A nail technician and lacquer craftsman in central Japan are showcasing their combined talents through nail art that uses a traditional wood lacquerware technique to dazzle audiences at fashion shows and elsewhere. The Hida-shunkei lacquerware was developed in the Hida mountains around Takayama, a popular hot spring city in Gifu Prefecture, some 400 years ago but its future is now in doubt as the number of artisans has dramatically fallen in recent years due to a lack of successors keeping the tradition alive. For Naoko Sato, 48, the nail designer who runs a salon in Takayama and came up with the idea to create her own nail art using the lacquerware technique, showcasing the lustrous but elegant fake nails on models is her way of promoting the beauty of Hida-shunkei.
In 2022, she produced nail extensions with local cypress, consulting Toshihiko Kawahara, 63, a Hida-shunkei lacquerware painter, who agreed to collaborate on the project. Since Sato must work on chiseling the nails when not tending to her regular job at the salon, she says it takes around three months to complete a set of nail enhancements. The finished product is 9 centimeters long and approximately 3 to 5 millimeters thick, and decorated with the glossy Shunkei lacquerware.
At a show held in Takayama in April by the duo, models in kimono and other dresses took to the runway flashing their impressively long, glossy talon-like nails with their various understated embellishments. "The show was awesome. I want peop.