糸口を掴む

「色をどうするかより、持った時の感触を人肌の感じにしたいんです。漆塗りの感触に違ってあるのですか？」

輪島の塗師の方にお会いして、一番最初にこう切り出した。とにかくやりたいことははっきりとしていたが、それがどうしたらできるのかがわからないので、とにかく塗師の方にこちらがしたいことを明確に伝えるしかなかった。

塗師の方の事務所は、塗師屋造りという輪島独特の住宅形式、道路側に住居、奥に仕事場、をした建物を住居部分に事務所、仕事場部分を見本場という展示スペースにして利用しており、毎回、見本場に通されて打合せをする。

「きっともっとザラついている方が人肌の感じに近くなるんじゃないかと思うんですが」と普通？の輪島塗のコーヒーカップを手で触りながら塗師に伝えたら、見本場から呂色のお盆を見せてくれた。

呂色とは、上塗りの上に施す仕上げのことで、いろいろな色の乾漆と呼ばれる粒状のものを均一に撒いたり、不均質に撒いたりして、それを磨いて細かい粒状の凹凸ができるように仕上げる。

見せてくれたお盆は乾漆を均一撒いた仕上げで、確かにザラつきは出たが、人肌のしっとりな感じはなく、乾いた感触で、人肌とは全く違った感触だった。

次に塗師の方が同じく呂色だが、今度は石目乾漆(画像のものは磨く前)という技法のお盆を見せてくれた。粒状の乾漆を今度は不均質に撒き、乾漆がのる部分と乾漆がない部分の面積が均一に撒くより大きくなり、それを磨くと乾漆がのった部分が平らになり、手で持った時に少し密着感が出て、感触がしっとりしてくる。

この感触の延長線に人肌の感触があるのではないか、直感で。塗師は皮膚を拡大するとこんな模様ですねと言う。

いろいろ石目乾漆についてききたい、どうやるのか、好きな色を出すのにどうするのか、もっと密着感を出すことはできるのか、立て続けに塗師に質問したら、突然、携帯で電話しはじめた。電話の相手は呂色職人のようだ。輪島塗の工程は全て分業制、それぞれに専門の職人がいる。

右手で右耳に携帯を押し当てている塗師に対して、左耳にききたいことを話し掛けていた。ここが重要だと思ったから、今日ここまで朝2時に起きて輪島に来るまでずっと、漆塗りで人肌の感触を出すことが本当にできるのだろうか、技術的な糸口が何ひとつなかったので、やっと糸口を掴んだ、必死で離すものか、という気持ちだった。

電話を切った塗師は

「いま、職人が来るから、ききたいことをきいた方がよいよ」と私に告げた。塗師の声だけは聞こえていたからわかるが、その呂色職人は自ら説明しに来ると言ったようだった。もしかしたら人肌の感触ができるかもしれない、可能性が出てきた嬉しい瞬間。

"Grasp the clue"

"I'd like to feel the feeling of my skin when I had it, rather than what to do with color, is it different from the feel of lacquer painting?"

We met the painter of Wajima and cut out like this at the very beginning. Anyway I wanted to do what I wanted to do but I did not know how to do it, so anyway I had to tell the painter what I wanted to do clearly.

The office of the painter is using the building space unique to Wajima called Painter's House Building, the building which did the residence on the roadside, the workplace in the back, as the exhibition space of the office in the residential part and the main part looking at the workplace part Every time, I will go through a sample place and meet.

"I think that it is more likely that people with more roughness will be closer to the feeling of human skin" and normal? I touched the Wajima-covered coffee cup with my hands and handed it to the painter, who showed us a Lu color tray from the exhibition ground.

Lu color is the finishing to be applied on the top coat so that granular items called various lacquer lacquers are spread uniformly or sprinkled inhomogeneously to polish it so that finely granular irregularities can be formed Finish.

The tray that showed me was a finely sprinkled dry lacquer, certainly with zara, but there was no moist skin feeling moist, with a dry feeling, it was totally different feeling from human skin.

Next, the painter is also Lu color, but this time it showed us the tray of the technique called the stone eye dry lacquer (the thing of the image before polishing). This time the granular dry lacquer is spread inhomogeneously and the area of ​​the part where the lacquer is lined and the part which does not have lacquer is larger than it spreads evenly and when polishing it the part with dried lacquer was flat and it was held by hand Sometimes a bit of a close feeling comes out, the feel is moist.

It is intuition whether there is a feeling of human skin on the extension line of this feeling. The painter says when he enlarges his skin it looks like this.

About various stone eyes dry lacquer, I want to hear, how to do, how to do what I like to put out a favorite color, how can I get a more close feeling? If you question the painter after you in a row, suddenly I started calling on the mobile phone. The other party of the telephone seems to be Lu color craftsman. All processes of Wajima coat are divided into division of labor, each has a specialized craftsman.

I was talking to the left ear about the things I wanted to hear against a painter who was pressing a cell phone against my right ear with my right ear. Because I thought that this was important, I wonder if I could get up at 2 o'clock in the morning so far, until I came to Wajima, I could actually feel the human skin with lacquer painting, since there was not any technical clue, Finally I caught a clue, was feeling I was desperate to release.

Painter who hung up

"Since craftsmen are coming now, I should tell me that you should listen to what I want to ask." I heard that only the painter 's voice was heard, but that Lu color craftsman seemed to say that he would come to explain himself. Perhaps it may be the feeling of human skin, a happy moment when the possibility comes out.