When Suzanne Ross, an English-born artisan based on Japan’s Noto Peninsula, began her 40-year career making traditional Japanese lacquerware, she was told repeatedly that only men could make ...

Deep in his heart, Kazuo Yamagishi, a lacquer artist designated a living national treasure of Japan, does not reside in a nondescript beige apartment complex in a packed area of Kanazawa, the capital ...

WAJIMA, Japan — Lacquerware maker Takaho Shoji hunches over his desk in the disaster-hit city of Wajima in central Japan, applying another layer of coating to a dark, wooden box. One brushstroke at a ...

We are offering the following story which has been selected by AFP's chief editors for re-publication as among the most inspiring of the week. Lacquerware maker Takaho Shoji hunches over his desk in ...