Uwa-nuri / Nuritate: Top Coating

The top coat is where grade selection matters most (see Chapter 3). Oil-added shu-ai urushi is formulated for nuri-tate (also called hana-nuri) style finishing — glossy directly off the brush, with no polishing pass required afterward. This is the faster, more forgiving route to a finished glossy surface, and it's what most everyday lacquerware (bowls, trays) uses rather than the far more labor-intensive roiro route covered in Chapter 20.

Uwazuri: more than "polishing"

Tamenuri Studio makes a point of clarifying that uwazuri — the finishing stage often glossed in English simply as "polishing" — is doing something more specific than that word implies: it's a distinct refinement stage that determines the final glossiness at a near-microscopic level, shaped by how many coats were laid, how the surface was prepped before the final coats, and the curing conditions during those final passes — not just by how much you rub it at the end. Traditional abrasive powders used here include migakiko and dozuriko, alongside modern equivalents. (Tamenuri Studio, Uwazuri)