What makes black lacquer black?; A Challenge in Developing Traditional Japanese Lacquer Technology into Advanced Science

Nankawa, Takuya 

Lacquer is a natural paint with excellent water and chemical resistance. It has long been known that adding a very small amount of iron into raw lacquer produces a very beautiful black color called Shikoku. However, the structure and reactions of lacquer are still largely unknown, and the reason of black color is also unclear. In this study, we analyzed the structure of raw lacquer and black lacquer films by using different kind of quantum beams. As a result, black lacquer has a completely different nanostructure from raw lacquer, and that the color changes depending on the difference in the structure. This result is the first successful analysis of the structure of the lacquer film, which had been a mystery for many years. This commentary describes this research and also explains how this research has been proceeded.