Nunokise: Cloth Reinforcement

Nuno-kise ("clothing/dressing with cloth") reinforces exactly the parts of a wooden object most likely to crack under the stress of repeated humid curing and daily use: joints, rims, edges, and any thin or structurally weak section. Linen or cotton cloth is laid onto these areas using kisemono-urushi, a raw-lacquer-and-rice-glue adhesive mix, essentially laminating a fabric layer into the substrate itself before any ground coat goes on. (Japan Artisan Foundation)

1. Cut cloth to cover the target area with some overlap.
2. Bed it into a coat of kisemono-urushi (raw urushi + rice glue), pressing out air bubbles and wrinkles.
3. Where cloth pieces overlap, shave the overlap down flat once tacky/dry so no ridge remains.
4. Cover the reinforced area with somi-urushi — raw urushi mixed with rice glue and carbonized zelkova wood powder — to bury the cloth texture.
5. Dry-polish the area flat before moving on to the ground-layer (shitaji) stage.

This step is why well-made rims on Wajima-nuri and similar high-grade lacquerware survive decades of daily chipping risk that would split an unreinforced rim outright. It's directly relevant to bowl rims and pen sections/caps — see Chapter 30 and Chapter 31.