KAMI COLLECTION
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INTRODUCTION
Our studio is known for reinterpreting ancient craftsmanship through contemporary design. We are deeply committed to preserving cultural heritage and fostering dialogue with master artisans.
The Kami project began in 2019, when we were invited by the Akita Prefecture and the local Crafts Council in Japan to create a new body of work using Urushi, Japan’s traditional lacquer technique. With most Urushi practitioners being elderly and few younger successors taking up the craft, the technique is now endangered and at risk of disappearing. This invitation was part of a broader effort to help revive and revalue the tradition.
Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the planned residency, travel, and exhibitions had to be postponed. Yet the project found a new life: first through remote collaboration with Akita, and then through a local partnership with Urushi Atelier Netherlands, led by Dave van Gompel: a Dutch Urushi master trained in Japan and holding a PhD in lacquer arts. He worked closely with Mamiko Masumura, a Japanese Urushi artist, allowing the project to continue in a spirit of shared craftsmanship and cultural respect.
Together, we developed a series of objects that honored the intricacies of the Urushi process while exploring new directions in form and surface. The results were met with enthusiasm and led to a new invitation from Echizen Province to undertake a residency focused on additional traditional crafts, further expanding Kami into a broader, long-term exploration of Japanese material culture.
We were deeply honored that Rooted, the centerpiece of the Kami collection, was selected in 2024 for the 11th Nitten Exhibition in Tokyo, making Hozan Zangana the first European/Middle Eastern artist to be included in this prestigious national showcase.
Photography: Erik & Petra Hesmerg
URUSHI – THE LIVING SKIN OF TIME
Urushi is an ancient, living practice: a bond between nature, patience, and human touch. Derived from the sap of the Toxicodendron vernicifluum tree, Urushi has been used in Japan for over 9,000 years, making it one of the oldest known natural lacquers in the world. Objects coated in Urushi have been unearthed from Jōmon period sites dating back to 7000 BCE, still gleaming with astonishing vitality. This resilience is the result of a technique that demands an almost spiritual level of commitment.
Harvesting Urushi is an act of care and respect. To collect the sap, artisans must make dozens of small incisions into the living tree. A slow, controlled wounding that allows the milky liquid to rise to the surface, drop by drop Each tree yields only about 200 grams of sap per year, and it can take 15 to 20 years for a tree to mature enough to tap. After harvest in summer, it is filtered, aged, and refined in a delicate process that preserves its purity and potency.
Applying Urushi is a slow, meticulous process. It requires a humidity and temperature-controlled environment, as the lacquer hardens not through evaporation but through a unique enzymatic reaction with moisture in the air. Each layer, often no thicker than a strand of hair, must be applied with precision and left to cure in a muro (a humidity chamber) for days or weeks. A single object may require 20 to 30 layers, each sanded and polished before the next is applied. The result is a finish of otherworldly depth and luminosity, as if the object has been preserved in liquid time.
But Urushi is not without risk. Its raw sap contains urushiol, the same compound that causes severe skin reactions in poison ivy. Many beginners suffer from painful rashes and blistering. Over time, artisans must build tolerance through exposure. A slow and painful rite of passage. Mastery takes decades. It is not merely a technique but a way of life, governed by rhythm, restraint, and reverence.
Historically, Urushi was used not only for decoration but for protection. It coated samurai armor, sword hilts, shields, and temple fittings, valued for its durability, waterproof quality, and resistance to heat and insects. It was also applied to household items such as bowls, trays, writing boxes, objects meant to be both beautiful and enduring. This dual function, both practical and poetic, has embedded Urushi deeply in Japan’s material and spiritual culture.
Urushi is both fragile and invincible. It can scratch easily when young, but gains strength with time. Once cured, it can outlast nearly every other natural material. It holds memory. It breathes with the seasons. It matures with age, darkening like leather, deepening like human skin. In many ways, Urushi is not just a material, but a metaphor for legacy itself: sensitive, slow, and enduring.