350 years of tradition going into a Watch Winder

Japanese Master Craftsman Shoichi Inoue has mastered the art of Butsudan making. He intends to preserve the 350 year old craft of handcrafting and lacquering and has expanded his craft into watch winders too.

Butsudan are household Buddhist alters and they can be very elaborate. Inoue-san has taken his craft to another item - watch winders and watch racks. Incorporating his craft in making butsudan, Inoue-san had found new inspiration in watch winders. Urushi (Japanese word for lacquer tree) is an age-old lacquering technique of using the sap of the lacquer tree which in its liquid form is toxic. But once applied and hardened, the toxicity is no longer there. And the results of the final product is a highly glossed product that is also very durable. Traditional lacquerware comes with three layers of lacquer - the undercoat, middle and final coat. The final coat is the clear lacquer that seals the decoration.

According to Inoue-san, the making of a butsudan involves seven stages. The following is narrative from Inoue-san.

The Kijishi

The Kijishi craftsman, who makes the main body of a butsudan altar, is responsible for the first important step in crafting the butsudan. Starting from carefully chosen wood pieces, he builds the butsudan body with the mortise and tenon joint technique, which requires very high artistry to join the wood pieces together precisely without the use of nails. Because of its nailless structure, the body of the butsudan can be disassembled later on.

Notice the high gloss finish of the winder which is made with Japanese cypress wood.

The Kudenshi

The Kudenshi craftman, known as the palace maker, creates each of the small details by hand to make up the roof of the butsudan, called the kuden. Similarly to Kijishi craftsman he uses the mortise and tenon joint technique which allows for disassembly into smaller pieces. To make this possible, he never ignores even a 1mm inaccuracy of measurement.

Inside the box is a Kubik winder. Inoue-san chose Kubik for the quietness of the motor.

The Sculptor

The sculptor choses the design and carves the sculptures out of wood (commonly hinoki cypress or pine) using small chisels and knives. Starting from a sketch on a wood base block, he carves out vivid three dimensional depictions of plants or animals.

The Lacquerer

The lacquerer manually applies urushi lacquer after treating the surface of the already carved wood pieces. The urushi application process takes much time and effort. Depending on the product, not only does he apply it using a brush, but he also polishes it with a premium technique called roiro finishing to give the work a deeper hue and lustrous mirror-like surface, the trademarks of quality urushi lacquer work.

The Gilder

The gilder, who is responsible for gold leaf stamping, applies each individual sheet of pure gold leaf using special lacquer glue. This gold leaf sheet is extremely thin, about 0.0001mm, so it will blow away with even a slight breeze.

The Chaser

The chaser uses a tagane, an engraving tool, or a hammer to create different shapes of decorative fittings by carving, cutting and bending copper and other metals. He then finishes it with a coating of either urushi lacquer or gold plating.

Notice the round hole at the top of the box? Well that is to connect a rod to make it a double winder. And notice the intricate workmanship and the glossy finish on the box. Truly a work of art!

The Makieshi

The makie artist designs and paints various types of objects, traditionally natural landscapes or flowers and birds. He first sketches the design using lacquer paint, then sprinkles gold or silver powders, or inlays mother-of-pearl pieces. Finally, he touches in the finishing details to complete the polished look of the butsudan altar.

Inoue-san also showcased his triple watch rack. The Kubik winder fits perfectly within the rack creating a triple winder. But the rack could also function as a static display - for manual winding timepieces too.

On top of creating these winders, Inoue-san can also make watch boxes - mostly highly customised pieces. Depending on the amount of work done, precious metals used and complexity of the design, each winder can take up to six months to complete and costs upwards of US$20,000.

You may find out more about Inoue-san from this weblink. Or you may write to him at sho-1@inouebutudan.com. Many thanks to Peter@Deployant for setting this up and to Momoko-san who translated the session.

Photos taken with an iPhone 6.

Urushi - A Rare Dial for a Rare Beauty!

The Japanese are well know masters of lacquer ware and when I first heard that they have commissioned a new timepiece in their Presage line, I was excited about it. So when I visited Japan earlier this year, I had to look for it.

Despite going to several department store in my first three days in Tokyo, I was met with one disappointment after another. And then, when we visited Kyoto, I chanced upon it there!

What’s so special about this piece? Well, for one the Presage line in this case features a special dial. The dials are made by artists Seiko commissioned and they are called “tokinowaza” - master craftsman. The art of applying lacquer is a well known Japanese skill and when I saw the timepiece, I was really awestruck! What a flawless dial!

The gloss on the dial is beautifully reflective. The master craftsman making these dials is Mr. Tamura Ichifune, a resident of Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. According to Seiko press release, the production numbers of these dials are very low - about 15 per day due to the complexity of applying lacquer to the dials to achieve a high gloss and deep finishing.

Even the hands are different - seems like the gold coloured hands have a sandblasted finish. I have not seen such finishing on a Seiko before.

On the display case back houses the calibre 6R15 which is the workhorse calibre for Seiko three handed timepieces.

As you can see, it says “Made In Japan” - in fact, it is Made for Japan! As I understand it, this range is not available outside of Japan thus dubbing some of these as Japan Domestic Model!

The timepiece is 40mm and a similar piece was also launched on Valentines Day 2015 - the SARW013. I saw both the SARX029 and the SARW013 with power reserve and date. I ended up with the three handed model.

Why the three handed model and not the “higher end” SARW013? Well, what’s special about this piece is the Japanese Urushi (lacquer) dial. When one adds the date at the six o’clock position and the power reserve at the nine, it somehow crowds the dial and takes away the beauty of the urushi dial. Even the strap has a matching golden thread matching the hands. In the end, the cleaner three handed timepiece was my choice to show off the dial work.

In the end, I managed to source another two pieces making it a total of three.

One more look at this beauty.

The list price of these timepieces are a very reasonable JPY110,000 for the SARX029 while the SARW013 is listed at JPY130,000. Good luck trying to find them if you happen to be in Japan. I also managed to find the SARX027 which comes with an enamel dial. I shall be sharing that in another post.