Yamanaka Hot Spring, Yamanaka lacquer ware

Yamanaka lacquerware began around the year 1580, when a group of woodworkers who excelled at hikimono-kiji, the art of turning wood on a lathe, moved from the province of Echizen (the northern part of today’s Fukui Prefecture) through the mountains to the village of Masago, some 20 kilometers upstream from Yamanaka Hot Spring in today’s Ishikawa Prefecture. Thereafter the wares they made were sold as souvenirs to hot spring visitors.