# Japan: Its History, Arts, and Literature/Volume 7/Chapter 9

Chapter IX
SPECIAL SUBJECTS
No special reference has hitherto been made to a class of experts who performed preparatory work for glyptic artists. These were called uchi-mono-shi, or hammerers. Sometimes their names were cut upon a specimen side by side with those of the chisellers, but, as a rule, their work, being of a subordinate character, received no such recognition. Nevertheless their skill was often remarkable. Using the hammer only, some of them justly claimed ability to beat out an intricate shape as truly and delicately as a sculptor could carve it with his chisels. Ohori Masatoshi, an uchi-mono-shi of Aizu (d. 1897), made a silver cake-box in the form of a sixteen-petalled chrysanthemum. The shapes of the body and of the lid corresponded so intimately that whereas the lip could be slipped on easily and smoothly, without any attempt to adjust its curves to those of the body, it always fitted so closely that the box could be lifted by grasping the lid only. Another feat of his was to apply a lining of silver to a shakudo box by shaping and hammering only, the fit being so perfect that the lining clung like paper to every part of the box. Among the uchi-mono-shi now living, there is none that Japanese connoisseurs recognise as fully the peer of Masatoshi, but it must be confessed that the work of such men as Suzuki Gensuke and Hirata Sōkō does not seem capable of being sur​passed. Hirata Sōkō recently exhibited in Tōkyō a silver game-cock with soft plumage and surface-modelling of the most delicate character. It had been made by means of the hammer only.
Suzuki Gensuke's name is associated with a tour-de-force which not only shows high skill but also gives very beautiful results. It is a process called kiri-bame (insertion). The decorative design, having been completely chiselled in the round, is then fixed in a field of different metal in which a design of exactly similar outline has been cut out en bloc. The result is that the picture has no blank reverse. For example, on the surface of a shibu-ichi box-lid are seen the backs of a flock of geese chiselled in silver, shakudo, and gold, and when the lid is opened, their breasts and the under-sides of their pinions appear. The difficulty of such work can be easily appreciated. It is necessary that microscope accuracy should be attained in cutting out the space for inserting the design, and further that the design should be soldered firmly in its place, while not the slightest trace of the solder, or the least sign of junction, must be discernible between the metal of the inserted picture and that of the field in which it is suspended. Suzuki Gensuke is not the only expert who works in this style, but to him it owes its origin.
In order to avoid confusion of nomenclature it will be well to refer here to another kind of work called kiri-kame-zōgan (inserted inlaying). Of this the originator was Toyoda Kokō. The gist of the process is that a design chiselled à jour has its outlines veneered with some other metal which serves to emphasise them. Thus, having pierced a spray of flowers in a thin sheet of shibuichi, the artist fits a ​slender rim of gold, silver, or shakudo into the petals, leaves, and stalks. The rim has to be fitted exactly so that it shall seem to be a natural growth, not an artificial addition. The effect produced is that of transparent blossoms tipped with gold, silver, or dark-purple shakudo. Another achievement of Suzuki Gensuke is designated maze-gane, or "mixed metals." It is a singular conception, and the results obtained depend largely on chance. Shibuichi and shakudo are melted separately, and when they have cooled just enough not to mingle too intimately, they are cast into a bar (called namako) which is subsequently beaten flat. The plate thus obtained shows accidental effects of clouding, or massing of dark tones, and these patches are taken as the basis of a pictorial design to which final character is given by inlaying with gold and silver. Such pictures partake largely of an impressionist character, but they attain much beauty in the hands of the Japanese artist with his large repertoire of suggestive symbols.
Yet another device practised by Suzuki Gensuke is to mix two kinds of shibuichi, and having beaten them together, to add a third variety, after which the picture is completed by putting in rocks, trees, birds, etc., by the kata-kiri process. This method did not originate with Suzuki. It was employed by eighteenth-century experts, who gave to it the name of shibuichi-dōshi. But Suzuki has carried it to a point of unprecedented excellence. The charm of the shibuichi-dōshi and of the maze-gane processes is that certain parts of the decorative design seem to float, not on the surface of the metal, but actually within it, an admirable effect of depth and atmosphere being thus produced.
​In describing the various processes of decorative metal-work for sword furniture, reference was made to sumi-zōgan—or so-called "sepia-inlaying"—which differs from ordinary inlaying in the fact that the decorative design, instead of being produced chiefly by means of gold or silver outlines, is first chiselled in complete form and afterwards bedded in the basic metal, its surface being finally ground down and polished, so as to produce not only perfect intimacy between the metals, but also an effect of high lights. The Japanese understood the value of lights in sculpture of all kinds. Even in deeply incised work like kata-kiri, one of their methods was to use a specially sharp chisel in certain parts of the design so as to convey the effect of polishing. The "sepia-inlaying" is a marked example of this theory, a peculiar glossiness being obtained by the high light of the polished surface, just as the ancient Greeks and Romans used to give to the nude parts of a statue a considerable degree of polish. The most remarkable development of the process is seen in the togi-dashi-zōgan (ground-out inlaying) invented by Kajima Ippu. In this exquisite and ingenious kind of work, the design appears to be growing up from the depths of the metal, and effects are produced which render it scarcely possible to believe that the picture has not been painted with the brush on some peculiarly receptive surface. As to the technique of togi-dashi-zōgan, the metal—generally shibuichi—is first treated as though for nunome damascening, the principal and secondary designs being carefully outlined. It is then passed through the furnace until it assumes a coppery hue, after which the design is overlaid with a thin film of ao-gin (specially prepared ​gold), which bites into the nunome, and then with a wafer-like layer of silver. Next another equally slight coat of silver is beaten over the whole surface, the result being that the design shows out with a faint golden hue in a silver field, the detail, however, not being discernible, and the picture looking as though the artist had roughly dashed in a rudimentary design with light-gold pigment. The next step is to hammer or punch the details of the design so as to emphasise them, and finally the expert proceeds to polish the surface with strips of toishi (honing stone) bound together into a brush. The use of this peculiar instrument is tedious and demands delicate manipulation. Thus the various layers of metal are gradually ground down until the design emerges showing tints of all the metals employed—shibuichi, gold and silver. The shibuichi outlines assume the appearance of sepia drawing, and the general effect is that of a sepia picture in a silver field with a flush of gold looking out here and there. An impression of atmosphere and of water is obtained by this process with remarkable realism. Fishes appear to be swimming in silver water, some in the foreground, some in the background, and some in the middle-distance, and so perfect is the illusion that the body of a fish is sometimes seen partially emerging, partially disappearing, in the silvery fluid; flowers and sprays appear glowing in sunlight; birds beat the air with their wings, and landscapes lie bathed in soft hazes. The process not only entails great labour, but also demands an exercise of skill which does not appear to be within reach of any of the artists of the present day except Kajima Ippu.
Any account of metal-work in Japan must include ​the uses to which pewter was put. Japanese pewter resembled that of England, being composed of eighty parts of tin to twenty of lead, without any antimony, zinc, nickel, arsenic, or cobalt. In China this alloy seems to have been employed from time immemorial, and although the first authentic reference to pewter in Japan does not take the student back farther than the second half of the eighth century A.D., the fact then recorded is not the introduction of the metal, but the substitution of Japanese tin for Chinese in its composition. The earliest purposes to which it was applied were to inlay lacquer in combination with mother-of-pearl and to make rims for lacquer boxes. By and by it began to be employed for making vessels—especially those used at marriage ceremonies—and it was then sometimes inlaid with gold, silver, brass, or even bronze. Many pewter tea-canisters are found, as well as vase-shaped wine bottles for placing before Shintō shrines. These tea-jars were frequently of very beautiful form and had cleverly executed decorative designs incised or pierced. The most interesting feature, however, of Japanese pewter is its patina. It has been shown that "when an alloy is in the act of cooling, several definite alloys, in which the molecules of the metal are differently grouped from those of the mass, fall out at definite temperature, so that the solidified metal does not consist really of one alloy, but is a mixture of several, more or less regularly diffused throughout its mass." This property is especially marked in the case of pewter. The Japanese had no thermo-electric pyrometer to enable them to discover it, but they detected it by observation sufficiently to take practical advantage of it. Thus their pewter jars have a very fine ​surface consisting of dark grey patina over which darker patches are scattered, forming a clouded pattern. Some of these utensils are very valuable, more so even than the same weight of silver, especially when the mottling is uniform and well developed. The vessel is never polished, but only rubbed from time to time with cotton or silk cloth, the result being that the surface gradually becomes coated with a fine grey patina of two tints, the lighter forming the ground. The action of the air and the gentle rubbing make visible one or more of the alloys which have fallen out in cooling.
Reference must also be made to a recently introduced alloy consisting of eighty-five parts of lead and fifteen of antimony. The compound is largely used to manufacture cheap and gaudy utensils, such as flower-vases, cigar-trays, tobacco-ash-holders, etc., which are loaded with decorative designs in the repoussé style, gilded in parts or otherwise coloured. This "antimony ware" is cast in brass moulds. Its effect is not unpleasing, but it can scarcely be classed among art-products. The inventor (1885) was Suzuki Kichigoro.
