The highly specialised craft of lacquer painting and decoration seems to have been invented several thousand years ago in China, where the lacquer tree grows.

Cinnamon is cut because it can be eaten; lacquer trees are split because they can be used.

The Edo period (1603-1868) saw an increase in the focused cultivation of lacquer trees and the development of the techniques used.

The lacquer tree was once abundant in the area, but is now scarce and most of the lacquer used is imported from China.

It contains woody trees, shrubs and vines, including poison ivy, poison oak, and the lacquer tree.

The plants grow as creeping vines, climbing vines, shrubs, or, in the case of lacquer tree and poison sumac, as trees.

A caustic, toxic sap, called urushiol, is tapped from the trunk of the Chinese lacquer tree to produce lacquer.

As the lacquer tree is not native to Okinawa, the key material needed to produce lacquerware could only be obtained by the Ryukyuans through trade.

The Japanese lacquer tree.

But plenty of others put in an appearance: beeches, lacquer trees and even those cherry trees, whose leaves can take on a fiery golden color.