Yamanaka lacquerware is made at Yamanaka spa, which is the southernmost part of Ishikawa prefecture. The history of Yamanaka lacquer ware is from the country of Echizen to the mountains during the Tensho era (1573-1592 AD) during the Azuchi-Momoyama period. It begins with the migration of a group of woodworkers with national forest logging permits to a village called Manago, about 20km upstream of Yamanaka spa in Kaga City. After that, it was made as a souvenir for hot springs at Yamanaka spa, and from the middle of Edo, the techniques of painting and lacquer work were introduced from Aizu, Kyoto, and Kanazawa. Along with the wood, it has developed as a production center for tea utensils and other coatings. In particular, it is a production area where the technology of grinding wood using the potter's wheel is flourishing and the wood is stored all over the country such as Wajima, Kyoto, and Fukui.
Using a potter's wheel, while rotating it, sharpen it with a knife called a plane. The plane is forged into a shape that is easy for woodcarver to use, the cutting edge is sharpened, and the shape of the plane changes according to the equipment. There are various types of planes, about 30 to 50 types. Furniture craftsmen buy and use commercially available cutlery, but they make their own cutlery for woodcarver. Grinding technique is also very important, but if you don't make a plane that suits you, you can't become a full-fledged person. woodcarver uses a drying furnace to reduce the water content in the wood to 10% or less by roughly hollowing out the bowl. Since wood has the property of moving even after it is cut, it is adjusted so that it does not move easily from the finish by draining water until the wood does not move, acclimatizing it to the natural air, and then grinding it. If it dries rapidly, the tree will crack, so drying also depends on the material of the tree, the season and the climate, so drying is also a technique. The types of drying are natural drying, smoke drying, dehumidifying drying, and vacuum drying. (1) Natural drying: A drying method that literally blows air to remove moisture from the material. (2) Smoke drying: A drying method in which wood chips are burned and the material is smoked with the smoke. (3) Dehumidifying and drying: A drying method that forcibly removes moisture from wood. (4)Vacuum drying: A method of forcibly drying by heating and depressurizing by creating a vacuum using a machine called a vacuum drying furnace.