The ground colour is called Ōuchi vermilion. Ōuchi-nuri has been made in Yamaguchi since the Muromachi period, and what identifies it immediately is that deep red used as the base coat, under everything else that follows. Green and blue are laid over it and gold leaf is applied on top, so although the number of colours is high the effect stays settled rather than busy — the red holds everything else in place.

The best-known objects are the Ōuchi dolls, made as a pair representing a married couple and given as a symbol of a settled marriage, though the same lacquer is used on bowls and trays as well. The craft is said to have begun because the Ōuchi family treated lacquer as one of their export goods, which means this district started from trade rather than from local demand. At Chōshūen visitors can try painting a piece with acrylics, and at the Yamaguchi Furusato Denshō Sōgō Centre there are chopstick-making sessions, both of which are easier ways in than watching a lacquerer work.

A vermilion ground leaves room for colours on top of it. Over black, applied colours sink and lose their brightness; over red, green and blue and gold all lift, so each additional layer makes the surface lighter rather than heavier. That is a technical decision with an aesthetic consequence attached, taken several centuries ago and not revisited since, because there has never been a reason to. Yamaguchi is a prefectural capital, Shin-Yamaguchi station is about twenty minutes away, and the town is flat enough that a bicycle is the sensible way to move around it.