Once I stared at a somewhat beautiful rusty skin of aged iron plate, which I found in the grass at the side of a road. It can probably be described as decaying beauty. I was wondering whether the passage of time and the process of things decaying are integrated in the idea of ‘beauty’.

Like objects, human beings also degrade with age. But the ageing process does not only generate deformation. In people who have experienced the fullness of life, we can see the beauty of age, rather than ugliness of age. We feel the weight of being alive as human beings, and are thankful for it only because we are going towards death. Likewise, objects must become something more than objects themselves when they are utilised.

Whilst our ancestors discovered a number of ancient objects that obtain their beauty with age, I myself particularly like the beauty of lacquer in vermillion. I have a strong feeling that vermillion is a special colour which touches our spirit and wakes the joy of our soul within deep memory.

Vermillion is believed to have existed since the Jomon period (Japanese prehistoric period) in Japan, a humid land. Some traces of lacquer work have burnt ocher or vermillion pigments. The colour painted on ritualistic tools found in ruins is a powerful colour, emerging in the present world after several thousand years.

Japanese lacquer has a long history, but the main subject in terms of the beauty of vermillion-lacquered work today is probably ‘Negoro’. It is a lacquer ware in which vermillion lacquer is applied on top of the black undercoat lacquer. It indicates household furniture, which was used in the Negoro-ji Buddhist temple in Kii Province (current-day Wakayama Prefecture) in the Kamakura period. There are only a small number of well-seasoned ones left, and the year of production is often found unknown. But today, it seems that the original identification has shifted slightly, and any tasteful lacquer wares with some husky black colour coming out from the underneath can be called ‘Negoro’.

In regular everyday life, lacquer wares are transformed into something that can be appreciated as exhibits, after washing in water and wiping by cloth so many times.

At a major Negoro exhibition in the past, I recall that both my body and soul were completely stolen by the power of the colour of Negoro seized in the exhibition venue. This colour of vermillion seems to have a special function. The primitive smell of the source of energy, and fear and respect towards fire. Or it may be a celebration of life like sunshine. This is also a sympathetic colour for celebrating Kanreki (sixtieth birthday ceremony). The colour of vermillion generates a resonance between two very different elements – burst of life and decaying beauty. Words cannot do this justice.

Masato Kurotani, Director, genra art