松本城黒漆塗り
国宝重要文化財を守る、碇屋漆器店の漆塗り。松本城外壁の漆塗り替えがはじまったのは、昭和の大修理に先々代が漆職人として参画してから。以来、70年もの間、毎年行われ、松本城の威厳ある美しさを守り続けています。
Black lacquering of the Matsumoto Castle
Lacquering by Ikariya Lacquerware Shop, which preserves national important cultural properties. The re-lacquering of the outer walls of the Matsumoto Castle began, when the predecessor before last joined the large-scale repair project as a lacquer artisan in the Showa period. For 70 years since then, black lacquering has been conducted every year, to maintain the magnificent beauty of the Matsumoto Castle.
毎年おこなう塗り替え
Re-lacquering carried out every year
漆は紫外線に弱いため、漆を塗り直す作業を毎年9~10月に行っています。
漆は中に含まれる酵素によって固化することで乾きます。その働きには気温20度以上、湿度60％以上という条件が求められます。松本城は漆器のように乾燥室が使えないため、気象条件を満たす秋口に塗り替えます。
Since lacquer is vulnerable to ultraviolet rays, we re-lacquer the walls from September to October every year.
Lacquer gets dry, as it hardens due to the effects of an enzyme contained in the lacquer. The enzyme works only when air temperature is over 20 degrees Celsius and humidity is over 60%. A drying room, which is used for lacquerware, cannot be used for the Matsumoto Castle, so we re-lacquer its walls in early autumn, when meteorological conditions satisfy the above requirements.
国宝を次の世代へ
Handing down the national treasure to the next generation
松本城は壁面下部を黒漆塗りの下見板で覆われていることにより、力強い仕上がりになっています。黒壁の天守は全国にいくつかありますが、今でも黒漆が塗られているのは松本城天守だけです。
高さ29.4mの大天守閣を塗るには人手が必要なため、人を集め、後継者を育てながら作業を行います。
松本城を歴史ある漆の技術と共に、次世代へつないでいきます。
The Matsumoto Castle has a robust texture with the lower parts of walls covered with black-
lacquered weatherboards.
There are some castle keeps with black walls around Japan, but black-lacquered walls exist only at
the keep of the Matsumoto Castle.
Manpower is required for lacquering the large keep with a height of 29.4 m, so we engage in the
lacquering while recruiting workers and training successors.
We will hand over the Matsumoto Castle as well as our time-honored lacquering techniques to the
next generation.