The Many Form of Makie - Getting to Know the Art - Japanese Traditional Art

Did you know there are many forms and techiniques in making a beautiful hand-crafted Makie piece. This video will explains to you what are those technichques as well as bring you back to the ancient Japanese time.

Maki-e (蒔絵 or sprinkled picture) is Japanese Urushi lacquer sprinkled with gold or silver powder as a decoration using a makizutsu or a kebo brush. The technique was developed mainly in the Heian period (794–1185) and blossomed in the Edo period (1603–1868). Maki-e objects were initially designed as household items for nobles but soon gained more popularity and were adopted by royal families and military leaders as a symbol of power.

To create different colors and textures, maki-e artists use a variety of powders including gold and silver. Bamboo tubes and soft brushes of various sizes are used for laying powders and drawing fine lines. As it requires highly skilled craftsmanship to produce a Maki-e painting, young artists need many years of training to attain the skills and become Maki-e masters.

Maki-e (蒔絵) represents the most sophisticated technique of the art of Urushi lacquer, designating a decorative work where the dust of gold or silver is gently sprinkled on still wet Urushi lacquer, usually black, to create the pattern. But above all, this collection is a human adventure. It is a journey and a discovery of an unknown beyond where know-how and innovation meet to the highest point. This meeting between the men of one of the oldest Japanese Urushi lacquer houses Zôhiko (象彦), located in Kyoto since its foundation in 1661, and those of the world's oldest watchmaking factory in uninterrupted production in Geneva since its foundation in 1755 - Vacheron Constantin - born a singular bearer of the same fundamental values: the Métiers Art Maki-e collection Romantic lacquers.

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