Lacquer tree juice: the first varnished products are already 6,000 years old

The use of many synthetic materials and substances began with the use of their natural analogues. Varnish in this regard is no exception. It turns out that the world's first products coated with the highest quality varnish were made 6,000 years ago in Japan, and the varnish tree juice was used for this.

Lacquered wood

Lacquer tree grows on the territory of the Japanese archipelago, the Korean peninsula and China. This plant, unique in its properties, belongs to the genus Toxicodendron, from the name of which it is clear that plants of this genus have toxic properties. The juice of the lacquer tree is thick, gray in color and very toxic. It is capable of causing poisoning even if its vapor is inhaled.

The poisonous component of the juice is urushiol, an oil toxin with very beneficial properties. Applied to wooden objects, the lacquer tree juice after drying gives it moisture resistance, beautiful luster and special strength. According to archaeological data, the varnish coating based on toxic wood juice was used by the ancient inhabitants of China and Japan. In the Middle Ages, with the use of this juice in Japan, a whole artistic direction in art, the Urusi, was born. But the unusual properties of the juice of this tree were also known to the inhabitants of China and Korea.

Using the Urusi technique, various wooden products were made on the Japanese islands. Most often, these were chopsticks, dishes, caskets, decorative trays, wooden furniture, and even samurai weapons.

But even today, the technique of processing wood with varnish from lacquer juice is popular in Japan. Aizu's lacquering skill, whose center is the city of Aizuwakamatsu, is recognized as the country's national art and is protected at the state level. As far back as the 17th century, craftsmen from this region sold their unique works of art to Europe.

Today, there are more than 1,500 craftsmen who own the Aizu craft. Urusi technology is not much different from that which existed hundreds and even thousands of years ago, and the juice of a unique lacquer tree is still used to obtain organic varnish.