Jōhana Maki-e: The Artistry of Jōhana Lacquering

Evening Presentation
Drinks Reception 6:30pm
Presentation 7:00pm
Close 8:30pm

*This presentation will be conducted in Japanese with English translation.

Jōhana maki-e﹙城端蒔紜﹚, also known as Jōhana lacquering or Jigōemon lacquering, is a unique curiosity in the world of fine and applied arts, and completely different from conventional maki-e. In regular maki-e, only five colors — red, black, yellow, green, and brown — can be developed from the lacquering. It was deemed impossible for the color white to be formed.

Jōhana maki-e, however, characteristically makes use of the color white, developed using secret techniques for multi-colored maki-e passed down from a single line of succession. Its availability makes a wide variety of color shadings possible when drawing wildlife, nature, and other scenery. This technique combines the litharge techniques seen in the early works of the family. Through much research and hard work based on those techniques, it became the “white maki-e” seen in works sometime around the middle of the line of succession.

Besides presenting the history and aesthetics of this exquisite lacquering technique, Ohara Yoshitomo will also briefly demonstrate some of the techniques and tools used during the process.

Ohara Yoshitomo is the 16th successor of Jigōemon, a name passed down from generation to generation since 1575, along with the traditional technique for making Jōhana maki-e lacquerware, transmitted from father to son. While the special technique has been passed down from father to son through generations of the Ohara Jigōemon family, the Oharas are entrusted with decorating floats and coloring the skin of the deity statues, especially in the Jōhana Hikiyama Matsuri — a floating festival marking the arrival of the rice-planting season dating back nearly 300 years, which was recently inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List.

Yoshitomo has participated in numerous exhibitions in many places: The Best of Toyama: Kogei Art and Design from Japan (Onishi Gallery, New York, USA), HAMON GALLERY (Ginza, Tokyo), Baccarat Hotel and Residences New York, Asia Week New York 2016, Kogei: Contemporary Japanese Art as part of National Cherry Blossom Festival (Washington D.C., USA), Japanese Contemporary Art and Living (Onishi Gallery, New York, USA) and so on.

Co-presenters

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