The Japanese artist, or artisan, may be generally described as modest, unassuming, and unavaricious. The gain that his works bring is the last thing he considers. Affluence comes to him rarely, but to gird at the companionship of poverty would be to proclaim himself not an artist but a tradesman. The records of all these men and the traditions relating to them indicate the prevalence of a rooted belief that to be great in art a lofty and benevolent disposition is essential. Kaigyokusai's habit of giving away all his ​money in charity was regarded as an indication of his artistic sense, and it is confidently believed that Yasumoto Kamekichi's carving is inferior to that of Matsumoto Kisaburo because the latter was profusely generous whereas the former has none of the milk of human kindness. The Japanese artist is content to work amid the humblest surroundings and to live in the most frugal manner. He attaches no special value to the products of his skill, regarding them merely as studies preparatory to better efforts. Many art-artisans rose to fame from the lowliest positions. Teijo was originally a barber; Kuribara Keishi kept a bean-curd booth; Okazaki Sessei served as a common menial in his youth. Innumerable instances of that kind might be quoted, but there is not any example of an artist who was ashamed of his insignificant beginnings. Shame seems to have been confined to association with inferior work. Hojutsu, the celebrated ivory-carver, destroyed many works on the eve of completion, and it was Zengoro Hozen's habit to bake three examples of every fine piece of pottery or porcelain, keeping only the best of the three and breaking the other two.
With regard to the training of the art-artisan, it was generally obtained by apprenticeship in the atelier of some master. Naturally there were cases of men who began to work without any instruction. Matsumoto Kisaburo commenced his career by making a statue of an idiot woman whom he saw begging in the streets of Kumamoto; Ikko was counted an imbecile up to the age of nineteen, but subsequently became a famous carver without studying under any master; Ogino Shōmin, Tomochika, Hojutsu, all were denied the advantage of a teacher, and Itao ​Shinjiro had not received any training when he executed his first work, a model of a foreign steamer which he saw coming into port. The general rule, however, was a long apprenticeship. The sculptor of wood commenced his course in the atelier by chiselling a decorative pattern of formal type, in order that he might acquire skill in spacing. He then passed to the carving of floral scrolls, especially the leaves of the asa (hemp-plant). The next stage was to shape a Daikoku deity of affluence and then an Yebisu (deity of fortune). These figures were in the form known as deki-ai-butsu (ready-made Buddha): the hands and arms were not shown and the drapery was roughly blocked out. Thereafter the student passed to the chiu-butsu (middle-class Buddha), showing the hands and arms; and finally he arrived at the jobutsu (first-class Buddha), complete in every detail. This course occupied from seven to ten years, and the student was now regarded as ichinin-maye, or an adult artisan. Under no circumstances was he allowed to use rule or compass: everything had to be done by eye. The modeller in wax for purposes of bronze-casting, equally with the sculptor of metal or wood, had no guide except a sketch drawn by himself or furnished by some pictorial artist. There was no question of pins to map out the surface, or of a pointer to transfer contours. Further, it was always a supreme test of the artist's skill that he should be able to achieve the desired result with a minimum of labour. Thus the ivory-carver Tomochika received applause for his ability to block out a statue by means of a hatchet only, finishing it off with the knife (ogatana); whereas lesser experts used the kogatana from the first.
Modern Ivory Statuettes.
(See page 155.)
1. Old man drawing the first water of the New Year. 2. Farmer. By Udagawa Kazuo.
deemed it essential that he should go through a course of pictorial training in the studio of some famous artist; that he should study the composition of poems, and that he should be versed in the cult of the tea-clubs as well as in the science of flower-arranging and incense-judging. The possession of these accomplishments did not, however, interfere with his discharge of the rougher duties of his craft. It will often be found that a man working daily as a common carpenter or joiner can not only design and execute, but also sketch with accuracy and grace, an elaborate decorative composition.
As to the source from which the Japanese sculptor obtained designs, it is probably correct to say that, as a general rule, he relied on the pictorial artist. This statement does not apply, of course, to all the great masters of early, mediæval or modern times. It is recorded that Takahashi Kinai fell into disgrace because he sold a hen supplied as a model by the feudal chief of Echizen; that the same artist refused to chisel a centipede on a sword-guard because he had already committed the sin of killing dozens of these insects for the purposes of a previous carving; that Kogitsune sat for ten days and nights in the open air at Mukuni in order to see a dragon in a whirlwind; that Natsuo placed a peony in his garden as a study but found no inclination to chisel a copy of the flower until he chanced to see it, one day, tossed by the wind. These and many other instances showed that renowned experts often went direct to nature for models. On the other hand it is recorded with at least equal frequency that recourse was had to contemporary painters even by the greatest masters, and ​the conclusion is that the average sculptor, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, seldom looked beyond the pages of some album of designs drawn by pictorial celebrities.
It is the more necessary to insist upon the high moral character of the Japanese artist or art-artisan because Americans and Europeans seldom have an opportunity of judging him by direct intercourse. There is always a middle-man whose cupidity reacts upon the artist's reputation. Nor can it be denied that his relations with the modern middle-man as well as the greatly changed nature of the clients whose tastes he has to consult have more or less impaired the art-artisan's morals. In former times, the sculptor of sword-furniture, for example, had direct contact with the great nobles, statesmen, and soldiers of his time. He received art-titles venerated since the earliest epochs; he was munificently rewarded by official recognition if he made any signal success; his fame was not merely his own but belonged also to the fief claiming his allegiance; a liberal pension placed him beyond the chill of poverty and enabled him to devote the labour of love to his work. All these conditions underwent a radical alteration after the fall of feudalism. The numerous principalities which had supported their own artists and vied with one another to attract and retain the best skill in each era, ceased to exist. The patrician class, munificent and appreciative patrons of art in all ages, stepped down from their commanding positions to make way for the merchant and the manufacturer. The representatives of the feudal nobility ceased to maintain throughout the empire splendid dwellings—palaces they might be called—for whose interior adornment ​the services of the artists had always been in keen request. The sword and all its trappings, the suit of armour and its elaborate decoration, which during long centuries had offered an unlimited field for the exercise of glyptic skill, were discarded permanently. The temple and the mausoleum no longer demanded the services of sculptors, metal-workers, lacquerers, architects, and painters. To keep in even partial repair a few of these magnificent structures seemed to overtax the liberality of a generation whose forefathers had bequeathed to them such noble monuments of art and refinement. Virtually the only clients that offered themselves under the new regimen were foreigners, to whom Japanese art was an unknown land; whose standards of excellence were greatly at variance with Japanese standards; who in most cases approached every Oriental production with a strong pre-disposition to hold it in light esteem, and to insist that wherever its features differed from their own tastes, the fault lay with the features, and who generally regarded the whole question from a mercantile point of view, preferring to dispense with really fine artistic qualities rather than to obtain them at the risk of trafficking in costly articles. It will be understood that these remarks apply mainly to foreign communities who settle in Japan for commercial purposes, and only in a limited degree to connoisseurs in Europe and America. The former certainly helped to find a market for a certain class of Japanese art-products in the years immediately subsequent to the fall of the old system. But for a long time it was a market which exercised a most vitiating influence on those that catered for it. The foreign exporter worked through the Japanese middle-​man, and by the latter, generally an ill-educated, vulgar person, artists and art-artisans were taught to interpret in undeservedly low terms the requirements of the foreign trader and, vicariously, the tendencies of foreign taste. They were taught something else also. It became their business to devote the resources of their skill not merely to imitating, but also to forging, the works of the old masters. Imitation is fair enough so long as it is frank; but when its purpose is to pass off a counterfeit for a genuine object, the artist himself suffers more than the purchaser. The latter acquires at any rate a specimen of fine workmanship, but the former learns to think that successful simulation is the highest aim of his art, that it is hopeless to win fame by his own unequivocal efforts, and that, even though conscious of being able to surpass the masters whose productions he is required to imitate, he must subserve his talents to the demands of an avaricious middle-man and an undiscerning public. The science of forgery in Japan was not invented in modern times. The reader has seen that among the noted experts of former eras, some are remembered for their skill in re-producing old masterpieces. Craft of that kind will always be practised so long as humanity is human. But in no pre-Metji period did there exist an organised conspiracy to deceive the public; its discovery would have been inevitable. The element needed to make such a thing possible was a foreign market. The foreign buyer is an ideal victim. He has no direct access to the artist and cannot form any accurate conception of the latter's capacities or make any scrutiny into the methods he is pursuing. The statements of the middle-man are his gospel—statements transmitted through an inter​preter who himself takes an interested hand in the game. Add to this that the average foreign tourist carries with him to Japan, and the average foreign resident retains throughout his sojourn there, a secret conviction that art-treasures are lying around waiting to be picked up by any really astute gleaner, and that the gathering must be done privately lest others enter the field. The situation is perfectly gauged and adroitly exploited by the Japanese middle-man. He knows well that the pride of acquisition influences many collectors more than the merit of a specimen, and that nine bric-à-brac hunters out of every ten are ready to be persuaded that fortune treats them with special favour, and that for them alone gems of applied art have been waiting swathed in brocade and laid by in the recesses of a dealer's strong room. Some of the best experts are in the exclusive employment of a middle-man. They obey their employer reluctantly but faithfully, and at his request devote their abilities to forging "old masterpieces" with which he delights credulous collectors. It does not follow that the collector is seriously victimised. The specimens he acquires are almost if not quite as good from an artistic or a technical point of view as the originals they simulate, and though more costly than frankly modern objects, they are cheaper than genuine old ones. The artist is the chief sufferer, since he is obliged to efface himself for the sake of a fraud, and the art since its progress is checked for the sake of dishonest gain. Fortunately this evil state of affairs is disappearing. A new class of middle-men have appeared who eschew deception and rely upon clients that patronise good work without regard to its antiquity.
