Striped Naga-bon - Wooden Cherry Bark Tray

This unique wooden tray is made using the traditional kabazaiku (樺細工) technique in which a thin veneer of hand-scraped and polished cherry bark is carefully applied to a wooden core. Here, polished panels of cherry bark surround a stripe of less refined bark which retains a more muted finish.

The kabazaiku (樺細工, also 桜皮細工) technique of hand-scraping, polishing, and pasting wild cherry bark is unique to Akita Prefecture in northern Japan, where the technique was brought to the town of Kakunodate (角館) in Akita by the Satake family of samurai in the 1700s.

Made by Tomioka in Daisen, Akita Prefecture.

To clean, wipe with a damp cloth. Avoid washing or soaking the tray as this can weaken the paste that holds the cherry bark to the wood.