Description of All Items
| Item | Base | Color | Makie* | Others |
| Tsuzumi (Black Tame) | Japanese Cherry Birch | Outside: Black and Roiro Finish Inside I: Black Tame Inside II: Red (Glossy) | Uchidenokozuchi (Lucky Mallet), Gunbai (Military Leader’s Fan), Tsubaki (Camellia), or noneCrane or Tortoise inside the red cup unless you choose ‘none’ | Outside black is finished in Roiro, which renders true black, shikkoku（漆黒）. |
| Tsuzumi (Red Tame) | Japanese Cherry Birch | Outside: Black and Roiro Finish Inside I: RedTame Inside II: Red (Glossy) | Uchidenokozuchi (Lucky Mallet), Gunbai (Military Leader’s Fan), Tsubaki (Camellia), or noneCrane or Tortoise inside the red cup unless you choose ‘none’ | Outside black is finished in Roiro, which renders true black, shikkoku（漆黒）. |
| Miyabi (Black Tame) | Japanese Cherry Birch | Outside: Black Inside: Black Tame (Glossy) | Uchidenokozuchi (Lucky Mallet), Gunbai (Military Leader’s Fan), Tsubaki (Camellia), or none | Nunokise is applied. |
| Miyabi (Red Tame) | Japanese Cherry Birch | Outside: Black Inside: Red Tame (Glossy) | Uchidenokozuchi (Lucky Mallet), Gunbai (Military Leader’s Fan), Tsubaki (Camellia), or none | Nunokise is applied. |
| Ofukuwake (Black Tame) | Japanese Zelkova | Base: Black Well: Black Tame (Glossy) | Uchidenokozuchi (Lucky Mallet), Gunbai (Military Leader’s Fan), Tsubaki (Camellia), or none | Nunokise is applied. |
| Ofukuwake (Red Tame) | Japanese Zelkova | Base: Black Well: Red Tame (Glossy) | Uchidenokozuchi (Lucky Mallet), Gunbai (Military Leader’s Fan), Tsubaki (Camellia), or none | Nunokise is applied. |
| Ohashi | Natural Wood | Black Tame (Glossy) | Uchidenokozuchi (Lucky Mallet), Gunbai (Military Leader’s Fan), Tsubaki (Camellia) | |
| Ohashi-RT | Natural Wood | Black with Red Top (Glossy) | Uchidenokozuchi (Lucky Mallet), Gunbai (Military Leader’s Fan), Tsubaki (Camellia) | |
| Ohashi-R | Natural Wood | Red Tame (Glossy) | Uchidenokozuchi (Lucky Mallet), Gunbai (Military Leader’s Fan), Tsubaki (Camellia) | |
| Ohashi-R-V | Natural Wood | Red Tame (Glossy) | Shippoutsunagi (interlocking circles), Shouchikubai (Pine, Bamboo, and Plum) & Gunbai (Military Leader’s Fan), Tsubaki (Camellia) | |
| Ko-Tsuzumi | Japanese Cherry Birch | BlackOne End: Red (Glossy) | Thin Gold Line at One End | |
| Ko-Tsuzumi-V | Japanese Zelkova | Black (Glossy Fukiurushi) | Not Available | Ko-Tsuzumi-V was selected for the exhibition at Japan Traditional Craft Aoyama Square after displayed at the National Art Center, Tokyo, for the Japan’s Traditional Craft Competition 2020. |
| Box | Paulownia | Natural | Each item comes with a paulownia box. | Boxes are made of high quality paulownia grown in North America except the boxes for Ohashi and its variations. The boxes for Ohashi and its variations are made of paulownia grown in Asia. |
| Natural Turmeric Dyed Cotton Cloth | Cotton | Bright yellow | Each item, except Ohashi, Ko-Tsuzumi and their variations, comes with a turmeric dyed cloth. | Because our turmeric cloths are dyed with natural turmeric, the yellow color will easily start to fade by exposure to sunlight for just half an hour. However, their antibacterialand insect-repellent properties will remain after color fading. |
* Besides their prices, items without makie on them have a great advantage over their counterparts. Because the final step in the process for applying makie is polishing, the surface finished in hananuri / nuritate will lose one of their characteristics. Extra fine scratches are inevitable though you can not see them with your naked eyes.
Roiro（呂色）
After a top coat is applaied, further processes have to be done, in which tonoko（砥粉）, clay polishing powder, ku-rushi（生漆）, very fine charcoal powder and others are used. In the final process, roiro-shi（呂色師）uses the mixture of roiro finishing powder, usually charcoal, and oil to polish with his fingers and hands. The finished surface clearly reflect surrounding things just like a piece of mirror does. This mirror-like smooth finish is given to the outside of Tsuzumi. We are proud to call it shikkoku（漆黒）, which means true black and is written in a pair of kanjis, 漆 (urushi) and 黒 (black).
Hananuri（花塗り）or Nuritate （塗り立て）
After shitaji’s multiple processes (下地）that already require proficient skills, multilayers of urushi are applied before a finishing coat by a nushi（塗師）. The finishing coat is left to harden without any polishing, which makes the surface not only graceful in appearance but also extremely smooth to touch. In addition, it looks beautifully moist. Hananuri finish is possible only if the nushi has sophisticated skills, which comes with artisan’s distinguished intuition to judge flow of urushi on the curved surface. The utmost cleanness of the workshop is also essential because just a particle of dust should not be on the surface.
Tamenuri（溜塗り）, or Tame
Authentic Japan Shunme: Original Series has two types of Tamenuri, one of which is Shuai（朱合）, and the other, Kuroshuai（黒朱合）. We refer to Shuai as Red Tame, and to Kuroshuai as Black Tame for convenience’s sake.
Tamenuri is the term refers to both the technique and the colors created by it. In urushi application, red urushi is used as a base and translucent urushi as a top coat. Translucent top coat of our Black Tame is blackish. Tamenuri has a distinctive glossand you can appreciate its aging with time making it color brighter. Layered urushi creates graceful shades, which typically appears on the rim.
Our Red Tame has a slight color shading also on the bottom or the well. We love such color shading as uniqueness of each piece. Please make sure in advance of purchase that you fully understand our items have such a characteristic.
Fukiurushi（拭き漆）
Fukiurushi is one of the techniques for finishing in urushi with kiurushi（生漆: raw lacquer）repeatedly rubbed into wooden base, which brings out the grain of wood. Our fukiurushi has a glossy finish.
Nunokise（布着せ）
Nunokise is the procedure in which the artisans, the shitaji, attach thin cloths to the surface and the rim of certain parts of the wooden bases after kijigatame to increase the durability of the shikki. They use a mixture of urushi and rice powder as an adhesive. You can see part of this procedure in the promotional video and the video showing the production process of shitaji.
Please Note: All of our items are made with natural materials. Shikki is basically durable, but this durability is the result of the best use of natural materials. If you would like to use our products for a long time, which is our pleasure, please understand that you should avoid;
- extreme temperature swings, abrupt temperature changes,
- storing shikki in a extremely dry environment,
- keeping shikki exposed to direct sunlight, and
- using a metal knife as well as other sharps that could scratch the surface.
We hope you will appreciate the aging of shikki including change of color and fine scratches, which are inevitable accompaniment to cherished memories. However, should you find it in need of repair, please contact us.