[Cyber Effect] astonishing modern raden (mother of pearl inlay) by Terumasa Ikeda. A nice pun on the classic Ghost in the shell ;)
Raden is a very old decorative craft (see video below), usually used on lacquer bases with floral or traditional motifs. It’s so great to see it used this way!
The man in the video, Kiyoshi Miyagi-san, specializes in a distinct type of mother-of-pearl inlay (Raden - 螺鈿) known as Ryukyu Raden, which relies on green turban shell (Yakōgai - 夜光貝) from Okinawa. This style of inlayed lacquerware relies on meticulously shaving pieces of turban shell and abalone to 0.1 mm, then polishing them to 0.07-0.08 mm by hand in order to get a translucence that allows the shell to be best displayed on a lacquered surface.
Ryukyu raden was tremendously important to the Ryukyu Kingdom’s trade with China and Japan and uses distinct, culturally unique motifs and colors. I think Ikeda-san’s modern interpretations are a wonderful way to preserve this tradition, but the video is also informative in showing Okinawa’s rich history and the painstaking nature of craftmanship in Japan (also known as 工芸 or Kōgei).
To go off the caption before, Ryukyuan and Japanese lacquer are distinct from each other in terms of materials, techniques, motifs, and sometimes color.