​There are objects generally excluded by their nature from the catalogue of art productions, but nevertheless often showing in Japan many fine features of decorative sculpture. These are nail-hiders (kagi-kakushi), screen-mounts, door-pulls, drawer-handles, and wardrobe hinges. When the Taikō built the Palace of Pleasure at Fushimi and the Castle of Ōsaka, the celebrated dilettante Kobori Masakazu undertook to make designs for these objects, and Kacho, an expert worker in metals, reproduced the drawings in silver, gold, bronze, iron, shakudo and shibuichi. Considering the great skill that had already been attained by sculptors of sword-furniture, it is not wonderful that a metal-worker at the close of the sixteenth century should have been able to chisel nail-hiders in the form of daffodils with leaves of silver and blossoms of gold, or door-pulls in the shape of crustacea, cherry-petals, junk-rudders, and such things. But Kacho's productions, judged by specimens preserved in the Kyōtō Detached Palace, were of a type that has seldom been surpassed by any of the innumerable sculptors subsequently employed in the decoration of Japanese interiors. He was followed by a long line of skilled metal-workers down to the present day, but their productions do not lend themselves to any special analysis. Kacho is the first artist whose name has been transmitted to posterity in connection with work of this class, but there are relics which show that the skill of the metal-chiseller was employed for the architectural decoration of interiors as early as the beginning of the twelfth century. Notable examples are the gilt-bronze ornaments of the ventilating panels at the temple ​Chiuson-ji (founded in 1109). In the centre are plaques with repoussé designs of phoenixes and angels, and the borders have floral diapers, vajras, and bells sculptured à jour. From such work to the use of wood-carving for interior decoration, as seen in temples and mausolea from the close of the sixteenth century, the transition is easily conceived.
ENAMEL DECORATION
The term "enamel decoration" is here used to indicate a design expressed by means of vitrified pastes of various colours applied to a base usually of metal but sometimes of wood or porcelain. Oxide of lead and silica, mixed in the ratio of 35 to 50, approximately, with small quantities of lime and soda and a very small admixture of magnesia, form the paste, and colour is obtained by adding oxide of copper, iron, cobalt, gold, tin, silver, antimony, or some other substance. The paste thus produced is of two kinds, translucid or opaque, and is applied to the base in one of two ways, namely, by channelling the parts of the design into which the paste is to be inserted, or by framing them with thin ribbons of metal. The former kind—i.e. where the spaces to receive the enamel paste are recessed—is called champlevé; the latter is known as cloisonné. For these terms the best English equivalents are, perhaps, "encausted" and "applied," respectively, but since the French words are much more explicit and expressive, they will be used here. Doubtless the champlevé process preceded the cloisonné, but in Japan, as in Europe, there is no certainty on that point.
​Neither is it possible to determine with any accuracy the time when the art of enamel decoration began to be practised in Japan. Among the relics of the Nara Court preserved in the Shōsō-in there is a mirror having on its back a floral design executed in cloisonné enamel. The inclusion of this mirror in the Sbōsō-in treasures shows that it dates from a period certainly not later than the eighth century, but connoisseurs are not agreed in regarding it as Japanese workmanship. The cloisons, or metal ribbons framing the limbs of the designs, are of gold; the colours of the enamels are blue, yellow, green, and brown, and the edges of the cloisons project above the paste, indicating that the surface of the work was not ground down, or polished, after firing.
A few words have to be inserted here about the technique of enamel decoration. The object to be decorated having been fashioned in thin copper—sometimes in gold or silver—is handed to the enameller, or to a draughtsman, who traces on it with Indian-ink a facsimile of the design to be executed. The next step is to make the cloisons and fix them in position. This is one of the most delicate parts of the work. A narrow ribbon of copper or gold is cut into sections of various lengths, and these having been curved into the required form, are soldered to the surface of the object so that the design is ultimately outlined by a thin wall, following every line exactly and enclosing the space to be decorated. The various enamel pastes are then packed into the parts within this wall, and the vessel, having been placed in the oven, is subjected to heat sufficient to vitrify the pastes without affecting the metals forming the base and the cloisons. It will of course be ​understood that when the base is of wood, the enamel design, separately manufactured, is inserted, when complete, in the wood. The melting process reduces the volume of the enamel paste, so that, when the vessel emerges from the oven after the firing, the spaces within the cloisons are found to be only partially filled. An additional quantity of paste has to be inserted, and once more the object is placed in the oven. This process has sometimes to be repeated several times before the cloisonned spaces are sufficiently full. Moreover, since all the pastes do not fuse at the same temperature, there is here another reason for independent firings, and risks are thus introduced which sometimes prove fatal after an object has been almost completed. Finally, the vitrified pastes having completely filled the cloisonned spaces, the whole surface is ground and polished with great care until it becomes perfectly even and shows a soft lustre. Thus finished, the enamel is known in Japan as kazari-jippō (ornamental enamel). The grinding and polishing process is often dispensed with, especially when translucid pastes are employed. Enamel decoration of the latter class is called nagashi-jippō (poured enamel).
The term shippō (jippō in composition) literally signifies "seven precious things." It was used originally to designate gold, silver, and various jewels about the names of which there is some uncertainty. In China the use of jewels to decorate vessels of gold, silver, or bronze was practised at a remote epoch, and to such objects the designation shippō was applied. There can be little doubt that verifiable pastes were soon employed as a substitute for jewels in this kind of decoration, and that champlevé enamelling thus ​came into vogue, the cloisonné method being a subsequent modification. Unfortunately no distinctive term was devised for the paste jewels. They also received the name shippō, and a source of error was thus introduced, later generations having no means of discriminating whether a vessel described as being of shippō had decoration of the "seven precious things" or of vitrified enamels.
The mirror referred to above as forming part of the Shoso-in collection dating from the eighth century has decoration in nagashi-jippō, namely, the unpolished style, and is of comparatively crude manufacture. It is the earliest known specimen of cloisonné enamel preserved in Japan, but there can be little doubt that vitrified pastes had been previously employed in the same manner. Among the contents of the dolmens, which certainly do not belong to a period more recent than the fourth or fifth century of the Christian era, great quantities of coloured glass beads are found, and it is thus evident that long before the Shoso-in collection was formed, the Japanese understood the manufacture of vitrifiable paste. But there are apparently no means of determining the exact date when champlevé or cloisonné enamel had its origin in Japan.
One thing, however, is certain; namely, that until the nineteenth century enamels were employed by the Japanese decorators for accessory purposes only. No such things were manufactured as vases, plaques, censers, or bowls having their surface covered with enamels applied either in the champlevé or the cloisonné style. In other words, none of the objects to which European and American collectors give the term ​"enamels" was produced by a Japanese artist prior to the year 1838. It is necessary to insist upon this fact because one of the most notable exponents of Japanese art, the late Mr. J. L. Bowes, who alone has hitherto undertaken to discuss Japanese enamels at any length, fell into the serious error of imagining that numerous enamelled vessels which began to be exported to Europe from the year 1865, were the outcome of industry commencing in the sixteenth century and reaching its point of culmination at the beginning of the eighteenth. In his work "Japanese Decorative Art," Mr. Bowes divided these objects into three classes, "early, middle-period, and modern," and he subsequently supported his views in an elaborately reasoned thesis called "Notes on Shippō." There is not the slenderest ground for such a theory. It certainly seems somewhat strange that whereas vases and censers of cloisonné enamel manufactured in China came to Japan during the latter part of the Ming era and throughout the whole of the Tsing—in other words, from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth—similar works were not executed by the Japanese. The explanation is that these specimens did not appeal strongly to Japanese taste: they never won the approval of the tea-clubs, which was essential to the recognition of any object as an art treasure. For such purposes as the decoration of kugi-kakushi (metal ornaments used to conceal the heads of nails in the interiors of houses), beads (ōjime) and clasps (kagami-buta or kana-mono) for pouches, recessed handles of sliding-doors, or metal plates and caps on woodwork, vitrifiable pastes, whether translucid or opaque, seemed suitable. The artists employed by the Taikō ​to decorate the interior of the "Palace of Pleasure" at Fushimi, and those engaged upon the mausolea of the Tokugawa, used enamels very effectively in subordinate positions. It has been suggested that the work of this kind was entrusted by the Taikō to Korean experts, and there is no doubt that the process of cloisonné enamelling was well understood by the Koreans in the sixteenth century, if not earlier. They used twisted wire to form the cloisons, in which respect their technique ranked below that of the Japanese; but they obtained finer colours, their purple especially being remarkable for purity and richness. Considering how large a debt Japanese applied art owed to Korean assistance at the close of the sixteenth century, and considering that, with the exception of the mirror of Shomu, mentioned above, there is scarcely any evidence pointing to the use of cloisonné enamels for decorative purposes in Japan prior to that epoch, it would certainly be rash to dismiss the theory of Korean instruction. Another suggestive fact is that the employment of enamels in the decoration of sword-furniture began at the same time. Its originator was Hirata Hikoshiro (art name Dōnin), and the representatives of his family, down to modern times, continued to use enamel in that way, their productions finding considerable favour. Indeed, the name "Hirata" became so intimately associated with work of this nature that in later times an erroneous theory found credence to the effect that Dōnin was the inventor of cloisonné enamel in Japan. The only credit justly belonging to the Hirata artists was that they applied enamels to sword-furniture, and that they alone could produce a white paste successfully. ​White enamel has always been the most difficult of all the pastes to obtain perfectly pure, and purple stands next on the list. Ability to produce a fine, speckless white constituted the only specialty of the Hirata family, and because they jealously guarded the secret of the process, tradition magnified their share in employing enamels generally. It is undeniable, however, that they showed great skill in decorating sword-furniture with vitrified pastes. They never covered the surface of a sword-guard or a dagger-haft with such ornamentation, but merely used the enamels to fill in floral designs, arabesques, scrolls, or mosaics enclosed in small medallions. Generally the pastes were polished (kazari-jippō) but occasionally they were of the nagashi-jippo style. Nor were they always fired in sitû. A not uncommon method (called ji-ita-jippō) was to complete the enamel design independently and then embed it in the metal field. By recourse to the latter device enamels could be used for decorating lacquered objects having a wooden base, and they were so used from the middle of the eighteenth century, especially in the ornamentation of inro (medicine-boxes suspended from the girdle). It may be added that the vitrified pastes of the Hirata family, and of other artists who freely imitated their work and even used their signatures were sometimes opaque (doro-jippō) and sometimes translucid (suki-jippō).
