Urushi-e (lacquer painting)

A painting made with colored lacquer, which is made by mixing lacquer with paint. It is mainly used to decorate crafts. Due to the special properties of lacquer, any color can not be produced with any pigment, and there is a limit to the colors that can be produced, so since ancient times, lacquer paintings have been limited to black, vermilion, yellow, green, and brown. Relics include artifacts from the Warring States period excavated from Changsha, Hunan Province, China, and Xinyang, Henan Province, China, that have animal and cloud motifs painted with colored lacquer, and a painted box with a human figure excavated from Rakuro, Korea, and it seems that lacquer painting was popular during the Han dynasty. In Japan, this Chinese Han dynasty tradition has been inherited, and the Tamamushi Zushi at Horyu-ji Temple is the oldest lacquer painting relic in Japan. Very few lacquer paintings remain in Japan from both the Heian and Kamakura periods, and it seems that people preferred makie (lacquer lacquer painting) using gold and silver. However, when lacquerware crafts flourished in the Momoyama period, new ideas were introduced in designs and techniques, and lacquer paintings were widely applied to everyday items such as trays, tableware, and dining tables, and they became popular.

[Shinichi Nagai]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

漆に絵の具を混ぜた色漆で描いた絵のこと。おもに工芸品の装飾に用いられている。漆の特殊な性質上、どんな顔料でも自由な色が出せるというわけにはいかず、発色に限度があって、古くから黒、朱、黄、緑、茶褐色に限られていた。遺品としては、中国・湖南省長沙(ちょうさ)や河南省信陽から出土した戦国時代の工芸品に色漆で動物文や雲気文を描いたものや、朝鮮・楽浪(らくろう)出土品の人物画像彩篋(さいきょう)などがあり、漢代に漆絵の盛行をみたらしい。日本ではこうした中国・漢代の伝統を受け継ぎ、法隆寺の玉虫厨子(ずし)はわが国最古の漆絵の遺品である。わが国では平安・鎌倉両時代を通じても残るものはきわめて少なく、金・銀を用いた蒔絵(まきえ)のほうをより好んだとみられる。しかし桃山時代になって漆工芸が盛んになると、意匠や技法のうえにも新趣向を取り入れ、漆絵も盆、食器、膳(ぜん)など日用品に盛んに施され、愛用されるようになった。

［永井信一］

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