Delicate and beautiful urushi (Japanese lacquer) and glass

The photo shows a hand steadying the work, conveying the intense concentration behind each single stroke. Here, a pattern is being drawn onto glass with urushi—a skilled technique that must succeed on the very first try.

Maruka Kosaka Shikkiten: urushi meets glass

Most of us think of urushi as something applied to wooden products like bowls, but Maruka Kosaka Shikkiten took on a challenge unheard of in the traditional world of urushi: applying it to glass. Urushi and glass were said to be a poor match, since the lacquer would peel away from the glass over time. To solve this, the company spent a full year developing a surface treatment for the glass that would keep the urushi from flaking off. By baking the glass, the urushi bonds even more firmly to its surface—giving rise to this combination of urushi and glass. It is the original technique of Maruka Kosaka Shikkiten's hyakushiki（百色） brand.

Maruka Kosaka Shikkiten, a long-established maker of urushi products in Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture, has overturned conventional wisdom about urushi. Drawing on 400 years of history and tradition, the company has been making tableware that applies urushi to glass since 2013, updating the craft for modern use. Urushi tableware has traditionally been vulnerable to scratches from metal cutlery, but by taking advantage of glass's transparency and applying the urushi to the outside of the glass, they created urushi ware that can be used safely with metal cutlery as well. This innovation has won high praise abroad among those with a strong interest in urushi, and the pieces are often chosen as gifts or for entertaining guests.

The birth of glass × urushi accessories

With the hope of making urushi a more familiar part of everyday life,  hyakushiki（百色） has ventured into a new world of urushi through a collaboration with HARIO Lampwork Factory, the accessory brand of the long-established glassware maker HARIO. The result is the Jeweki Sukiurushi earrings, available in five distinct shapes.

Motifs inspired by "tree sap"

Drawn to a design as fleeting and transparent as a water droplet, the hyakushiki（百色） earrings feature an amber-colored layer beneath the motif, which is the urushi itself—a precious coating (sap) of which only about 200cc can be collected from a single tree. The motifs are said to represent the gifts of nature found in the process of a tree's growth. For instance, tsurana (連) takes the form of urushi droplets strung together, while meguri (輪) depicts urushi drops forming a ring. Tawawa (撓) captures the image of urushi berries hanging heavily in clusters, dewdrops clinging to them—together making for captivating earrings that seem to carry you into a beautiful, purifying world.

△tawawa: Fresh, dewy beads inspired by water droplets are strung together like clusters of fruit. The gently swaying chain creates an elegant, airy atmosphere.

△meguri: The design, with glass beads strung together like a ring of donuts, almost looks good enough to eat.

△tsubusa: A charming design with a round, plump look, as if two soap bubbles are stuck together.

△tsurada: Featuring a plump, endearing form of three connected beads in small, medium, and large sizes.

△arawa: A design that looks just like a ring set with a stone of urushi.

About sukiurushi (transparent lacquer)

The black and vermilion colors we usually associate with urushi are actually created by mixing in pigments—urushi in its natural state is a translucent brown. The sukiurushi used in these earrings is the same pigment-free transparent lacquer used in hyakushiki（百色）'s tableware. This amber-colored sukiurushi, reminiscent of maple syrup or whiskey, develops varying depths of tone as it is layered, creating a beautiful gradation.

This small glass is named after saiun, an iridescent cloud considered a good omen—said to bring good fortune to anyone who spots one. The spiral tumbler features a spiral pattern drawn in colored urushi, and the fantastical scenery that emerges within the glass shifts depending on what's poured into it. It's perfect for an evening drink.

Finally, please enjoy this concept video offering a glimpse into the craftsmanship at Maruka Kosaka Shikkiten.

The process takes one day for preparing the glass surface, one to three days for each color applied, and one day for finishing work. For the spiral design, which uses five colors, the process takes at least seven days. Skilled craftspeople work carefully throughout, especially with the transparent urushi, to keep the coating's thickness even and free of dust or other debris. We often hear about a shortage of successors in traditional crafts that require such hard-won skills, and it seems that Maruka Kosaka Shikkiten took on these accessories partly with the hope that more people would take an interest in the craft, and that it would become easier for those who want to make it their profession—including women—to do so. The result is a set of earrings that showcase not only remarkable technical skill but also a graceful, delicate sensibility distinct to women's craftsmanship. This is a piece of making that we hope will help address the shortage of successors in traditional crafts and continue to spread further into the future.

▽Find hyakushiki（百色）'s urushi glass here