Kaji Tsunekichi, a samurai of Owari fief, was the first Japanese to manufacture cloisonné enamels of the kind known in the Occident by this name; that is to say, plates, vases, and censers having the surface entirely covered with vitrified pastes disposed in designs by means of cloisons. Like many other samurai Kaji, ​finding his official income insufficient for the wants of his family, sought to supplement it by pursuing a handicraft, and at twenty years of age—he was born in 1802—he took up the occupation of a metal-plater. According to his own account of his career, he chanced, in 1830, to read in a book of the sixteenth century that the materials for shippō decoration were coral, lapis lazuli, mother-of-pearl, agate, amber, tortoise-shell, and rock-crystal. There was here no question of vitrified pastes, but actually of the "seven precious things." The idea suggested to Kaji Tsunekichi seems to have been that these substances were actually used for making vitrifiable pastes, but his misconception was corrected two years later by examination of a specimen of Chinese cloisonné enamel which he obtained from a merchant, Matsuoka Kahei, of Nagoya. He now applied himself with patient assiduity to work of this kind, and succeeded, in 1839, in making a plate, six inches in diameter, which he sold to Matsuoka for five riyo. This achievement inspired still greater efforts. Various articles were turned out, chiefly pen-rests, desk-screens, cups, and such small specimens, and in 1839 he had the honour of seeing his productions presented to the Tokugawa Court in Yedo by the feudal chief of Owari as examples of the technical achievements of the fief. Orders now came to Kaji and he enjoyed a time of comparative prosperity. In 1853 he began to take pupils, and made known the manufacturing processes to several persons. Thus, during twenty years previous to the re-opening of the country to foreign trade in 1857, cloisonné enamelling had been applied in the manner now understood by the term, and when for​eign merchants began to settle in Yokohama in 1858, several experts were working skilfully in Owari after the methods of Kaji Tsunekichi. Up to that time there had been little demand for enamels of large dimensions, but when the foreign market called for vases, censers, plaques, and such things, no difficulty was experienced in supplying them. Thus, about the year 1865, there commenced an export of enamels which had no prototypes in Japan, being destined frankly for European and American collectors. From a technical point of view these works had much to commend them. The base—usually of copper—was as thin as cardboard; the cloisons, exceedingly fine and delicate, were laid on with care and accuracy; the colours were even, and the design showed artistic judgment. Two faults, however, marred the work: first, the shapes were clumsy and unpleasing, being, in fact, copied from bronzes where solidity justified forms unsuited to thin enamelled vessels; secondly, the colours, sombre and somewhat impure, lacked the glow and mellowness that give decorative superiority to the technically inferior Chinese enamels of the later Ming and early Tsing eras. Very soon, however, the artisans of Nagoya (Owari), Yokohama, and Tōkyō—where the art had been taken up—found that faithful and fine workmanship did not pay. The foreign export merchant desired many and cheap specimens for export rather than few and costly. There followed then a period of gradual decline, and the enamels exported to Europe were products of a widely different character and of different makers. The industry was threatened with extinction and would certainly have dwindled to insignificant dimensions had not a few earnest artists, working in the face of ​many difficulties and discouragements, succeeded in striking out new lines and establishing new standards of excellence. The main features of this fresh departure were, first, that the character of the decorative designs was changed, and, secondly, that the quality and range of the colours underwent great improvement. Three clearly differentiated schools came into existence. One, headed by Namikawa Yasuyuki, of Kyōtō, took for its objects the utmost delicacy and perfection of technique, richness of decoration, purity of design, and harmony of colours. The thin, clumsily shaped vases of the Kaji school, with their uniformly distributed decoration of diapers, scrolls, and arabesques in comparatively dull colours, ceased altogether to be produced, their place being taken by graceful specimens technically flawless and carrying designs not only free from stiffness but also executed in colours at once rich and soft.
The next school may be subdivided, Kyōtō representing one branch, Nagoya, Tōkyō, and Yokohama the other. In the products of the Kyōtō branch the decoration generally covered the whole surface of the piece; in the products of the other branch the artist aimed rather at pictorial effect, placing the design in a monochromatic field of low tone. Many exquisite specimens of cloisonné enamels have been produced by each branch of this school. There is nothing like them to be found in any other country, and they stand at an immeasurable distance above the works of early Owari experts represented by Kaji Tsunekichi, his pupils and colleagues.
The second of the modern schools is headed by Namikawa Sosuke, of Tōkyō. It is an easily traced ​outgrowth of the second branch of the first school, just described; for one can readily understand that from placing the decorative design in a monochromatic field of low tone, which is essentially a pictorial method, development would proceed in the direction of concealing the mechanics of the art in order to enhance the pictorial effect. Thus arose the so-called "cloisonless enamels" (musen-jippō). They are not always without cloisons. The design is generally framed, at the outset, with a ribbon of thin metal, precisely after the manner of ordinary cloisonné ware. But as the work proceeds the cloisons are hidden,—unless their presence would contribute to give necessary emphasis to the design,—and the final result is a picture in vitrified enamels. This remarkable tour de force has created some discussion. There are those that question whether the principles of true art are not violated when an attempt is made to produce pictorial effects by the aid of such materials as vitrified pastes. The purist may find that objection unanswerable. Yet it seems to be opposed to the practice of artists in all ages. Neither in ancient nor in modern Europe has any canon been obeyed that sets limits to the range of decorative motives. If the sculptor may apply to a frieze or the keramist to a vase subjects of which the technical and artistic quality is estimated by their fidelity to nature, why should similar latitude be denied to an artist working with enamels? At all events it is certain that fine specimens of musen-jippo are beautiful objects. They are imperishable pictures in vitrified pastes, remarkable as to technical skill, harmonious and at the same time rich in colouring, and possessing pictorial qualities which could not reasonably have been looked for in such material.
​The characteristic productions of the third among the modern schools are monochromatic and translucid enamels. All students of the keramic art know that the monochrome porcelains of China owe their beauty chiefly to the fact that the colour is in the glaze, not under it. The keramist finds no difficulty in applying an uniform coat of pigment to porcelain biscuit and covering the whole with a diaphanous glaze. The colour is fixed and the glaze set by secondary firing at a lower temperature than that necessary for hardening the pâte. Such porcelains lack the velvet-like softness and depth of tone so justly prized in the genuine monochrome, where the glaze itself contains the colouring matter, pâte and glaze being fired simultaneously at the same high temperature. It is apparent that a vitrified enamel may be set to perform, in part at any rate, the function of a porcelain glaze. Acting upon that theory, the experts of Tōkyō and Nagoya have produced, during recent years, many very beautiful specimens of monochrome enamels,—yellow (canary or straw), rose du Barry, liquid-dawn red, aubergine purple, grass or leaf green, dove-grey, and lapis lazuli blue. These pieces do not quite reach the level of Chinese monochrome porcelains, but their inferiority is not marked. The artist's great difficulty is to hide the metal base completely. A monochrome loses much of its attractiveness when the colour merges into a metal rim, or when the interior of a specimen is covered with crude, unpolished paste. But to spread and fix the paste so that neither at the rim nor in the interior shall there be any break of continuity or any indication that the base is metal not porcelain, is a tour de force demanding extraordinary skill.
​The translucid enamels of the modern school are generally associated with decorated bases. In other words, a suitable design is chiselled in the metal base so as to be seen through the diaphanous enamel. Very beautiful effects of broken and softened light combined with depth and delicacy of colour are thus obtained. But the decorative designs which lend themselves to such a purpose are not numerous. A gold base deeply chiselled in wave-diaper and overrun with a paste of aubergine purple, is among the most pleasing. A still higher tour de force is to apply to the chiselled base designs executed in coloured enamels, finally covering the whole with translucid paste. Admirable results are thus obtained. Through a medium of cerulean blue bright gold-fish and steel-backed carp appear swimming in silvery waves, or brilliantly plumaged birds seem to soar among fleecy clouds. The artists of this school show also much skill in using enamels for purposes of subordinate decoration—for example, suspending enamelled butterflies, birds, floral sprays, etc., among the reticulations of a silver vase chiselled à jour (this kind of work is called hirado-jippō); or filling with translucid enamels parts of a decorative scheme sculptured in iron, silver, gold, or shakudo.
