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

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-plus-ukiyo-e-Edition-A2VMX https://www.msi.com/Business-Productivity/Prestige-13-AI-plu... [2] https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/urushi-now-contemporary-japanese-lacquer https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/urushi-now-contemporary-ja... [3] https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/luxury/article/the-ancient-japanese-artform-having-a-glossy-makeover-times-luxury-bjnt522nh https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/luxury/article/the-ancie...