Urushi lacquer carries centuries of history. That weight is part of its beauty, but it can also pull a material back into the past.
Working with architect Toyo Ito and lacquer master Yasuhiro Satake, we tried to make urushi light. Not thick and glossy, but thin, almost transparent—applied in fine layers, just enough to let the wood grain show through.
The plates were suspended in acrylic, like leaves drifting on still water. They seemed to drift. The traces of Satake’s hand stayed visible, but the heaviness was gone.
Client Toyo Ito Architects
Lacquer master Yasuhiro Satake
Year 2015
Photo Makoto Fujii
Toyo Ito's first sketch, 28 April 2014. Fallen leaves on the surface of water.
Shape study. Poppy petals, pressed flat.
Three sizes, 200 to 350 mm. The petals became plates.
At the workshop. A plank, a plate cut from it, and the drawing for the small size underneath.
Atelier: Yasuhiro Satake
Six studies, two directions: glossy gradients against carved grain. The gradients were seductive—but the grain was closer to the question. We took away instead of adding.
Where it starts: the wood, stacked and waiting, long before lacquer.
Placing the blocks—six pairs of hands for objects that look like air.
Suspended in acrylic: the plates held mid-drift, weight turned into stillness.
Urushi sanded back until the rings of the tree come through—the layers thin enough to disappear.
![FLOW[T], WonderGlass. Design by Nao Tamura.](https://naotamura.com/img/2015/04/NaoTamura_IN_Flowt04-576x768.jpg "FLOW[T], WonderGlass. Design by Nao Tamura.")
