A

Akakuchihonshu
An intense orangy- red color.

Arami-urushi
The unprocessed sap taken straight from the lacquer tree. At this point it is a milky white liquid that cannot be used as lacquer without further processing. The sap is filtered and left to sit for an extended period of time to allow partial oxidation as well as evaporation of some of the water content. Once the liquid reaches the proper water content and oxidization levels, it can be used as lacquer and is then called kiurushi.

B

Bake
Alternate reading for hake. A brush made from horse or human hair for painting urushi.

Bengara
Also benigara, a traditional reddish-brown to brownish-violet pigment used with urushi. It is traditionally derived from clay and earth, and the natural form will never be pure in its composition. The main constituent is Iron (III) Oxide, Fe2O3.

Buro
Alternate reading for furo, urushi-buro.

C

Chijimu
Wrinkles appear when the urushi layer is to thick respectively the humidity in the furô is to high.

Cinnabar
The natural form of vermilion pigment

D

Daitai-bori
Lit. outline carving. An atsugai-raden technique where the substrate is carved to inlay thick shell pieces. See also: raden
Dakkanshitsu - see dakkatsu-kanshitsu

E

Ebonite
Also hard rubber and vulcanite. A hard rubber produced by vulcanizing rubber for prolonged periods until it contains about 30%-40% sulfur. It is frequently used for writing instruments intended for lacquering. See also: laconite
Eda-urushi - Lit. branch lacquer. See ki-urushi
Edo period.

F

Furo
Lit. bath. See urushi-buro

Fuki-urushi
Lit. wiped lacquer. Clear lacquer, which is rubbed after it has hardened, giving a silky shine for the coated surface.

G

Gatame
Alternate reading for katame when preceeded by a descriptor e.g. kiji- gatame.

Gomitori-hake
A brush to remove any dust that has settled just after the middle appli- cation and before starting the final application.

H

Hake
Lit. brush.

Hera
Lit. spatula.

Hana-nuri
Lit. flower painting. Also hana-urushi-nuri, and nuritate. A finishing tech- nique on lacquer where the surface is not polished. Gloss is achieved by using hana-urushi or shuai-urushi. The surface of hananuri is some- what less glossy than pieces polised with roiro-migaki.
Although there are fewer steps involved, finishing a piece of lacquerware with high quality hana-nuri is very difficult because the urushi must be thoroughly filtered to remove every particle and impurity, applied in a completely dust-free environment and applied carefully to reduce the appearance of brushstrokes and bubbles as much as possible.

Hikimono
Turning on a lathe, typically wood, but also other materials including metal, ebonite and resins.

Hinoki-bera
Lit cypress spatula. A long, flat, triangular spatula used with urushi made from cypress wood (hinoki) although it can be made with other types of wood. It is used for mixing urushi and for applying shita-ji or other paste-like mixtures of urushi.

I

Iro-urushi
Lit. colored lacquer

J

Japanese Sumac - Another name for the Lacquer tree. See urushi-no-ki
Japanning

K

Katame
Lit. hardening. Sometimes pronounced gatame when following a de- scriptor. A lacquer process used to harden a porous or otherwise soft surface. The substrate is impregnated with diluted ki-urushi. Typically the process is used for wooden substrates, kiji gatame, and for the foun- dation layers, sabi gatame.

Kiji gatame
Lit. wood ground hardening.

Kijiro urushi
Also suki-urushi. A translucent urushi made by removing water from ki urushi emulsion using the kurome and nayashi processes. Kijiro urushi dries to a translucent medium brown with a semi-matte surface. See also: nashiji, tamenuri, kijiro-nuri.