The reader will perceive at once what great strides Japanese workers in cloisonné enamels have made since the days when they sent to Europe specimens such as those carefully classified and illustrated in "The Decorative Arts of Japan." It is not incorrect to say that the art of cloisonné enamelling in Japan was developed during the last quarter of the nineteenth century from a condition of comparative crudeness ​to one of unparalleled excellence. There was no reason to anticipate that the Japanese would take the lead of the world in this branch of applied art. They had no presumptive title to do so. Yet they certainly have done so.
There has been discussion among Occidental connoisseurs about the relative merits of the cloisonné enamels of China and Japan. It has been maintained that Japanese productions look sombre and flimsy, and that the advantage is with the Chinese in restful solidity, as well as depth, purity, and harmony of tone. The criticism appears just so long as Japan is represented solely by the works of the school founded by Kaji Tsunekichi and maintained by his pupils and successors down to the year 1880. But at the latter date the Japanese expert entered an entirely new field where he completely distanced his Chinese rival. The artists of the two countries now work on lines so different that accurate comparison is scarcely possible. But it must not be assumed that the Japanese expert would find difficulty in adopting the Chinese methods. There has been practical proof to the contrary. Between the years 1850 and 1870 Maizono Genwo of Kanazawa, a pupil of Kaji Tsunekichi and subsequently of a Chinese expert in Nagasaki, produced several specimens of cloisonné enamels in the pure Chinese style. They were of small dimensions, chiefly sake-cups and bowls; the cloisons were of gold or silver, and the colour and quality of the paste as well as the general technique were indistinguishable from the finest Chinese work. Some experts of the present time, also, have conceived the idea of adding the Chinese style to their various accomplishments and have succeeded thoroughly.
LACQUER
It has been held by many critics that lacquered objects stand highest among the products of Japan's applied art, first because the quality of the lacquer as to hardness, durability, and lustre, is unparalleled, and secondly because the decorative genius of her artists has been exercised in this field with most conspicuous success and with marked independence of foreign influence. Certainly the lustre of Japanese lacquer appeals to the least educated eye, so much so that a box or tray of fine black lacquer without ornamentation of any sort possesses an indescribable charm, and tempts the spectator not merely to gaze at it, but also to feel and caress it. Durability and hardness, too, though they are not qualities that enter into a normal estimate of beauty, have much to do with the artistic developments of Japanese lacquer, for had it not possessed these attributes, it could never have been considered worthy of the magnificent and costly decoration lavished upon it. It resists the action of boiling liquids and of alcohol, so that a lacquered cup can be used for tea, for soup, for hot sake, and in fact for all table purposes, being in that respect equal to porcelain, while it is superior to porcelain in security against fracture and in non-conducting properties. There are now standing in the Tokyo Museum of Arts specimens of lacquer which, having lain at the bottom of the sea for some years in a sunken steamer, were found, when recovered, to still retain much of their original beauty. And in the collections of Japanese connoisseurs there are numbers of lacquered objects many centuries old, which have withstood all ​the effects of time, and are now as perfect as when they emerged from their makers' hands. This admirable durability, especially remarkable considering that the base used by the lacquerer is wood of exceeding thinness and frailty, must be attributed in part, of course, to the preservative properties of the lacquer varnish itself, but largely also to the skill of the experts by whom these fine specimens were produced.
Japan derived the art of lacquer manufacture from China. There can be no doubt of that. The tools used in both countries are almost identical and the methods have such a likeness that their common origin is unquestionable. But as the time of the art's introduction into Japan was pre-historical, the date cannot be fixed accurately. Certainly, however, it was not later than the beginning of the sixth century, and it will probably be right to conclude that, like many other products of civilisation, this also came in the train of Buddhism. At first the art does not seem to have extended beyond the manufacture of plain black lacquer, but antiquarians allege that from the early years of the eighth century ornamentation with dust of gold and mother-of-pearl began to be practised. There is a measure of conjecture in this statement, for the oldest specimens of artistic lacquer known to exist in Japan are two boxes, one of which was made to order of the celebrated priest Kuki, better known as Kōbō Daishi, at the close of the ninth century, for the purpose of containing the Shingon Sutra which he had conveyed from China, and the other is a receptacle for jewels believed to date from approximately the same period. Both objects are decorated after the manner called maki-kin-iro; that is to say, gold and silver dust hav​ing been scattered over the surface of the lacquer, a design is added, and the whole is then delicately polished. The decorative motive of the sutra-case is a troop of karyobin (birds with angel's torsos) flying among flowers; that of the jewel-box is an elaborate floral diaper. In the former the artist carefully followed Chinese models; in the latter he partially obeyed the naturalistic tendency of Japanese genius. These works show too much technical skill to be attributed to the beginning of a period of art development, and it seems a reasonable inference that lacquers similarly decorated had been produced since an earlier era.
The tenth century saw a further extension of the range of motives: landscapes and religious scenes began to be included in the lacquerer's repertoire. It is on record that the Emperor Kwazan (985) executed with his own hand a design of Hōrai-zan (the mountain of elysium) on a lacquer writing-desk, and there are authenticated specimens of twelfth-century lacquer in which the decorative designs take the forms of a figure of Shaka among flowers and birds, of Arhats worshipping a dragon, of phœnixes, and even of human figures. From the eleventh century, also, the use of lacquer ceased to be limited to boxes, desks, and minor objects of furniture: it was applied to columns, beams, and other parts of the interiors of temples, and the processes hitherto adopted were supplemented by inlaying with mother-of-pearl and with gold. The decorative artist now quickly passed to elaborate and delicately executed landscapes as well as intricate and tasteful designs, which he was certainly able to depict with marked skill during the thirteenth century, if not during the twelfth. He further em​ployed incrustation with gold foil, and some specimens dating from the Kamakura epoch show an affinity with the pictorial scrolls of the time, their decorative designs being chosen so as to illustrate verses of poetry traced in golden ideographs beside the picture. To the Kamakura era belongs also a new departure, namely, the application of vermilion lacquer to objects having their wooden surfaces carved in diapers or arabesques. This kind of work—called Kamakura-bori (Kamakura carving)—appears to have been suggested by the red lacquer of China which has designs cut in the lacquer itself. The Kamakura-bori belongs to a palpably inferior grade of work, but some interest attaches to it as it probably helped to suggest an important development with which the Ashikaga epoch is credited.
That development was the production of what is called taka-makiye (lacquer in relief). Hitherto artists had confined themselves to hira-makiye (flat lacquer), that is to say, lacquer having the decorative design in the same plane as the ground. The sole exception had been the Kamakura-bori, just spoken of, in which effects of relief were obtained by carving the wood to which the lacquer was applied. Now, however, experts undertook surface modelling in the lacquer itself. It is not possible to fix the exact date of this notable addition to the art, but it certainly reached a point of high development in the time of the Shōgun Yoshimasa (1449–1490). There has been frequent occasion to allude to Yoshimasa in these pages, and to the extraordinary impulse that all branches of art received from his establishment of the tea-clubs and from his munificent patronage. The taka-makiye, which from his era became famous, constitutes one of the distinc​tive features of Japanese lacquer. It is not found in the lacquers of either China or Korea. With it, in that respect, may be classed aventurine lacquer, called "pear-ground" (nashi-ji) in Japan. This, too, has never been produced elsewhere. Briefly, nashiji may be described as a surface presenting the appearance of golden sand pervaded by a faint glow of russet brown. The gradual emergence of such a type from the gold dusted fields of earlier epochs is not difficult to conceive, but to the experts of Yoshimasa's era belongs the credit of having indicated the possibilities of this beautiful decoration.
No lacquerers prior to the days of Yoshimasa, that is to say, the second half of the fifteenth century, attained sufficient renown to be remembered by posterity. Then for the first time the annals speak of Hidetsugu of Nara, who constructed tea-boxes after designs by the celebrated chajin Jōo, and whose descendants continued to work through several generations; of Hadagoro of Kyōtō, whose lacquers were known as Hokkai-nuri-mono from the name of the locality where he resided; of Kōami Dōchō, who obtained designs from Tosa Mitsunobu, from Nōami and from Sōami, and who excelled in all the processes of flat lacquer as well as lacquer in relief, bequeathing his art to his descendants, of whom his great-grandson Sozen, the latter's son Sokei, and his grandson Sohaku were all famous lacquerers; of Kōami Dōsei, the second of the Kōami family; of Taiami and Seiami and of Igarashi Shinsai, who also founded a long line of skilled artists. It is plain that from the era of Yoshimasa—commonly spoken of in art circles as "Higashi-yama"—the expert lacquerer began to rank with the pictorial artist or the sculptor.
