Hello everyone! It’s Kayskay.

I was writing about “Japanese Lacquerware,” but I have decided to make it a rule to introduce one category after another, one by one.

Today, I would like to explain some of the things about “Yosegi Zaiku.” (As for “Japanese Lacquerware,” I will write after all the other category products are done, so please wait a little while.)

Now, “Yosegi” is a Japanese term, consisting of two words; “yose” and “gi.”

The word “yose” is a noun, and its verb form is “yoseru,” meaning “to put things together.”

The other word “gi” is also a noun, and it can be pronounced as “ki” when used alone, which means “wood” or “tree” in Japanese.

In other words, “yosegi” has a meaning like “to put wooden parts together.”

As you can see, “Yosegi Zaiku” products have interesting and colorful patterns on them.

All the patterns on Yosegi Zaiku products are the results of combinations of small wooden parts of different colors, created by skilled craftworkers.

The collected wooden parts can be used to make boxes or plates, but they can also be sliced as thin as 0.15 millimeters to be pasted on to the surface of other wooden products.

(Yosegi Zaiku -Octagonal Box-)

The process of making Yosegi Zaiku products is not easy, so I would like to explain it to you in other article.