Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1713 Maki-e Lacquerware

After bidding farewell to Old Zhong, who was terrified of collecting money, Zhou Zhi returned to Lianhe Township and brought Wu Renzhong, the two foreigners and Brother Dayong back to the prefecture to show them the autonomous prefecture lacquerware factory.

The state lacquerware factory is a collectively owned enterprise. Its business is not doing very well now and it mainly relies on the production of tourism products to survive.

Lacquerware can easily cause allergies, so Zhou Zhi had several people fully armed and hidden properly from beginning to end, even wearing goggles.

In fact, Zhou Zhi also wanted to test whether a statement was true. Legend has it that lacquer sores, or lacquer allergy, are transmitted through eyes. As long as you look at the lacquer, those who are allergic will also become allergic.

But this problem does not exist in Zhouzhi, nor does the painters. On the contrary, the famous Yi artist Lesoag, who is guiding the improvement of lacquer craft, does not have this problem either.

Lesoag is indeed a young painter, not even 35 years old. He has long hair tied into a ponytail at the back of his head, wears a straw hat with a natural cowhide edge, a loose plaid shirt with the hem tucked into his jeans, and has glaze dots all over his body. He does not look like a Yi person, but more like an Indian.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zhi suddenly discovered a problem: the Yi people and Indians do look a bit similar.

"Elbow!" Lesoag shook hands with Zhou Zhi enthusiastically: "Thank you for the information you sent us! It really opened our eyes!"

Zhou Zhi has many art albums in Suihuaxuan, and among the albums he brought back from the island country, there are many pictures of Japanese-style lacquerware.

To put it simply, there are actually two main methods of Japanese lacquerware: one is mother-of-pearl, and the other is Maki-e.

These are all things left over from our Chinese ancestors.

Mother-of-pearl is a type of inlay, and there are countless exquisite products in the National Museum and the Forbidden City for reference.

The Maki-e technique originated from China's "gilding".

Huang Cheng of the Ming Dynasty once recorded in "The Record of Lacquer Painting": "Gold painting, also known as gold painting, is pure gold flower pattern. Red ground and black base are both suitable. The patterns are landscapes, feathers, flowers and fruits, human stories, etc. The fine hooks are yang, the sparse lines are yin, or the background is black, or the images are colored gold."

In real history, this technology was much earlier than the time recorded by Huang Chengzai, and can even be traced back to the Warring States Period in China.

The Chinese gilding technique is to paint the polished base, then apply red or black lacquer, which is called "upper coating". After the "upper coating" is dry, polished and smooth, and polished to a bright finish, transparent lacquer is used to mix the color, and thinly draw patterns on the lacquerware surface, and then put it into a greenhouse.

When the lacquer painting is about to dry, dip a silk cotton ball in the finest gold or silver powder and brush it on the pattern, and the pattern will turn into beautiful gold and silver colors.

After that, apply a layer of transparent varnish on the surface and promote it again. The gold and silver pattern will be protected by the varnish on the surface and will never fall off again.

It is still unknown how the gilding technique was spread from China to the island country, but what we do know is that the term Maki-e appeared in the Heian period of Japan, and it has a history of thousands of years.

During this thousand years, Maki-e has been uniquely nurtured on the land of the island nation. Japanese craftsmen used this technique to express their own understanding of beauty on various lacquerware, creating artworks that belong to the island nation. The technique has been further developed and divided into three types: flat Maki-e, Ken-de Maki-e, and high Maki-e.

Hira Maki-e is a traditional Chinese gilding technique. The difference is that the final protective layer applied by the Japanese is very thin, so thin that it is impossible to make up for the height difference between the flat base and the pattern part. Therefore, the characteristic of Hira Maki-e is that the pattern part is usually slightly higher than the surrounding area, just like the enamel porcelain and pastel porcelain of the three dynasties of Qing Dynasty, presenting a shallow relief visual effect.

The early process of developing Maki-e is basically the same as that of Heian Maki-e. First, the pattern is painted with lacquer, and Maki-e powder is sprinkled on it before the lacquer dries. This makes the painting powder no longer limited to gold and silver, but also includes other colors, forming a richer picture.

After that, another layer of lacquer is applied to completely cover the surface. After the lacquer has dried and hardened, the Maki-e part is polished out with a delicate sanding technique. The surface of the Maki-e objects made in this way is smooth, and the patterns appear to be looming, giving it a unique hazy beauty.

Gao Maki-e is similar to the "pile lacquer" in China, which uses lacquer strips to pile up a raised lacquer surface on the surface of the object, and then paints on it. The biggest difference between this work and the previous two is that it is full of three-dimensionality and strength, and it is also a breakthrough from two-dimensional to three-dimensional creation.

Later, as lacquer painting patterns became increasingly sophisticated and gorgeous, a technique called "nature-inspired Maki-e" was developed on the basis of "Takamaki-e". It made the raised lacquer surface form a gentle slope, which was mostly used to express mountains and clouds, making the performance of the meeting more vivid and realistic.

The Edo period was the most glorious period of Maki-e, with a large number of excellent works emerging that were extremely luxurious. Among them, Honami Kōetsu reached the pinnacle of art, which was equivalent to Wang Xizhi in Chinese calligraphy.

In addition to gold and silver, his Maki-e also used lead, tin, blue shells and other materials. He was able to use classical themes, add new designs, and his material selection was bold and rich.

There are also many new attempts in the techniques, creating many unique effects, and the overall style is generous and highly decorative.

Eventually, he created the "Kōetsu Makie" style that was named after him.

During the entire process, the island nation's Maki-e also created many inheritances in terms of vessel shapes, patterns, and craftsmanship, forming a large system.

But just like in the old days those who played with "soft films" looked down on those who played with "hard films", when a painter studies the skills of a craftsman, it is a dimensionality reduction attack.

Lesoag himself is an oil painter and lacquer painter. The large tile mural "Love of Liangshan" on the autonomous prefecture railway station has a strong lacquer painting style.

As a result, he quickly imitated lacquerware with a strong Japanese style, and also designed patterns that were both traditional and innovative, fully embodying the three flavors of "Kōetsu Maki-e".

In addition, a wooden bowl was designed. The wooden bowl was divided into several spaces by several beautiful arcs. Each space was filled with a color, separated by gold edges, and then polished with varnish. The modern style was expressed with traditional techniques and skills, which is already better than the original.

"As expected of a young artist, these lines are so beautiful." Zhou Zhi couldn't help but admire.

Matsui Zou and Jin Jun'ichi also nodded repeatedly. When art reaches a certain level, the aesthetic tastes of all countries and nationalities are the same. Even if everyone is not an artist, they can tell what is good and what is bad.

Unexpectedly, Lesoag showed a look of shame: "These were all painted by the older sisters in the lacquerware factory. I can't even do it to this level of proficiency."

"is it?"

"We'll find out when we go to the workshop."

When they arrived at the lacquer painting workshop, the female workers were using their pens to quickly draw lines on the lacquer bowls. Their skillfulness shocked Matsui Zou and Jin Junyi.

They were making the semi-finished products of the beautiful lacquerware we had just seen. The graceful lines were quickly outlined on the objects by the female workers with fine brushes dipped in colored lacquer, relying on superb and even almost instinctive movements.

This pure handmade craftsmanship, which is even more precise and unrestrained than machine printing, makes everyone stare in amazement.

"This is not what they are most skilled at." Lesoag said, "They are most skilled in creating ethnic lacquerware. How about I let them show it to everyone?"