Yohko Toda — The Bowl That Took Three Weeks to Make
Yohko Toda does not make fast work. She never has. The Urushi lacquer she works with will not allow it — the material sets its own pace, and the maker must follow. A single piece of lacquerware, properly made, requires weeks of application, drying, sanding and application again. There is no shortcut. There is only the work, and the waiting, and the work again.
The Ancient Material
Urushi is the sap of the Toxicodendron vernicifluum tree — tapped by hand, purified, and applied in layers to a prepared base. It has been used in Japan for over nine thousand years. Archaeological finds from the Jomon period show lacquerware still intact, still with its original lustre, thousands of years after it was made. No synthetic coating has ever matched it for durability, for depth, for the particular warmth of its surface against the skin.
Toda works with Urushi in its most demanding form — building up layer after layer, hand-polishing between each application, allowing each coat to cure fully before proceeding. The process is meditative. It requires complete attention and complete patience. The material rewards both.
The Shu-Nuri Technique
Among Toda's most distinctive works are pieces using the Shu-Nuri technique — a method of applying vermilion lacquer in deep, saturated layers that produce a colour of extraordinary richness. Vermilion lacquer has been prized in Japan for centuries, appearing in the most important ceremonial objects and architectural spaces. In Toda's hands, it becomes something intimate — scaled to the human hand, the human table, the human home.
Her bowls and vessels are made to be used. This is important to her. She does not make objects for display cases. She makes things that are meant to hold food, to be lifted, to be felt in the hands, to be washed and dried and used again. The beauty of her work deepens with use — the lacquer develops a patina over time that makes each piece increasingly singular.
To Use It Daily
There is a Japanese concept — 用の美, the beauty of function — that Yohko Toda embodies completely. Her pieces are not beautiful despite being useful. They are beautiful because they are useful, because they were made to be held and filled and carried to the table every morning.
To own a piece by Toda is to bring something of genuine antiquity into your daily life. Not as a museum object — as a companion. Something that will be with you every morning, that will change slowly over years, that will be worth passing on.