Jun 14,2018
What should you serve on your favorite tableware? What tableware should you choose for your favorite food? Time spent reflecting on such questions is very special. In this series, “Tales of Tableware,” our guests share their stories of the tableware and food they love. We also ask them about their lifestyle, passions, and dreams.
In this installment, we talk with manga artist and illustrator Hori Michihiro, who runs a workshop teaching the traditional Japanese art of kintsugi: mending broken vessels with lacquer.
Hori Michihiro has an unusual job description: lacquer craftsman and manga artist. “My life has been a series of serendipities,” he replies on being asked the reason behind it.
“I tried to get into an art university when I was a student, but I failed the entrance exam everywhere I applied. The only place that would take me was the lacquerwork program of the crafts department at a nearby junior college. I wasn’t particularly interested in lacquerware at first. I kind of stumbled into it because that’s what I circled on the form. But the more I learned about it, the more I fell in love with lacquerware and lacquer itself.”
After graduating, Michihiro apprenticed in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture. He then found himself in Tokyo on a whim. He had meant just to visit, but then he happened to run into a lacquer dealer and ended up working for them as a live-in employee. Before he knew it, he’d been a lacquer craftsman for ten years.
“About four years after I arrived in Tokyo, I landed a contract for a series in a manga magazine and debuted as a manga artist. I’d been drawing manga as a hobby since I was twenty-two. I intended what I was then working on to be my farewell to manga, but it ended up being accepted for publication.”
Michihiro’s debut work was a gag manga series about, of all things, lacquerware, entitled Seishun Uruwashi! Urushibu (roughly, “The Lucky Lacquer Youth Club”). It was serialized and then published in book form, whereupon he quit his company job as a lacquer craftsman. His career as a manga artist had begun.
“I thought that someone of middling talent like me could only succeed by giving 150 percent and working like crazy. This would be my last attempt anyway, I figured, so I drew a manga about what I knew best — lacquerware. That’s how I managed to debut as a manga artist. The income from my manga turned out to be far too little to live on, though. And so I ended up running a workshop on the side teaching kintsugi — the art of repairing ceramics and porcelain using lacquer — for no better reason than that someone asked me to.”
Michihiro then found himself getting more work as an illustrator and manga artist. His output included titles like Pan no Manga (“The Bread Manga”) and Pan Labo (“The Bread Lab”). Now he also produces illustrations for magazines and custom celebrity merchandise. Meanwhile, he writes books on kintsugi as well. And that’s how he ended up with his unusual job description: kintsugi craftsman, manga artist, and illustrator.
For this feature, Michihiro selected one dish as his favorite, a broken white soup bowl that he received as a gift and mended himself. He repaired the breaks using lacquer, which he then finished with gold dust.
“This bowl is just the right size. I use it for serving all sorts of things. I use it for soup and sometimes nimono (Japanese-style simmered foods).”
Michihiro enjoys visiting antique markets and checking out their old wares. He often picks up something chipped with the intention of mending it for his own use. He also loves coming across antique pieces that have been repaired using the kintsugi technique.
“I figure that going to an antique market hones my instincts. When I come face to face with a piece that once belonged to someone, I can’t help wanting it. I feel there must be a story of chance encounters behind it. That really appeals to me.”
Next to the soup bowl was a large cup, another antique-market find.
“This cup, I’m told, was originally used at a monastery. It bears the notation ‘35’ in large numbers on the side, which may have served a practical purpose.”
It was already chipped and cracked, but Michihiro was captivated by the tale of how it had once belonged to a monastery. He took it home and repaired it himself, and now he uses it every day. Thus, after many twists and turns, it ended up in Michihiro’s hands. As he says, you can’t help feeling there’s quite a story behind it.
“I applied a gold finish to the soup bowl, but I also like keeping a repair job simple and leaving the color of the lacquer as is. Different kintsugi artists have different ideas on the subject. I prefer to keep repairs as simple and unobtrusive as possible. Still, mending a dish may give it a different appeal from what it originally possessed. That’s all part of the fun.”
What Michihiro choose to serve in his beloved bowl was a sandwich. “It’s nothing fancy, you know,” he said with a laugh as he deftly prepared it. The finished sandwich was substantial. It consisted of a thickly cut slice of soft, springy bread fresh out of the bread machine, topped with cheese, ham, cucumber, and butter. Finally, it was seasoned with black pepper, with spicy cod roe mayonnaise added for a subtle twist.
“Lately, I prefer to cut all the ingredients into thick chunks,” Michihiro explains. “Instead of spreading the butter on the bread, I cut it into blocks, which I then plonk on top so I can enjoy the taste of the butter. That must pack a lot of calories, but it tastes great.”
Since many of Michihiro’s manga, such as Pan no Manga and Pan Labo, relate to bread, I assumed that he must have always been a bread aficionado. But initially he just had a vague liking for it. Working on bread-themed projects, however, made him aware of the sheer variety of breads out there and the intricacies of breadmaking. Now he enjoys many different types of bread. He often has a sandwich for breakfast, especially as his four-year-old daughter Mugi is fond of bread.
“While I like bread, I guess what I really love are sandwiches. Munching on a great-tasting sandwich puts me in a truly happy mood. As long as I’ve got the ingredients on hand, I’ll stuff a sandwich with avocado, tomato, cheese, ham, and the works to make the flavor as complex as possible. That way you get to enjoy a variety of flavors in your mouth. It’s the most wonderful taste experience,” says Michihiro, breaking into a smile. He looks like he’s in seventh heaven.
Having studied lacquerwork and drawn a series of bread-themed manga and illustrations, Michihiro is now making waves as a popular manga artist and illustrator. Of course, it doubtless took a lot of effort to get where he is today. But the smile on his face is infectious, and there’s not a trace of self-importance about him. You have to envy him for taking life as it comes.
“It’s not like I had my heart set on becoming a lacquer craftsman. I just kind of stumbled into it. But now lacquer has been part of my life longer than anything else. It’s the glue that holds together my career as a manga artist and illustrator and my activities giving kintsugi workshops. So I have to be grateful,” Michihiro says with a chuckle.
“Lacquer is the glue?” I comment. “That makes a great story!”
“I suppose it does,” he replies with an amused grin.
Lacquer and manga artist Hori Michihiro was born in Toyama Prefecture in 1975. A graduate of the Ishikawa Prefectural Wajima-nuri Lacquerware Training Institute, he debuted as a manga artist in the monthly Garo in 1998. He continued pitching manga manuscripts to publishers while working as a lacquer craftsman, and in 2003 he received an honorable mention in the Fifth AX Awards for New Manga Artists. He has worked in the fields of lacquerware and manga ever since. He is author of, among other works, Seishun Uruwashi! Urushibu (published by Seirinkogeisha) and No-sweat Kintsugi You Can Do at Home (published by Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha). An advocate of a laid-back approach to the art of kintsugi, he runs a kintsugi workshop called Kintsugibu in and around Tokyo..
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