Century-old Japanese lacquerware company picks Pikachu for line of high-class Pokémon tableware
The traditions of Japanese lacquerware are said to stretch back millennia, and it's widely recognized as one of the country's representative artforms. By comparison, the Pokémon franchise has a much shorter history, but after three decades of phenomenal popularity, the creature designs of Pikachu and his pals have also become, in their own way, icons of Japanese aesthetic sense as well.
And as further proof of the legitimacy of both these classical and modern symbols of Japan, Tokyo lacquerware company Yamada Heiando, which has been crafting beautiful pieces for over a century, has created a line of Pokémon lacquerware.
Each piece's lacquer and Pocket Monster imagery is applied by hand by one of Yamada Heiando's experienced artisans, and if you're wondering how they get the Pokémon to shine so brightly, it's because the illustrations aren't stick-on decals or simple paint. Instead, Yamada Heiando uses a technique called maki-e, in which metallic powder is applied to the lacquer while it's still wet, meaning that the artist has to be not only precise, but fast too, since the powdering needs to be finished before the resin dries.
▼ A video showing the production process for the Pokémon lacquerware
Yamada Heiando offers two types of Pokémon tableware, with the first being a small bowl, or 'kowan,' as the company designates it in Japanese. These have a diameter of 10 centimeters (3.9 inches), and the initial lineup consisted of Pikachu, Dragonite, and Arbok, each available in either black or vermillion.
As of this month, they're joined by an Arbok version too.
Meanwhile, if you want something a little more substantial, there's also a new Pikachu soup bowl ('shiruwan'), which measures 11 centimeters across. Really, you can use this for holding things other than soup, but with all of Yamada Heiando's Pokémon pieces being made from natural wood, they do a great job of keeping their outside surface relatively cool even when their contents are piping hot, so they really are especially suited for miso soup and the like.
More maki-e artistry can be found on the bottom of the bowls, which bare the Pokémon logo…
…and you can also have the pieces customized with your name written in maki-e too, although it's unclear if Latin alphabet lettering is an option or not.
The small bowls each come bundled with a lacquerware spoon and are priced at 17,600 yen (US$120), while the larger Pikachu soup bowl is 24.200 yen.
Both bowls can be purchased through the Yamada Heiando online store (small bowls here, soup bowl here). And if your favorite Pokémon isn't one of these four, don't worry, as Yamada Heiando says the plan is to add even more species at a later date.
Source: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times, Yamada Heiando (1, 2)
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