Tamamura Shinya’s goalfor these tiny lacquer
boxes is beauty— an objeflt that people will want
to keep and hold fore ver.
Above left and right:
N o v e m b e r M o u n ta in ,
red
lacquer, gold powder,
2'/2 x 3 '/s x
I 'h
ill., and
M a y M o u n ta in
, green
lacquer, gold powder,
2
X 3 % X 2
%
in., incense
containers, aooy.
Below:
S a c re d J e w e l.
2009, in-
cense container, green
lacquer, eggshell, 2 -Vi x
2% x 2% in.
traditional artworks. They introduced
notions of protection, layering and enclo-
sure that the lacquer works furthered.
Yamamura’s boxes were identified as “in-
cense box” or “tea box.” Yet they were not
entirely practical, for he is now obsessed
with smallness. The gallery featured 20
narrow pedestals, each presenting a single
container small enough to be held in one
hand. They could be said to speak in the
language of “boxness” without restriction
to rectilinear shape.
Two (one red and one green) resembled
craggy mountain peaks with rough, almost
lava-like surfaces. Another evoked an egg
embellished with curlicues, and another
took the shape of a melon slice, the fruit’s
pulp represented by iridescent chips of
mother of pearl. One vertical box was sur-
faced with a textured pattern recalling
Van Gogh’s
Starry Night.
A tiny, lidded
bowl displayed a glossy black top, red
ribbed sides and insides speckled with gold
flakes. The gold repeats at the center of
the exterior base, which one discovers only
through handling. Another was a silo shape
with a flattened cone lid and eggshell
among its surface materials; it breaks down
into three minuscule containers. One imag-
ines this structure containing not agricul-
tural products but single jewels.
Barbara Brennan Ford, former curator
of Japanese art at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, told me that most lacquer artists
specialize in one type of work—either the
red and black called
tiegoro
or the sparkling
inlay called
maki-e.
But Y amamura does
both. Also, most lacquer artists concentrate
only on surface, but he is equally interested
in form. He starts by drawing shapes and
then makes a model in clay so that he can
measure his wood and avoid waste. He
roughs out the form by machine and finishes
it with hand carving. He works only in Japa-
nese cypress. The completed objects are
so tiny and so thin-walled (but strengthened
by the urushi, remember) that they seem
feather light. His goal, Y amamura told me,
is beauty. He wants to make an object that
people will want to keep and hold forever.
The writer fa n et Koplos recently served
as guest editor o f
American Craft
She is co-
author o f
Makers: A History of American
Studio Craft,
due in July from University
o f North Carolina Press.
*
ippodogallery.com
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