Tsugaru-nuri Kobayashi Shikki

Tsugaru-nuri is a traditional craft of the Tsugaru region of Aomori, with over 300 years of history. Robust and long-lasting, growing in luster the more it is used, this lacquerware was once widely loved as the vessels of samurai families and wealthy merchants, and later as everyday tools of common people. Kobayashi Shikki, with its workshop and store in Tojohoku, Hirosaki City, has continued to face lacquer for over a century since the Meiji era as a maker carrying on that Tsugaru-nuri tradition.

In the workshop, by applying undercoat to the wooden base many times, building up rust-priming, applying colored lacquer, and repeating thorough drying and polishing out, it creates sturdy vessels resistant to warping. Skilled artisans build up, one by one by hand, the processes unique to Tsugaru-nuri — the special spatula that produces Kara-nuri's mottled pattern, Nanako-nuri that scatters rapeseed to form ring patterns, Monsha-nuri, Nishiki-nuri and more. As a result, no two pieces share exactly the same pattern, even of the same product, and a one-of-a-kind character is born.

In addition to staple vessels such as traditional soup bowls, rice bowls, stacked boxes and trays, Kobayashi Shikki is also active in developing new items suited to the times. It successively proposes products close to modern life — double-walled stainless cups, lacquered glass, fountain pens and ballpoint pens, accessories and straps, smartphone covers and more. Regularly holding the new-product showcase "Kobayashi Collection," its artisans and staff exchange ideas to give form to new lacquering and designs.

Today, orders gather from across Japan through the Hirosaki store and online shop, and it also handles orders for gifts, wedding return-gifts and corporate commemorative items. While valuing being a "point of contact for a long relationship with Tsugaru-nuri" — including advice on use, care and repair — it connects the table and life with Tsugaru-nuri to the next generation. That is the role Kobayashi Shikki fulfills as a workshop of over a century.

A selection only a maker-direct Tsugaru-nuri shop can offer, and vessel-making rooted in daily life

As a Tsugaru-nuri maker, Kobayashi Shikki sells products made in its own workshop directly, both in-store and online. It offers a wide range of lacquerware usable in every scene of life — soup bowls, rice bowls, stacked boxes, trays, tea utensils, cutlery, vases, letter boxes, low tables, Buddhist altar items and more — and a major appeal is being able to choose by use and budget, from daily goods to gifts, commemorative items and one-of-a-kind fine pieces.

Kara-nuri, Nanako-nuri, Monsha-nuri, Nishiki-nuri… robust, elegant character born from diverse lacquering

Being able to use a diverse range of lacquering expressions — Kara-nuri and Nanako-nuri, representative of Tsugaru-nuri, as well as Monsha-nuri, Nishiki-nuri and marble — is also unique to Kobayashi Shikki. Through processes that spare no effort or time — Nanako-nuri, which scatters rapeseed to raise small ring patterns, and Kara-nuri, which creates unevenness with a special spatula and polishes out many layers of colored lacquer — vessels combining robustness and splendor are born.

A long-established workshop carrying on Tsugaru-nuri for over a century and six generations

Kobayashi Shikki is a long-established workshop that has carried on the craft of Tsugaru-nuri for over a hundred years and six generations. While handling in-house the dozens of processes — from making the wooden base to undercoating, rust-priming, top-coating and polishing out — it also takes on new motifs and colors suited to the times. Building on the skills and sensibility handed down over generations, it continues to explore forms of Tsugaru-nuri close to modern life.

Supporting lifelong lacquerware with repair and maintenance

The appeal of Tsugaru-nuri is that it is a "vessel that grows" — one you can keep using for a long time through re-coating and repair even when it becomes worn. Kobayashi Shikki shares how to handle and care for Tsugaru-nuri day to day, and also accepts re-coating and repair of its own products. Not "buy and done," it puts effort into after-care as a partner that supports lacquerware aging together with its user.