Lacquerware is one of Japan's best-known traditional crafts. Applying lacquer to wooden utensils gives them a unique luster and makes them more durable. The lacquer tree is a broadleaf, and grows where conditions are right, in a broad area from Indochina through China to Japan. Lacquer comes from the tree sap. Lacquerware crafts were developed a long time ago in Japan, and were well advanced in the 17th century, when the English word "japan" was first used to signify lacquerware, just as the word "china" came to mean ceramics. The words "japan" and "japanned" are still used today in many parts of the world when referring to lacquerware.

Collecting sap from lacquer trees is a job for artisans. They have practiced the technique for more than 1,200 years in one major production center, Joboji-machi in Iwate Prefecture. The lacquer there is known for its exceptional purity, and was used during restoration work at the Temple of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, from 1985 to 1987.

One sap producer, Iwadate Shoji, has developed his skills to a high level over more than 60 years. He says only experience and intuition can tell someone which trees will produce a lot of sap, and where the bark should be cut to get the maximum amount.

He collects sap every year between June and October. It flows the most late at night, so he begins work well before dawn. The sap oozes out from lines cut in the bark. He lets the tree rest for about four days before cutting more lines, to keep the tree healthy. During the half-year season, one lacquer tree will give about one cup of sap. As with all Japanese traditional crafts, much patience and experience are required.

Japan's warm and humid climate is ideal for tree growth. With about 67% of the country forested, lumbering has been an important industry over the centuries. Many parts of the country produce superior trees for lumber, like Japanese cedar, Japanese cypress and zelkova, and this explains the preference for wood when building houses and making many everyday items. After World War II, many trees were planted for timber, and much of Japan's forest industry now depends on this planted stock.

The Eastern Agatsuma Forestry Cooperative in Gumma Prefecture has 34 lumberjacks and controls approximately 44,000 hectares of woodland. About 85% of the trees are Japanese cedar. The lumberjacks used to fell trees with axes and handsaws, hauling the logs on sleds, but the cooperative began mechanizing about 20 years ago, and today operations are far more efficient. Even so, some work requires skills only a human being can provide. For example, a lumberjack needs at least ten years experience before he can fell a tree exactly where it should go. An expert can make it fall in a target space no wider than the tree trunk.

Ever since Japan's economy began expanding tremendously in the 1970s, lumber imports have shot up and demand for domestic supplies has declined year after year. The number of specialized forestry workers is shrinking, too. The country's forest industry now faces very difficult times.