Antique vase with Fo dogs. Varnish, painting. Japan, 20th centuryLacquer art is a national treasure of the era; those who collect and select lacquer products from a variety of goods on the market have impeccable taste; The craft of creating lacquerware is always called noble. In addition to the external gloss, dishes and decor made from varnish are highly durable and can maintain their perfect appearance even after being under water. The lacquer tree, urushi, the sap of which is used, belongs to the sumac subspecies; there is currently quite a lot of it in Japan; a more ideal climate for this type of wood cannot be found. Craftsmen who work with this tree often have unsightly hands - the unevaporated juice, when it gets on the skin, corrodes it. After collection, the juice is purified and diluted with black or red dye. Ammunition, altars, sculpture, and everyday objects were covered with layers of varnish. And a lot was borrowed from techniques from China, especially with regard to objects inlaid with mother-of-pearl and three-dimensional carvings.