How Yosegi Is Made

A yosegi pattern is built up in stages, from single strips of wood to a large patterned block, and then either shaved into thin sheets or carved as a solid piece. This page walks through the traditional process as described by Japan's traditional craft association, Hakone workshops and Web Japan.

1. Drying

The process begins long before any cutting. The official standards for Hakone Yosegi Zaiku require natural drying, and the traditional craft association describes drying the materials in the shade until they are thoroughly dry. Well-seasoned wood moves less, which matters when dozens of species must stay joined.

2. Choosing the pattern and the woods

The craftsperson decides on the pattern and selects woods by color. Because the colors come from the woods themselves, the choice of species is the choice of palette. See woods and natural colors.

3. Making the pattern stock

Pieces of colored wood are planed with a hand plane to the required thickness. Glue is spread on their faces and they are glued together and clamped, forming what the association calls the base material for the pattern, a laminated board of colored layers.

4. Cutting the pattern components

The edges of this laminated material are beveled at 45 degrees, placed in a mold and cut with a hand saw. To make sure the angle is exact, each piece is then placed in a planing mold and planed. The result is a long rod whose cross-section is one element of the pattern, such as a diamond or a triangle. The association notes that about 30 different molds are used, depending on the pattern. The craft standards list the tools for this stage, including a cutting stand, saw stand, shaving stand, single-tooth saw, flat plane and long-handled plane.

5. Assembling the unit pattern

Identical components are combined, glued and tied with cotton cord into a unit pattern, a bundle whose cross-section shows one repeat of the design. Web Japan, with images from Hakone Maruyama Bussan, describes the pieces being held together with cotton cord while the adhesive sets, then cut with a saw. The association calls the precision of these unit pieces a crucial factor in the quality of the finished work: any error is repeated throughout the pattern.

6. Building the seed board

Two or four unit pieces are glued together to enlarge the pattern, tied with string, and sawn across to uniform thickness to make blocks. Several blocks are then combined into a continuous, structured pattern. This finished patterned block is called the taneita, or seed board. Web Japan describes the taneita as the slab created by bringing many blocks together.

7. Shaving the zuku

The seed board is shaved, one sheet at a time, with a special large plane. The thin patterned sheets are called zuku. The traditional craft association describes this stage as requiring immense strength and skill. The ministry's interpretive text for Hatajuku says sheets can be shaved as thin as 0.2 millimeters; the official standards set a minimum thickness of 0.25 millimeters for designated work. Hakone Town's craft profile describes carved pieces less than 1 millimeter thick.

Noboru Honma, a certified traditional craftsman profiled by the association, says that in this job "the plane is everything," and that he once sharpened his plane blades 10 to 20 times a day.

8. Flattening

Freshly shaved zuku tends to curl. According to the association, it is flattened with an iron and in some cases backed with Japanese paper (washi) to make it easier to handle.

9. Applying the veneer

The zuku sheets are glued onto boxes, trays and other wooden objects. The craft standards require that when zuku is applied to a base, the cut edges must not be visible on the product's surface. Joints in the underlying box are made with traditional methods such as dovetails. A Hakone local guide explains that, historically, zuku was applied with a glue made from gelatin.

10. Finishing

The standards list the permitted finishes as wax, rubbed lacquer (fuki-urushi) and a wood-grain finish, and require natural lacquer. The finish protects the surface and brings out the color of the woods.

Solid yosegi: the muku method

Instead of shaving the seed board, a craftsperson can carve it or turn it on a lathe to make a solid object. Web Japan explains that this muku method originates from the Showa period, that it can produce cups and other curved objects, and that the pattern can be seen all the way through to the inner surface. The standards specify that turned work is shaped on a lathe with lathe planes and finished by rotating the lathe in both directions. The ministry's text likewise notes that rod clusters can be shaped by lathe into items such as cups and plates. See zuku and muku.

Why it takes so long

Each stage depends on the one before. The angles of the first components determine whether the unit pattern closes neatly; the unit pattern determines whether blocks align; and the blocks determine whether the seed board yields clean, continuous zuku. A seed board can produce many sheets of zuku, which is why one pattern can appear on many boxes, while a muku piece uses up a whole board for a single object.

Seeing it in person

Several places in Hakone let visitors watch. Hamamatsuya in Hatajuku has a visible workshop where demonstrations can be seen, the Hatajuku Yosegi Kaikan displays tools and works, and the Hakone Karakuri Museum offers a demonstration by a traditional craftsman after its workshop. See visiting Hakone.

Sources

• Japan Traditional Crafts Aoyama Square: HAKONE Yosegi Zaiku
• Web Japan: Yosegi-zaiku, Parquet Work That Demonstrates the Infinite Beauty of Wood
• Japan Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism: Yosegi, Hatajuku, and Ichirizuka (PDF)
• Hakone Magazine: Hatajuku Yosegi Kaikan
• Hamamatsuya, Hakone (Japanese)
• Hatajuku Yosegi Kaikan (Japanese)
• Hakone Karakuri Museum: Experience