Birth and tradition of Echizen Shikki
Various products
Echizen Shikki, its birth and 1500 years of tradition
Urushi
It is said that the word "Urushi" used to have the characters "Junya" or "Junmi". It seems that the thoughts of our distant ancestors, who have been deeply connected with lacquer in their daily lives and have loved and cared for them, have become words as they are. And when that thought became a form, a color, and an indescribable luster, today's Echizen Shikki was born, praising the profound beauty that pierced the glitz of the surface. Echizen where lacquer lives in every corner of life. Echizen nurtures gentle and warm lacquer ware. Echizen is a country of beautiful lacquer that is full of such moisture.
Echizen lacquerware
The origin of Echizen Shikki is said to date back to about 1500 years ago. The 6th century, the end of the Kofun period. When the 26th Emperor Keitai was still a prince, he was ordered by a painter in the Katayama village (now Katayama-cho, Sabae City, Fukui Prefecture) to repair the broken crown.
The priest repaired the crown with lacquer and presented a black bowl, and the prince was impressed by the splendid workmanship and encouraged him to make lacquer ware in the Katayama village. This is said to be the beginning of today's Echizen Shikki.
In addition, there have been many lacquer scrapers in Echizen since ancient times. Lacquer shaving is a craftsman who collects lacquer liquid while scratching the lacquer tree, and it is said that it accounted for half of the lacquer shavings nationwide at its peak. When the Nikko Toshogu Shrine was built, the Tokugawa Shogunate ordered Echizen to collect a large amount of lacquer liquor. You can see how highly evaluated Echizen's lacquer shavings were. The existence of such lacquer ware also plays a major role in forming the production area of Echizen lacquer ware.
Katayama Shikki Shrine (Koretaka Shinno)
Koretaka-shinno, the deity of the Katayama Shikki Shrine, was the first prince of the 55th Emperor Mon Toku (reigning 850-858), but was defeated by the succession to the throne and was defeated by Kuniai Omi. ) I was retired to the village of Ogura (currently Higashi-Omi City, Shiga Prefecture). During the year of Jyokan (the latter half of the 9th century), the King taught the surrounding Somabito the technique of processing wood with a potter's wheel and encouraged the production of bowls and trays. Therefore, it is said that a craftsman called "Kijishi" (potter's wheel) was born in this area. With the prince as the "ancestor of the Kijishi", the Kijishi who are deeply revered walk across the mountains all over the country with Omi as the root, and receive a license of the Kiji technology from the person in power at the time to work. I was proud.
Even in Echizen Province, when a group of woodworkers from Omi migrated to the deep mountains of Ohno / Katsuyama, Imajo and Ikeda / Kuratani in search of good materials, the lacquer scraping technique and the potter's wheel that have been handed down from ancient times to this Katayama area. It is said that the lacquer ware industry up to the present day was born in connection with the processing technology of. According to folklore, the craftsmen of Katayama, who remembered the virtues of the King, received a precious historical book from Tsutsui Shrine (Kumonjo) in Omi Province, which bundles woodworkers from all over the country. It is said that Yuishogaki was enshrined and the lacquer ware shrine was built as "Wan God" in 1221. Even now, at Tsutsui Shrine, there is a record of Kijiya who toured the villages, "Ujikokaricho", and you can see the records of Katayama's bowl master and painter.
Initially, the head office was enshrined in Katayama Hachiman Shrine (the 15th Emperor Ojin 270-310), but it was an independent lacquerware in the first year of Shoho (1644) during the Edo period. It was built in the precincts of the company as a shrine.
The Shikki Shrine was rebuilt in October 1964 and continues to the present day after the disaster that the shrine collapsed due to the impact of the Isewan Typhoon on September 26, 1959.
Kijiya document in the collection (copy)
1. Emperor Suzaku's copy of the rinji (Jyo) November 9, 935
I, Emperor Ogimachi, a photo of the Emperor Ogi, October 11, 1572
1. Copy of licenses for various roles of Nagahide Niwa June, 1583 (Tensho 11)
1. Copy of licenses for various roles of Uemon Masuda November 15, 1587
1. Koretaka-shinno Engi Penmanship September 12, 1220
As a major lacquer ware producing area
The lacquer bowl made in the Katayama area is called the Katayama bowl, and has been widely used for Buddhist affairs such as Hoonko since the Muromachi period.
In the late Edo period, we invited a lacquer artist from Kyoto to introduce lacquer work techniques. Incorporating the technique of depositing gold from Wajima, Echizen Shikki has become brilliantly decorative in addition to its robustness.
In the middle of the Meiji era, Echizen Shikki will reach a major turning point. Until then, most of the products were bowls called Marubutsu, but now we are also making dishes such as Kakumono. Since then, the product lineup has diversified at once, including heavy boxes, hand boxes, trays, confectionery boxes, and vases. The production area has expanded to the entire Kawada area, and the lacquer ware produced there has come to be called Kawada-nuri.
Against the background of these diverse product groups, we set out to develop a sales channel for commercial lacquer ware used in inns and restaurants while establishing a mass sales system, and this was a great success. Having expanded into large consumption areas such as Nagoya and Osaka, Kawada Nuri became widely used as Echizen lacquerware.
