Metalwork Chemist Orii’s Gold is Made of Copper

Somewhere, over the rainbow, the city of Takaoka, located in Toyama prefecture, is an area that takes pride in its four hundred years of traditional metalwork thanks to the dedication of a handful of passionate artisans who have sought to share their vision through their activity. Today, these include the creators at Nousaku and Momentum Factory Orii and its boss, Koji Orii.

Orii comes from the third generation of a family of copper alloy smelters. However, the Japanese economic bubble burst just as he was preparing to take up the baton and triggered a decrease in demand for Buddhist accessories which, until that point, had been produced by his family (and by the majority of the other companies in the area). Orii realised that he needed to differentiate himself from the competition. And so began two years of intense experimentation through trial and error, during which he developed his own unique colouring technique, coating copper with a plethora of shades from blue lagoon to dark brown. Commercial success was just around the corner.

Since then, this artisan colourist has strived to satisfy the growing demand from the world of architecture and interior design. Orii may not be turning lead into gold (not yet, anyway), but he is certainly reinjecting some colour into a centuries-old tradition.