Made from Noto Hiba wood grown in Ishikawa Prefecture, Wajima-urushi WABISABI Kohaku is a set of beautiful chopsticks applied with natural urushi lacquer. The ancient “Wabi-sabi” Japanese aesthetics of finding and enjoying beauty in imperfections is expressed on the chopsticks by carefully applying with several layers of urushi lacquer coating on top of gold leaf to produce a deep amber color. Amber is a fossil tree sap formed over millions of years inside the ground and is believed to be capable of releasing negative energy from the body and clearing the mind. Kanazawa City in Ishikawa Prefecture produces 99% of the gold leaf within Japan, therefore, local artisans boast an excellent skill to stretch gold into sheets of gold leaf with only 0.0001 millimeter of thickness. The gold leaf is applied on the chopsticks using urushi-lacquer technique from Wajima, which is a famous urushi ware producing area in the region. Then, shuai-urushi, or transparent lacquer, is applied on top to bring out a beautiful amber color. In addition, the paulownia box finished with fuki-urushi process is washable with water, so it can be also used as a plate to serve food on a dining table. Urushi is known to be the only natural lacquer in the world. The warmth and the thick texture produced with urushi lacquer is also believed to have an effect of bringing comfort. In addition, both Noto Hiba wood and urushi lacquer have been proved to boast antibacterial properties. Please enjoy the gentle texture unique to urushi lacquer.