What is going on with Japanese lacquer at the moment? There's this. There's the MSI Prestige 13 AI+ Ukiyo-e Edition [1]. The V&A opened an exhibition on it last weekend [2]. The Times had a puff piece on it a few months ago [3]. Is urushi suddenly cool? If so, why? Did the Urushi Marketing Board decide to have a big push, pull some strings, and now it's everywhere? I'm not complaining at all, just mildly puzzled.

As it happens, i saw the exhibition at the V&A today. It's decent, but small. Has a bunch of artefacts, and then some videos of some of the artists working, which are interesting.

[1] https://www.msi.com/Business-Productivity/Prestige-13-AI-plu...

[2] https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/urushi-now-contemporary-ja...

[3] https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/luxury/article/the-ancie...