Nobuyasu Suginaka

Born in Shiga Prefecture in 1964, Nobuyasu Suginaka is a veteran urushi craftsman based in Nagahama, a historic temple town near Kyoto. For more than four decades, he has worked as a lacquerer specializing in the making and restoration of Buddhist altars. His practice also includes restoration work for local shrines and temples, the creation of original lacquerware, and kintsugi.

Among Suginaka’s principal techniques are haku-oshi, the application of gold leaf, and roiro, a labor-intensive polishing process used to produce a deep, mirror-like urushi surface. Both require precise control of the material across successive stages of application and finishing. His extensive practical knowledge has been developed through decades of working directly with objects intended for religious, ceremonial, and everyday use.

Suginaka brings the same sensitivity to material and surface to his kintsugi practice. His restored vessels may incorporate decorative techniques such as nashiji, or “pear-skin” finish, in which fine gold powder is scattered beneath translucent urushi and carefully burnished. These methods allow the restored lines to remain visible while becoming part of the vessel’s renewed surface.

Alongside commissioned and restoration work, Suginaka creates original lacquerware exploring the transformative qualities of urushi. His Samon-nuri series draws inspiration from the rippling waters of nearby Lake Biwa. In his Bamboo series, dozens of layered applications and meticulous polishing create surfaces with a luminous, translucent depth. These works extend techniques cultivated through traditional craftsmanship into objects shaped by his observation of the surrounding landscape and materials.

Suginaka has been a founding artist of The Kintsugi Labo JAPAN since its establishment in 2021, contributing his experience as an urushi craftsman to the presentation of traditional kintsugi to collectors internationally. In 2023, his kintsugi work KAKEHASHI was donated to the Centro Interamericano de Artes Populares (CIDAP) in Cuenca, Ecuador, as a symbol of friendship between Ecuador and Japan.