Kimino in Wakayama as trays, sweet bowls and tableware.
Three months for a tray
Even a simple round tray goes through 50 to 70 steps of woodwork, lacquering and decoration, and with drying time it takes about three months. Traditional pieces are shared among woodworkers, base-coat makers, lacquerers and maki-e artists, and each specialist needs around ten years to master the work.
Bowls of Kishu hinoki
Between the Muromachi and Sengoku periods, a group of woodworkers from around present-day Shiga settled here and began turning bowls from the plentiful Kishu hinoki. This led to shibuji-wan, bowls with a persimmon-tannin base coat. In the Edo period lacquer work grew further and the area became famous across Japan for these bowls. The ware was first called Kuroe-nuri, then Kishu Shikki as output grew.
Good to know
- Walk Kuroe's old streets: from JR Kuroe station on the Kinokuni Line, Kawabata-dori is about 15 minutes on foot along the Kumano Kaido.
- Kuroe appears in the Manyoshu poetry anthology; its name comes from a black rock shaped like a cow.
Questions travellers ask
What is Kuroe-nuri?
The original name of Kishu Shikki, after the town of Kuroe where it began, and still one of its main finishes.
How long does a simple tray take?
About three months, through 50 to 70 steps including drying.
Where it comes from
More crafts from the same area
Local foods from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
- Hirokawa: the tsunami levee built for a hundred generations
- Katsuragi Shugen: where mountain asceticism began
- Living with whales on the Kumano coast
- Nyonin Koya: the temples where women prayed instead of Mount Koya
- Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage: Japan's 1,300-year journey of the heart
- Wakanoura: a bay of views that inspired poets
- Yuasa: where Japanese soy sauce began
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.