Study on the Appearance and Peel Strength of Byakudan-Nuri Works

Chieko Narita, Atsushi Endo, Yutaro Shimode, Kazushi Yamada

Department of Advanced Fibro-Science, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto, Japan.
Kyoto Research Institute of Natural Lacquer Cultural Properties, Kyoto, Japan.

DOI: 10.4236/msa.2014.52012                

Abstract

This paper focuses on Byakudan-nuri, one of the traditional decoration techniques of Japanese Urushi (Urushi natural lacquer) crafts. Works produced by Byakudan-nuri express a unique luster color owing to painting gold or silver leaves along with highly transparent Urushi. The specific problem of Byakudan-nuri is the exfoliation of Urushi off the metal leaf surface, to solve a lot of repair work which is done nowadays. For Byakudan-nuri, silver leaf is preferred to a gold leaf. This paper tries to clarify the influence of the different kinds of metal leaves on the appearance and peel strength of works of Byakudan-nuri and, moreover, to elucidate the reason why silver leaf has been used more frequently for Byakudan-nuri until now. It was found out that the reason for the more frequent use of silver leaf in Byakudan-nuri is that silver does not seem to affect the appearance and peel strength in works produced by this technique.

Keywords

Urushi (Urushi Natural Lacquer); Gold Tooling; Byakudan-Nuri; Traditional Crafts

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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