
"Tame" means "pool" and "nuri" refers to the lacquer coating process. You can actually see through the layers of clear urushi lacquer as if you were looking into a pool. Wajima artists use "shu urushi" (red color) for the base urushi on the barrel, and "shu-ai-urushi" (semi-transparent brown color ) for the finish coats. The black color is mixed in shu-ai-urushi for Kurotame-nuri. When the process is finished, you can still see the base surface of red urushi. After this coating process, craftsmen polish the surface over and over by hand for months in order to attain greater transparency, allowing you to clearly see the underlying red urushi surface.
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