Yamaka Ogimura Lacquerware

Yamaka Ogimura Shikkiten (山加荻村漆器店) has traded lacquerware from the same address on the main street of Kiso-Hirasawa, Shiojiri, since its founding in Meiji 45 — 1912. The town is now a nationally protected preservation district for its lacquer-trade townscape, and the shop is one of its longer-running retailers.

The business is currently led by third-generation proprietor Ogimura Minoru, who has been covered in regional press (including the Nikkei) for the range of goods and approach he brings to a century-old family shop. The shop maintains an active blog, running since 2015 with well over a thousand entries, documenting both new products and the everyday use of lacquerware in the home.

On the shelf, Yamaka Ogimura carries pieces meant for daily use rather than display alone: cylindrical bowls finished in a cherry-blossom lacquer pattern, and cups and small plates in a red-rubbed (akazuri) finish that shows the wood grain through the coating. The shop's own framing emphasizes lacquerware as something to live with day to day, not a special-occasion object.