​Until its closing years the sixteenth century showed no marked progress in the process of lacquer production, a fact doubtless attributable in the main to the exceedingly disturbed state of the Empire. But when the Taikō had restored peace, and had inaugurated the fashion of lavishing all the resources of applied art on the interior decoration of castles and temples, the services of the lacquerer were employed to an extent hitherto unknown, and there resulted some very fine work on friezes, coffered ceilings, door-panels, altar-pieces, and reliquaries. At first, when, tranquillity having been established, the lacquer experts returned to Kyōtō from their retreats in the provinces, specimens produced by them showed defects of technique, and came to be classed for that reason under the name of Karasumaru-mono, Karasumaru being the locality of their manufacture. But the rapidly growing demand for fine work in architectural decoration soon raised the standard of skill, and all the processes of the Higashi-yama era were employed with newly added graces of design and excellency of finish. Surviving specimens do not indicate that decoration in the taka-makiye style (relief) was largely practised. The taste of the time found more faithful expression in a new fashion introduced by Anami Kwōyetsu (1590–1637), of which the characteristic features were remarkable boldness of decorative design, free use of conventionalised forms, and the employment of gold, silver, lead, and mother-of-pearl in solid masses. This style received fuller development at the hands of Ogata Kwōrin, who is accounted one of the greatest decorative artists of the seventeenth century. It must be confessed, however, that the mannerisms of Kwōrin are not always pleasing. His conventionalisms sometimes ​become so extreme as to lose suggestiveness, and the balance of his decorative scheme is disturbed by unduly large masses of metal or mother-of-pearl. When he avoids these faults his work deserves the admiration it received in his time, as well as the homage of a numerous school of imitators down to modern eras. Certainly prior to his epoch no expert of applied art had formed any comparable conception of the effect of skilful spacing and the charm of irregularly yet symmetrically distributed decoration. Yet, even in that respect, neither Kwōyetsu nor Kwōrin can be called an originator. The source from which they derived inspiration is easily discovered by any one examining the illuminated sutras of the twelfth century.
The Tokugawa times were the golden era of lacquer production. Not only did the universal popularity of the tea-clubs and the incense cult create a keen demand for the finest work, but also the interior decoration of the mausolea at Shiba and Nikko offered an unprecedented field for the art. In these mausolea are to be found the most splendid applications of lacquered decoration that the world has ever seen, nor is it at all likely that anything on a comparable scale of grandeur and beauty will ever again be produced. Japanese connoisseurs hold that the summit of development was reached at the end of the seventeenth century under the rule of the fifth Shōgun, Tsunayoshi (1680–1709),—that famous era of Genroku, memorable for so much that was bad and so much that was good in Japanese civilisation. Such was the reputation acquired by work of that time that whenever in later days a date had to be assigned to any specimen of exceptionally fine quality, the disposition of connoisseurs was to refer it to the ​days of Jōken-in (the posthumous name of Tsunayoshi). It cannot be said, however, that the artists of the epoch had any new inspiration. With the exception of Ogawa Ritsuō, they merely carried the methods of their predecessors to the highest point of technical excellence and decorative refinement. Ritsuō, called also Haritsu, flourished during the first half of the eighteenth century. He followed the style of Kwōyetsu and Kwōrin in introducing masses of metal into his decorative schemes, but he added also ivory, and, above all, faience. It was for this last addition chiefly that he became famous, for although the idea of inlaying a lacquered surface with faience medallions sounds bizarre, the effect was unquestionably beautiful.
Many exquisite examples of lacquer are to be found in inro produced during the Tokugawa times. The inro, owing to its small size and comparative cheapness, has attracted the attention of foreign collectors, and numerous specimens of great beauty are among the treasures of European and American dilettanti. It shares with the netsuke the charm of offering an almost unlimited field of decorative motives,—landscapes copied from great painters, battle-scenes, incidents from daily life, from history and from mythology, birds and insects of every description, and innumerable studies of flowers and foliage. Almost all the renowned lacquerers from the sixteenth century downwards occupied themselves, occasionally, with the making of inro, but the artists of the Koma and Kajikawa families, through several generations, were especially connected with this class of work, and their signatures are found most frequently. Since, however, the inro is merely one of the objects ​to which the lacquerer mainly devoted his attention, everything that has been said of his art applies to it, nor does it call for any separate discussion.
A frequently published assertion is that modern Japanese lacquerers are far inferior to their predecessors, and that nothing now produced will support comparison with the work of bygone times. That is an error. There has not been any loss of skill. Shibata Zeshin, who died in 1891, was, perhaps, as great an artist in lacquer as ever existed, and there are men living to-day who have all the skill of the best eras. The only change is in the conditions of production. Fine lacquer is exceedingly costly. It demands not only great outlay of expert toil, but also the use of very expensive materials. The Japanese art-artisan, however, is generally poor; or, at any rate, his circumstances are too humble to warrant the expenditure of large sums on specimens which have the less chance of finding a purchaser the higher their price. All the finest pieces of former times were produced to order, whereas at present few persons are disposed to give a commission, the tendency of those that can afford to possess rich lacquer being rather to seek old specimens of which the durability is already guaranteed, than to take the risk of having new made. But there has been abundant proof that the experts of the time can do quite as skilled work as any of their predecessors did.
In the manufacture of Japanese lacquer, three distinct processes have to be noted. The first is the extraction and preparation of the lac; the second, its application, and the third decoration of the lacquered surface.
​The lac is obtained from a variety of the sumach, called in Japan urushi-no-ki (Rhus vernicifera). A horizontal incision is made in the trunk of the tree, and in a few minutes this channel becomes filled with a greyish-white emulsion which, on exposure to the air, changes to light brown and ultimately to black. This juice may be taken from the tree at any time from April to October, but midsummer is the best season. The yield of one tree varies from twenty-seven to fifty-four grammes, and to obtain that quantity it is necessary to destroy the tree. It appears from official figures that at least a million trees must be sacrificed annually to the needs of the manufacturer, and readers will not be surprised to learn that of late years a demand has arisen for Chinese lac, which, since it can be sold in Japan at a lower price than that of the domestic product, is used for inferior classes of work. According to analyses made by Korschelt and Rein, the substance thus obtained from the lacquer-tree contains from 60 to 85 per cent of lac acid (C$_{14}$H$_{18}$O$_2$); from 3 to 6% per cent of gum arabic; from 1.7 to 3.5 per cent of albumen; and from 10 to 34 per cent of water. To prepare it for use, it is first pressed through cotton-cloth to remove extraneous bodies,—as bits of bark, wood, etc.; it is then ground in a wooden tub for the purpose of crushing the grain and obtaining uniform liquidity; subsequently it is again strained, and finally the water it contains is expelled by exposure to the sun's rays or to artificial heat. While the drying process is going on, various ingredients are added according to the kind of lacquer to be produced,—gamboge for nashi-ji (pear-ground) lacquer; perilla oil and plum-juice for ​shunkei (reddish-yellow) lacquer; yegoma oil and cinnabar for shu-uruishi (red lacquer); acetous protoxide of iron for ro-iro-urushi (mirror-black lacquer); dust of gold or silver for kin-iro (golden) or gin-iro (silver) lacquer; and so on. The preparation of the lac up to this stage is the function of a special class of workmen, whose task ends when the liquid is ready for use.
Passing now to the duties of the nuri-mono-shi or lacquerer, let it be supposed that the object to be lacquered is a box made of hi-no-ki (Retinispora obtusa), a white pine, which, owing to its fine grain and freedom from knots and resin, is considered specially suitable. The box having emerged from the hands of a skilled joiner, its walls are as thin as paper and its parts beautifully fitted. The lacquerer's first task is to apply a lute, called kokuso, which consists of rice-paste and lac mixed with fine cotton wadding. This he pastes with a pointed spatula over all lines of joining, wooden pin heads, knots, or other imperfections, having previously pared down these places with a knife. Next he spreads a thin coat of lac-sizing over the whole surface, the object being to solidify the latter by filling up the natural pores of the wood as well as all accidental fissures. Then follows another operation of luting, the putty used being compounded of ground pottery, rice-paste, and lacquer. Each of these processes is separated by an interval long enough to thoroughly dry the lacquer. After the second operation of luting, the surface is burnished to perfect smoothness by means of a special kind of sandstone. The next process is one of the most important. The whole object is covered with a layer of Japanese paper—the long-fibred variety known as mino-gami—or of ​thin hempen cloth. To fix this covering, the surface is painted with a thin pulp of rice-paste and lacquer, and when the paper or cloth has been smoothly pressed into this adhesive bed, a thin coat of lacquer is applied. The danger of warping is thus effectually averted, and exudations from the wooden surface are prevented from reaching the ultimate coats of lacquer. The surface of the paper or cloth is then subjected to processes somewhat similar to those employed in the case of the wooden surface. First it is over-spread, once, twice, or even three times, with a putty of rice-paste, lacquer, and pottery-dust, each coat, when dry, being rubbed down with sandstone. Then another kind of pulp—differing from the last in the proportion of the ingredients and in the addition of pulverised ochre—is laid on, and carefully polished after drying. Next follows a light coating of pure lacquer, and then another application of "stiffening," the putty in this case consisting of pulverised ochre and lacquer with or without pottery dust. Indian ink is now rubbed into the surface by means of a ball of cotton, and thereafter black lacquer, specially prepared, is applied with a flat brush, the object being then carefully dried. A very troublesome and tedious process ensues. It is that of "rubbing down." This is done with a special kind of fine-grained charcoal. Many days are devoted to the work, and the surface finally obtained is perfectly smooth, lustreless, dark grey, or greyish black. The preliminary operations are now completed, and the object is ready to receive whatever coats are destined to give it its final appearance.
