Wooden decorative panel

for interiorfor public building

- A 2-meter titanium screen Wind and Thunder Gods, decorated with maki-e, the traditional Japanese lacquerware technique. The three-panel screen, produced by the notable urushi craftsmen from Wajima, in the northern part of Japan, portrays the legendary thunder god on the left,　and the wind god on the right, the remaining center panel adorned with only traditional silver and gold maki-e with smooth, high gloss finish. - Some may have heard the names “urushi,” “maki-e” or the title “Wind and Thunder Gods.” I would like to tell more, from the point of titanium maki-e, about the traditional technique of urushi, along with Wind and Thunder Gods, one of the designated National Treasures in Japan. - The titanium maki-e screen is made up of three panels of mirror polished titanium sheet (2500 x 1200ｘ3). The frame is of wood, Castoraralaci tree from Hokkaido, which is more than 300 years old. It was sawed out from the straight-grained material that was dried for over 20 years, and was assembled with the technique of post-and-beam construction, using neither nails nor adhesives. Fuki-urushi was then applied 7 times on the grain of wood. - Fuki(wipe)-urushi is one of the two methods used to bring out the beauty of the fine grain of wood, in which urushi is once fully absorbed into the wood and then wiped, while in suri-urushi, the surface is rubbed with urushi soaked cloth. In the former method, urushi is absorbed deep into the wood’s tissue, so it is also used as the base coat for the bowls to be painted in black or red. Urushi is rich in viscosity but also penetrates into the small grains. It yields far more beautiful finish than any other paint.