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Urushi no Sato Kaikan

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Researched and written by Hinato

Echizen lacquerwareKawadaSabaeurushicraft workshop

Photo: Asturio Cantabrio / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · original

Urushi no Sato Kaikan is worth visiting even if you don't plan to buy anything — the process is the point.

Echizen lacquerware has been made in the Kawada valley for around fifteen hundred years — the origin story involves a fifth-century emperor and a repaired crown — and Kawada today produces a large share of the lacquered bowls and trays used in Japanese restaurants and inns. It is a production district rather than an artisan boutique quarter, and it looks like one.

The Urushi no Sato Kaikan is the district's front door: a display of the history and the process, a shop carrying over a thousand items from the local cooperative, and an adjoining workshop building where designated master craftsmen work in view and where visitors can book sessions in painting, chinkin gold inlay or wiped-lacquer finishing. Entry is free, it opens at nine, and the only closed day is the fourth Tuesday of the month.

What to know before you go

Cost

Free | Hands-on lacquer sessions charged separately, by advance booking

Time to allow

60–90 minutes | 2–3 hours with a hands-on session

Workshop hours

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Closed: Closed on the fourth Tuesday of the month | New Year

When to go

Year-round | Indoor site

How to reach the workshop

Access notes

Sabae, in the Kawada district. Car recommended. Closed on the fourth Tuesday of the month and over the New Year. Admission free; hands-on sessions in painting, chinkin inlay and wiped-lacquer finishing are charged separately and require advance booking. Phone.

How it's made

**Book the hands-on session ahead.** Painting, chinkin gold inlay and wiped-lacquer work are all offered by reservation. Turning up hoping to join one does not work. **Watch the craftsmen next door.** The adjoining workshop building has designated traditional craftsmen working in view. That is more informative than the display panels. **The shop is the reason to come for most people.** Over a thousand items from the local cooperative, at production-district prices rather than department-store ones. **Only the fourth Tuesday closes it.** An unusual schedule, and worth noting because it is otherwise open every day. **Combine with Sabae's other industry.** The Megane Museum is fifteen minutes away in the same city. Lacquer and spectacles in one afternoon is a strange and accurate portrait of Sabae.

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