context: lacquerwork > objects > inro

Artistry

Inro posed a special set of challenges to an artist:

1. A small area, each main face being maybe 6-8 square inches.
2. Not flat - most were curved in a variety of ways.
3. Every surface was lacquered - inside, the risers, the top and bottom, as well as the two main faces. The risers would generally be decorated, not just in a solid colour.
4. The technical difficulties and limitations of working with lacquer.
5. The awkward bits such as where the cord channels join the main body.
6. Often, the ojime (the bead holding the cords together) and netsuke would be related, sometimes created by the same artist.

You can see some of the ways that artists handled this in a lot of the pages in the lacquer artists section, particularly a dozen great examples under Shibata Zeshin.

backwards: technical