職人技

呂色職人は塗師屋の所に別の用事があり、来ることになっていたらしい。別の用事とは座卓の傷直し。

輪島塗のフリーカップの塗りの人肌感触の打合せの続きは、呂色職人の工房にて行うことになったので、おもむろに傷直しの作業をしはじめた。塗師が言う、滅多に見られないよ、と。

見本場の打合せテーブルの横に布を掛けられて置かれていた座卓には、すでに傷の部分に同色の漆が塗られていて、乾くのを待っていたようだ。呂色職人により磨く作業がはじまった。

先程までの打合せの中で呂色職人の方が
「漆塗りの工程の中で何が一番重要だかわかりますか？」と私に問うてきた。

私「塗り、上塗りですかね。最終的な仕上げだから」
職人「皆さん、そう言いますね。確かに、上塗りは重要ですよ。それに花形というか、華々しい部分ですからね。でも、違うんですよ。磨きなんです」

呂色職人曰く、磨きという工程は、下塗り、中塗り、上塗りの全ての工程にあり、磨きが下手だと上手く塗れないらしい。確かに、磨いて下地が平滑でないと綺麗には塗れないだろう。自分の工程が一番重要だと言いたいだけかな、という気もしたが、ただそれも一理あるなと思った。

その磨きの作業がこれから見られる。職人は呂色粉と呼ばれる白い粉を取り出して、自分の手に付けはじめた。磨くと聞いたから、何か道具を使って行うのかと思っていたが、手の平が道具だった。

手の平の感触だけを頼りに、あらかじめ傷の部分に塗られた漆を磨いていく。元々の座卓は相当艶がある仕上げなのに、呂色粉を付けた手の平だけで段々と艶のある仕上げになっていく。素人からすれば、これだけ艶のある仕上げだと、かえって手の平にある掌紋の凹凸が細かい傷になり目立つのではないかと考えてしまうが、見事に傷の部分がわからなくなり、座卓の他の部分の艶と全く同じように仕上がった。その間わずか10分足らず、正に職人技の極致を見たようで圧倒された。

"Craftsmanship"

Lu color craftsman seems to have another business at the paint shop, and was to come. Another errand is to repair the seat.

The continuation of the discussion of the human skin feeling of the Wajima-coat free cup painting was to be done at the workshop of Lu color craftworker, so I started to do the work of rewriting in good faith. The painter says, it rarely can not be seen.

The seat table which was put on cloth next to the meeting table of the exhibition ground already had lacquer of the same color painted in the part of the wound and seems to have been waiting for drying. Work started to polish by Lu color craftsmen.

Lu color craftworker in the meeting until the previous
I asked myself "What is the most important thing in the lacquering process?"

I "paint, top coat, because it's the final finish"
Craftsman "Everyone, that's true, it is true that the top coat is important, and it's a spectacular part, because it's a flower form, but it's different, it's a polish."

Lu color craftsman said that the process of polishing is in all processes of undercoat, middle coat, top coat and if it is poor in polishing, it can not be painted well. Certainly, it will not be cleanly painted unless the surface is polished and the smoothness is not smooth. I thought that I just wanted to say that my process was the most important, but I just thought that there was a way too.
 
The polishing work can be seen from now. The craftsman took out the white powder called Lu color powder and began to put it in his hand. I was told that I would polish, so I was wondering if I would do it using some tools, but my palm was a tool.

Depending on only the feeling of the palm, I will polish the lacquer painted on the scratches in advance. Although the original seat table has a finished glossy finish, it gradually becomes a glossy finish with only the palm with lustrous powder. From an amateur, if this is only a shiny finish, I think that the unevenness of the palm print in the palm is a fine scratch and stands out, but it is not surprising that the part of the scratch becomes obscure, the other part of the seat table It was finished in exactly the same way as the gloss of. Meanwhile, it was less than 10 minutes and I was overwhelmed as if I saw the extreme of craftsmanship right.