Ki urushi
Lit. raw lacquer. Also read as nama urushi. Raw urushi after it has been filtered and slightly reduced in water content to make it usable as lac- quer. There are different types of ki urushi depending on the origins of the tree as well as the season that the tree was tapped. Hatsugama (also hatsu urushi), collected early summer, has a high water content in the emulsion and has a high adhesive potential. It is used for adhesive mixtures and for suri-urushi. Sakari urushi, collected late summer, is used for processing into kuro urushi and suki urushi. Oso urushi is coll- ected early fall and urame and tome urushi is collected at the end of the season in late fall prior to cutting down the tree. Eda and seshime were traditionally collected from the branches during the winter after the tree was cut down, but in modern times, low quality urushi from China or a mixture of Japanese and Chinese urushi is sold as seshime. See respective entries for each. See arami urushi, kurome, nayashi

L

Linseed Oil - See amani-yu

M

Muro
Lit. room. See furo

N

Naka-nuri
Intermediate lacquer coat.

Negoro-nuri
Red lacquerware with an undercoat of black lacquer covered by a coat of red lacquer.

Nuri
Lit. painting, lacquering, layering, coating. A term used to denote a lacquer object or technique as opposed to the lacquer itself, urushi.

Nuritate
Lit. painting apply. See hana-nuri.

O

Òhaguro Urushi/Shôen-Urushi
(ha = Teeth, Guro/kuro = black) urushi mixed with lamp sooth. Lamp sooth or lamp black is also used to make ink. Black Lacquer pigmen- ted with lamp sooth was traditionally used only for high quality lacquer work. For regular work the so called „roiro-urushi“ is used, a transparent lacquer that was toned black with iron sulfates. The „ohaguro-urushi“ will stay jet black for ever. the „roiro-urushi“ will turn brownish with the time.
Okashi

R

Rhus verniciflua
Also Rhus vernicifera. The old scientific classification for the lacquer tree, Toxicodendron vernicifluum. Rhus is the genus name for various species of sumac which was what the lacquer tree was once conside- red. However, more recently, it was found to have a closer relation to the Toxicodendron species including poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac.

Ro-iro-nuri
Lit. wax color painting. polish each layer, hand polish final layers.

Shiage - Polishing

S

Sabi - Lit. rust, patina. ground powder.

Sashimono
A form of joinery using various techniques to make angular boxes, trays and other vessels.

T

Togi-sumi
Charcoal used to smoothen the surface of lacquerware. As it is soft, it is well-suited to polishing a lacquered piece or a round surface

U

Urushi-buro
Also simply furo. The cabinet used for curing urushi. Typically it consists of a rot resistant wood chest or cabinet with a humidifier or at a mini- mum, a bowl with a wet towel. A furo is necessary for curing urushi as urushi requires humidity and warm temperatures to cure properly. Also urushi-muro or simply muro when speaking of a room used for curing larger pieces of urushiware.

Urushiol
Induced contact dermatitis - In Japanese: urushioru niyoru sesshoku hifuen. The characteristic rash caused by contact with urushiol, one of core ingredients in urushi. Urushiol is also the same chemical that causes the rashes associated with the other Toxicodendron species including poison ivy, oak and sumac. The rash is an allergic dermati- tis caused by a chemical reaction between urushiol and a skin protein which causes an immune response. It is because of this chemical re- action that contact areas must be washed immediately to best prevent a rash. The affliction usually consists of minor to severe itching, hives, eczema and sometimes blisters. Localized dermatitis can result from topical contact while generalized rash and malaise may result from in- gestion or prolonged exposure in sensitive individuals. There is currently no comptelely reliable method of preventing urushiol induced contact dermatitis once contact occurs, only ways to treat the effects which in- clude typical topical and oral steroidal and antihistamine medications.

Uwa-nuri
Lit. upper painting. Also pronounced ue-nuri or age-nuri. The upper lay- ers of lacquer in the sequece of traditional lacquerwork following the shitaji and naka-nuri, prior to any decorative work such as maki-e. These layers typically use the highest quality ro-iro-urushi or hana-urushi as it is the visible layer in a piece of lacquerware as well as the outermost surface. When speaking of tsugaru-nuri and the upper layers prior
to sanding and polishing, it is referred to as age-nuri.

V

Vermilion
The synthetic version of the pigment cinnabar.

W

Watashi-hake
A brush used to apply the final layer of urushi

Y

Yoshino-gami
A thin but durable paper used a filter to remove particles and dust from uncured urushi as well as to reinforce a substrate prior to lacquering to help prevent cracking. It is sometimes coated with shibu.