This paper traces evolution of the households producing Kuroe-nuri, the traditional lacquerware made in Kainan, Wakayama Prefecture, from the closing years of Edo period to the early Showa period. Machiya or tradesman's houses in Kuroe as elsewhere were designed for both domestic and professional use. The craftsmen who specialized in coating wares with lacquer or those who specialized in painting the lacquered ware used the upper floor of the main house, while those who specialized in producing the toxic lacquering fluid used Kura or outhouse for work. The production of lacquering fluid was the first of the three crafts hit by the waves of modernization. The production continued to be shifted from Machiya to factories from around 1920's to 1930's. Then, from around the mid 1950's, the market came to be dominated by cheap plastic wares lacquered by spray coating, a technique unsuitable for domestic production, and the other two crafts too had to leave Machiya one after another. The traditional fusion of household and lacquering work at Machiya closed its history in 1970 when the Kuroe-nuri production began at the industrial complex for lacquerware.