The reader will observe that in this method of ​preparation, the basic material disappears altogether from view, and the lacquerer ultimately works on a surface of paper or cloth. Such is not the invariable process, however. In two favourite varieties of lacquer—kiji-nuri and shunkei-nuri—the grain of the wood is shown, no veneer of paper or cloth being employed. To produce these the wood is first "consolidated" by a pore-filling paste; it is then covered with pure translucid lacquer and polished. Thereafter, in the case of the shunkei-nuri, a light coat of yellow dust is applied, omitted in the case of kiji-nuri. The latter presents the appearance of highly polished mahogany or rosewood; the former suggests maple.
An object which, by the various processes described above, has developed a perfectly smooth, lustreless, greyish-brown surface, is said to have reached the "medium" stage (naka-nuri). It may now be finished by the application of a single coat of lacquer, without any subsequent burnishing, the result being nuri-tate, the commonest kind of lacquer, so called because the striations (tate) produced by the strokes of the brush with which the last coat is applied, are clearly visible. It may here be stated that in fine lacquer no semblance of brush-marks should be perceptible.
When the artisan desires to produce a better class of lacquer than the nuritate, he has merely to expend more material and more labour: additional coats of lacquer and additional rubbing and polishing. All this is only a question of patience and manual dexterity. Indeed, Japanese lacquers may be conveniently divided into "artisan lacquers" and "art lacquers;" the former comprising all varieties that owe their beauty solely to the quality of the ground ​lacquer; the latter, those distinguished by surface decoration. Of the former there are many kinds, from the monochromes—mirror-black, vermilion, cinnabar, and other hues of red, yellow, brown, and green—to grounds ornamented with dusting of gold, silver, mother-of-pearl, tin, or bronze; inlaid with mother-of-pearl; marbled; grained like wood, and so forth. Of the "art lacquers" also there are many kinds, but the distinguishing feature of all is that they have passed through the hands of the decorative artist, and by him have been ornamented with pictures which take them completely out of the rank of mere technical excellence.
It is not necessary to dwell upon "artisan lacquers." Some of them are very attractive, but, after all, they belong to the class of varnishes, and have little to do with applied art.
The artist by whom the decoration of art lacquer is undertaken has the name of maki-ye-shi, which signifies "an expert that strews pictures." This term is derived from the fact that strewing with dust of gold was the earliest method of lacquer decoration. At first the expert merely sprinkled gold powder sparsely over the surface, subsequently polishing the latter. Such lacquer was called heijin. The next stage of progress gave the maki-kini-ro, in which gold dust having been thickly strewn over a black field, a coating of translucid lac was superimposed, careful rubbing with charcoal and polishing being the final steps. Sometimes the gold dust was sifted so thickly that its particles lost their individuality, and a golden ground (kin-ji) resulted, showing soft lustre and a charming play of broken light. At a later era "pear-ground" (nashi-ji), or aventurine, was obtained by ​strewing gold dust over a field of russet brown. The most highly esteemed variety of nashi-ji was termed giyōbu-nashi-ji, after the name of the artist (Giyōbu) who invented it at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In this variety the surface is evenly covered with tiny squares of gold-foil, laid one by one in their places, a work demanding infinite patience, accuracy, and delicacy of manipulation. The sense in which the term makiye-shi came to be applied to the decorator of art lacquer will be plain from these facts, indicating, as they do, that his task originally was limited to sifting gold dust over the lacquer.
It may be stated as an almost invariable rule that either kin-nashi-ji, kin-ji, or giyōbu-nashi-ji is found associated with the finest lacquer, whether it enters into the decorative scheme, or appears on the reverse of the object. A ground of golden wood-grain (kin-moku-me), which costs the artist much trouble and requires not less skill than the giyōbu-nashi-ji, ranks also among choice varieties of secondary decoration. But the most difficult task of the makiye-shi is, of course, the application of the decoration. The variety of motives is virtually unlimited, ranging from elaborate landscapes, sea-scapes, battle-scenes, figure subjects, flowers, foliage, birds, insects, fish, and animals, to formal designs of scrolls, arabesques, and diapers. His palette includes several colours,—red, green, blue, silver, and gold being the principal,—but in all fine lacquers gold predominates so largely that the general impression conveyed by the object is one of glow and richness. Not infrequently the most elaborate part of the decoration is found on some comparatively inconspicuous part of the object. This is especially true of letter-boxes (bunko) and writing​boxes (suzuri-bako), which with book-stands (shodana) and medicine-boxes (inro) have in all ages been considered deserving of the makiye-shi's highest skill. Thus it often happens that the decoration on the outside of a bunko or a suzuri-bako is not nearly so rich and elaborate as that on the inside of the lid. At first sight such a distribution of skill seems a mere caprice of luxury; but the logic of the decoration becomes evident by reflecting that when these boxes are in use, the lids are always removed and placed with their faces downwards on the mats, so that the decoration on the reverse side is chiefly seen. Nevertheless it is an inviolable rule that every part of a fine lacquer object must show beautiful and highly finished work, whether it be an external or an internal part.
As for the process of applying a decorative design, the object first receives all the treatment, as already described, necessary to produce a perfectly finished ground, and upon the latter the makiye-shi sketches the design, working with fine brushes and a paste of white lead. Having thus obtained an outline drawing, he fills in the details with gold and colours, superposes a coat of translucid lacquer, and finally subjects the whole to careful polishing. If parts of the design are to be in relief (taka-makiye), a putty is used for foundation. It consists of black-lacquer, white lead, camphor, and lampblack, and after being laid on the surface of the object, it receives the necessary modelling, is polished with charcoal, and thus enters into the field for the decorative scheme. No special difficulty attends the taka-makiye process, and the results produced are wonderfully rich and effective. Many connoisseurs, however, will find at least equal beauty in fine ​examples of hira-makiye (flat makiye), especially those distinguished as togi-dashi; that is to say, pieces where the pictorial design is brought out by repeated processes of rubbing, so that all outlines disappear, and the decoration seems to float in a field of semi-translucid lacquer. When masses of metal or ivory enter into the decorative scheme, they have to be chiselled independently and afterwards embedded in the lacquer. The same is true in a modified degree of mother-of-pearl, though fragments are used to build up designs with the aid of paste in a manner not possible where metals are employed. The fashion of mother-of-pearl mosaics was inspired from China, and some work of that class shows almost incredible microscopic accuracy. A majority of the lacquers manufactured in modern times for the foreign market have mother-of-pearl (from the shell of the haliotis) and ivory in the decorative scheme. That style was brought into vogue by Shibayama Doshō in the second half of the eighteenth century. He cannot be said to have invented it, but, as has been observed of many other Japanese applied arts, the perfecting of the method was mistaken for its origin. It would be impossible to overstate the richness and decorative magnificence of many objects manufactured in modern workshops by combining lacquer grounds with elaborately constructed designs in mother-of-pearl, ivory, faience, gold, and silver. Screens, cabinets, boxes, and plaques in this fashion have been sent abroad in great numbers during the past thirty years, and now embellish many Western salons. But they have few attractions for Japanese connoisseurs, being, in fact, a product of foreign demand. In the works of Kwōyetsu, Kwōrino, and Ritsuō some virility and chasteness ​of taste always save the decoration from becoming meretricious. Shibayama himself was not unfaithful to true canons. But the later disciples of his school fall perpetually into the error of imagining that the chief ends to be attained are profusion of detail, an infinite display of manual dexterity, and brilliant wealth of material. The merit of magnificence cannot be denied to their works, but they can scarcely be called art lacquer.
There are some special varieties of lacquer which are too interesting to be left unnoticed. Two, well known to all collectors, are tsui-koku and tsui-shu. Both are similarly produced. The ground having been duly prepared in the orthodox method, coats of cinnabar and dark-brown lacquer are applied successively until a considerable thickness has been obtained, and then, while the lacquer is still soft, designs are cut into it, the channels made by the chisel being V-shaped, so that their sloping sides afford a plain view of the alternating layers of red and dark-brown lacquer. When the ultimate layer is dark-brown, the term tsui-koku is applied; when red, the term tsui-shu. Such works belong obviously to what are here classed as "artisan lacquers." Another variety of tsui-shu has a ground of incised arabesques or diapers, supporting a deeply chiselled decorative design of flowers, foliage, birds, insects, landscapes, etc. In such work the lacquer is not applied in alternating layers of red and black; it is usually pure red. Japanese artists have never been remarkable for successful production of this last variety of tsui-shu. The lac of China lends itself better to such purposes, and the choicest specimens are Chinese.
​Two other very attractive kinds of lacquer, though they do not belong to the artistic class, are called Tsugaru-nuri and Wakasa-nuri, names derived from the districts (Tsugaru and Wakasa) where they are produced. These lacquers are not of the makiye kind. The decorative design, in which several colours appear, presents an appearance of marbling or leaf-pattern, sometimes, however, being in regular stripes, and sometimes in an apparently fortuitous mélange of clouding and spotting. It has been supposed that the Tsugaru and Wakasa patterns are manufactured by pressing leaves or twigs of plants into the soft surface of the lacquer and removing them when the latter is dry, various processes of coating and polishing being subsequently applied to the ground thus obtained. But though that method is adopted in some instances, the general plan is to spread upon a naka-nuri base a pattern of putty, over which coats of coloured lacquer are laid—black, yellow, red, and green in the case of Tsugaru-nuri, with addition of golden yellow, orange and brown for Wakasa-nuri,—the whole being then covered with translucid lac, and finally polished in the usual way. Like the "transmutation glazes" of Chinese porcelain, the disposition of the colours on these curious lacquers is in a measure accidental, for the salience of any part of the design determines the amount of friction to which it must be subjected before reduction to a plane surface, and consequently determines also the colour that emerges from the superincumbent layers. Cognate with these lacquers is the so-called "tortoise-shell," known in Japan as "rubbed off lacquer" (suri-hagashi-nuri), which need not be described further than to say that the upper coat of black or amber-brown lacquer ​is polished away in places so as to expose the under coat of vermilion red. There is also a variety called chinkin-bori, of which, as its name implies, the distinguishing feature is that a design—generally of arabesques or scrolls—is scratched upon black lacquer, and gold-foil is then rubbed into the lines. This is a subsidiary decoration seldom seen in combination with fine work. "Shark-skin lacquer" (same-gawa-nuri) is another kind which used to be greatly employed for covering the sheaths of swords. It is obtained by pressing shark-skin into the ground of the article to be lacquered, a layer of rice-paste having previously been spread over the surface. The skin is then filed down to an even plane, and a coating of lacquer is superposed, with the usual polishing and rubbing. There results a black surface covered regularly with small white circles.
