Lacquer ware is a craft that is highly regarded internationally, but its market is shrinking. Revitalization of the market is an important issue. This decline in the Tohoku region is made worse by the lasting effects of the 2011 earthquake. There is therefore a need to improve the durability of lacquer ware to market it as a ‘Cool Japan’ product with ‘Japanese value.’

In general, coatings often have drawbacks such as susceptibility to scratches and are prone to color fading under UV radiation. There is a need to develop a transparent protective layer that is applicable to coatings in various colors and can be used for products of different shapes by simple processing.

When fine inorganic particles such as clay are uniformly mixed with a resin, a network structure of the resin and inorganic particles is formed, increasing the hardness of the resin. When inorganic particles are uniformly mixed with resin at the nanometer scale, a transparent composite is formed in which visible light is not scattered at the interface between the particles and the resin. Based on these technologies, the researcher and Tohoku Kogei Co., Ltd. have jointly developed a clay-containing nanocomposite protective layer that will widen applications of traditional crafts. A Tamamushi lacquer coating with this protective layer was exposed to sunlight for five months and did not fade, exhibiting high durability. The surface is two ranks harder than urethane resin and is less susceptible to scratches. Rakuten Baseball, Inc. has officially decided to adopt helmets coated with the Tamamushi lacquer nanocomposite featuring the developed protective layer for Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles players, beginning in the 2020 season.