Japan is an island country surrounded by the sea, but a mountainous country with rich greenery at the same time.
After living for a long time on the flat Kanto Plains, we probably feel that mountains are something far away. If we see wider Japan, however, there are many locations where mountains come to the edges of the sea. Therefore, for many people who make their living across Japan, it is safe to say that mountains are as familiar as the sea.
This ‘sense of distance between mountains and Japanese people’ has had a large influence on the category of ‘craft’.
For instance, lacquer craft works which have been passed down in Aizu region (Fukushima Prefecture), itself surrounded by mountains. Perhaps the works are given by the grace of the mountain God. Making a vessel with wood sourced in the mountain, and applying the tree sap which is extracted by cutting the skin of the Japanese lacquer tree. We can probably say that lacquer ware is a collaboration between mountain and human.

Various processing techniques have been developed over a long history, which are suitable for every shape of wood base material for the lacquer.
For example, when making a round bowl with organic curves, the wood base is shaped on a wheel. Different methods will be used for making different shapes of woodware.
To make a cylindrical shape for an object such as wooden container for cooked rice or Bento box, we first bend a thin wooden board in a round shape after boiling it in water, and assemble the objects by putting the top and bottom boards in. The woodware made through such a method is called ‘Mage Mono’.
This technique can be seen as ‘wisdom of mountain’ in the mountainous areas across Japan. In the Aizu region, it has been passed down in Hinoemata Village, located deep in the southern mountain.
In the production area of Mage Mono, locally sourced wood is utilised. Japanese cedar if in Odate in Akita Prefecture, Japanese cypress if in Kiso in Shinshu region, and Japanese arborvitae of the Cupressaceae family in Hinoemata.

The Mage Mono Bento box with a lid has a different name depending on the region, but in Aizu, it is often called ‘Magewa’.
This Magewa of Japanese arborvitae was made by Yutaka Hoshi. Normally it is used as plain wood, but the Aizu-based lacquer artist Shuichi Murakami, who acquired this Magewa, elevated it by applying lacquer based on the grain of the wood.
Lacquer work is often taken as craft art, but the original purpose of applying lacquer is to give a durability to a wood base as a coating. Lacquered Magewa holds a strength as ‘purposeful craft work’.
Cooked rice with Umeboshi in the bottom, and grilled salmon, omelet or stewed root vegetables in the middle. Magewa makes any ordinary side dish picturesque. The precious lunch time while thinking of the grace of the mountain God seems to make us, who live busy everyday lives, question what it is to be human.

Hirotaka Haruyama
KOHARUAN