Hakone yosegi marquetry builds its geometric patterns without a drop of dye. Every tone is the wood's own, and the craft is designated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Elsewhere the same triangles, diamonds and hemp-leaf motifs would be painted on. Here the artisan cuts dozens of woods of differing tone, presses them into a single block, planes off a shaving as thin as paper — the zuku — and lays it down. Watching the pattern lift off the block settles the point: nothing has been colored.
Honma Woodcraft Studio keeps the main line of the craft. Noboru Honma, certified as a Traditional Craftsman under the national system, leads it, and the technique of several centuries is shown exactly as it is worked. The adjoining Honma Yosegi Museum holds about 200 pieces made from the Edo period onward, so one visit covers both the artisans working now and the whole distance the craft has come. Studio visits can be made at any time; the hands-on workshop, coaster-making among other things, needs advance booking.
In an itinerary this is the quiet interlude. Set between a large venue and an onsen, it gives a group time at an artisan's bench and the warmth of worked wood. It suits small parties that want to go into a craft rather than past it. For guests who can see what they are looking at, a block of wood assembling a pattern out of its own color outlasts any souvenir.