lacquerware snack plates

while this is NOT antique, it is a tad hard for me to tell at the second hand stores what is and isn't antique so please forgive me. that being said, this is a really cool authentic lacquerware fukui-made set of flower design snack plates, in a handmade paper box. 

the base plates are made of a resin / wood composite material, and new this set will have retailed for ¥20000 - ¥40000 ($200 - $400CAD). 

modern urushi is becoming rarer due to the cost of production, and the toll it takes on the artisans. urushi is an irritant similar to poison ivy, with the allergic reaction becoming greater with each exposure.

note: there is only one plate set available, so if you see one of the sliding scale options is sold out, that means the item is already sold!

what is japanese lacquerware / urushi? lacquerware is a type of coating that is made out of tree sap called urushi, and typically applied to a wooden base object. urushi can be applied as a protective coating, the japanese emperor's would have lived in a home completely coated with urushi. common folk often would have used bowls, plates, trays, boxes, etc coated with urushi in their day to day life. prior to urushi becoming commonplace, people would eat out of wooden dishes with no coating, but they were prone to breakage. once the wooden dishes were coated in urushi, they became significantly stronger and heat resistant. there is archeological evidence of urushi being used for the last 10,000 years, back to the jomon period. 

the urushi trees take over 20 years to reach maturity, then can be harvested but a few times to collect a small amount of urushi liquid before the tree dies. the urushi sap itself is quite delicate, as the qualities can change depending on the time of day and time of year that the sap is harvested. one urushi coating a week to dry in optimal conditions through a process of oxidization, and one item can have many layers. it can take up to 3 months just to apply the urushi lacquer to one item, but the colour of the item doesn't fully settle for about three years. this means that when the item is first 'finished' it might appear bright red, but in three years it will turn a deep red / black. 

urushi lacquerware used to be the gold standard in japan and was highly prized, but since modern dishes and pottery have become popular people have slowly started to see lacquerware items as 'too much work' to care for. thus, these items that would have been bought for a lot of money are now sold for little, or thrown away for lack of value and interest.