M. Louis Gonse says, and Mr. E. Gilbertson endorses his dictum as "a simple truth," that "Japanese lacquered objects are the most perfect works that have issued from man's hands."
NAMES AND ERAS OF CELEBRATED LACQUER EXPERTS
* Hidetsugu, of Nara. Second half of fifteenth century.
* Hadagoro, of Kyōtō. Second half of fifteenth century. His works are known as "Hokkai-nuri-mono."
* Taiami, of Kyōtō. Time of Ashikaga Yoshimasa. Celebrated for togi-dashi and taka-makiye (which he is said to have invented). He founded a long line of expert lacquerers.
* Kōami Choan (1560-1603), eighth representative of the Kōami family.
* Anami Kwōyetsu (1590-1637). A celebrated artist; introducer of the style afterwards carried to perfection by Kwōrin. ​
* Ogata Kwōrin, a renowned lacquerer and painter of the seventeenth century (died 1716), remarkable for the bold freedom of his style.
* Yoji Hidetsugu (called also Noji Zenkyō), second half of sixteenth century.
* Seiami (called also Shōho), second half of sixteenth century.
* Kōami Sozen, grandson of Kōami Dochō.
* Kōami Sokei, son of Kōami Sozen.
* Kōami Sohaku, son of Kōami Sokei.
* Kōami Dōsei, son of Koami Dochō.
* Igarashi Shinsei, a celebrated lacquerer patronised by the Shōgun Yoshimasa (second half of fifteenth century). Many of his descendants became famous.
* Kōami Chōho, worked under patronage of Iyeyasu in Yedo (beginning of seventeenth century).
* Koma Kiui, worked for Iyemitsu in Yedo (first half of seventeenth century). Eleven generations of the Koma family worked for the Tokugawa.
* Kōami Nagashige, tenth generation of the Kōami family. A celebrated expert who worked mainly for the Tokugawa Shōguns in Yedo (1620-1651), as did also his descendants through nine generations.
* Kōami Nagafusa, son of Kōami Nagashige.
* Kōami Chokyu, son of Kōami Nagafusa.
* Kōami Masamine, son of Kōami Chōkyu, beginning of seventeenth century.
* Igarashi Dōho, worked in Kaga.
* Yamamoto Shōbei, worked in Nagoya; end of eighteenth century.
* Yamamoto Shunshō, worked in Kyoto (died 1682).
* Shunshō, name by nine descendants of Yamamoto Shunshō, who were all lacquer experts.
* Shibara Ichidayu, worked in Kaga (middle of seventeenth century).
* Koma Kiuhaku, son of Koma Kiui (end of seventeenth century). Eleven generations of the Koma family worked for the Tokugawa Shōguns in Yedo.
* Tatsuki Chōbei, worked in Kyoto in second half of seventeenth century, and became very renowned. ​
* Kajikawa Kaijiro (1661-1684), a celebrated lacquerer of Yedo; had the art title of tenka-ichi. His descendants continued to work for several generations.
* Seigai Kanshichi (1680-1710), celebrated for designs of waves: hence his name seigai (the blue sea).
* Ogawa Ritsuō, called also Haritsu. Worked in Yedo and died in 1747. Celebrated for using faience in the decoration of lacquer.
* Shōami Masanari, worked in Kyōtō (1716-1740); celebrated for togi-dashi.
* Nagata Tomoharu (1720-1750), an expert of the Kwōrin school.
* Yamamoto Rihei (1735-1766), worked in Kyōtō.
* Izuka Tōyō, called also Kwan Shōsai; worked in Awa (1760-1780). Made inro only, for which he was very famous.
* Ninomiya Tōtei (1790-1820), worked in Yedo, and was specially skilled in producing chinkin-bori. He used the teeth of rats for engraving designs of peonies, flowers, and foliage.
* Koma Kansai (1800-1845), pupil of Koma Kiuhaku, fifth representative of the Koma family, received permission to take the family name in consideration of his skill. He worked in Yedo and among his pupils was the celebrated Shibata Zeshin.
* Shibata Zeshin (1835-1891), the most celebrated of modern lacquer experts. Worked in Yedo and followed the style of Kwōrin. Pupil of Koma Kwansai.
* Tamakaji Zokoku (1830-1870); worked at Takamatsu in Senuki. He is celebrated for a style of lacquer called after him (Zokoku-nuri), which was obtained by carving designs in bamboo or wood and filling the lines with red, yellow, and blue lacquer.
* Hara Yōyusai, called also Kōzan (1804-1840). Worked in Yedo and attained high renown.
* Nakayama Kōmin (1840-1871), pupil of Yōyusai. Worked in Yedo.
* Ogawa Shōmin (still living). A pupil of Nakayama Komin. Works in Tōkyō. ​
* Hanzan (1743-1790), pupil of Haritsu (Ogawa Ritsuō). Worked in Yedo and adopted the style of his master.
* Yōsei; a contemporary of Hanzan, and a follower of Ritsuō's style.
* Chōhei (first part of nineteenth century). School of Ritsuō. Worked in Yedo.
* Kakōsai, pupil of Izuka Tōyō.
* Shōkwasai, a fellow-worker with Shibayama Doshō in Yedo.
* Shibayama Doshō (second half of eighteenth century). Worked in Yedo and is celebrated for his success in introducing ivory into the decoration of lacquered objects.
* Jōkasai (first part of nineteenth century); worked in Yedo.
* Shirayama Shōya (still living).
* Kawanobe Itcho (still living).
* Uyematsu Hōmin (still living).
* ↑ See Appendix, note 48.
* ↑ See Appendix, note 49.
* ↑ See Appendix, note 50.
* ↑ See Appendix, note 51.
* ↑ See Appendix, note 52.
* ↑ See Appendix, note 53.
* ↑ See Appendix, note 54.
* ↑ See Appendix, note 55.
* ↑ See Appendix, note 56.
* ↑ See Appendix, note 57.
* ↑ See Appendix, note 58.
* ↑ See Appendix, note 59.
* ↑ See Appendix, note 60.
* ↑ See Appendix, not 61.
* ↑ See Appendix, note 62.
* ↑ ​Note 48.—These details were first published by Mr. W. Gowland.
* ↑ ​Note 49.—It is related of Hidari Jingoro that when a friend recommended him to exercise more caution with the view of emerging from a condition of extreme poverty, he replied, "Pleasure lies hidden in poverty. Does not the plum blossom in snow?"
* ↑ ​Note 50.—This was called nata-gake, nata being the term for hatchet.
* ↑ ​Note 51.—Round the four sides of a Japanese chamber, at a height of six feet, runs a horizontal beam of finely grained knotless timber, nailed at intervals to similar vertical beams. The beauty of the timber being a cardinal feature, it is necessary to conceal the nail-heads. That is effected by fastening over them pieces of metal chiselled in various shapes and designs.
* ↑ ​Note 52.—The mirror is said to have belonged to the Emperor Shomu.
* ↑ ​Note 53.—Mr. Bowes maintained his views with remarkable firmness. No Japanese collection, public or private, contained any ​specimen of the wares which he supposed to have been produced and preserved in temples and noblemen's residence during nearly three centuries. No Japanese connoisseur had any knowledge of such objects having been manufactured previously to 1837. All the circumstances under which their production had commenced at the latter date, were well known and had been officially recorded. The artisan who had originated the work was living and had received a reward from the Government for his invention. Some of the specimens which Mr. Bowes attributed to the seventeenth century were unhesitatingly identified by artisans of the present time as their own work, and the signatures which certain of these specimens bore were claimed by the men who had actually signed them. But none of these things shook Mr. Bowes' faith. He thought that he could detect in the wares themselves technical evidence, or signs of wear and tear, justifying his theory, and he clung to that theory with a tenacity which, considering the testimony on the other side, is probably unique.
* ↑ ​Note 54.—A possible exception is a Koto (musical instrument) said to have belonged to the poet Chōmei in the twelfth century. It has mosaics of cloisonné enamel on the face and sides.
* ↑ ​Note 55.—Kaji supposed that the specimen was Dutch. There can be little doubt that it was a Chinese enamel imported by the Dutch at Nagasaki.
* ↑ ​Note 56.—It will be at once understood that such a method, to be successful, implies great command of coloured pastes. Indeed, no feature of enamel manufacture is more conspicuous than the progress made by the Japanese in that respect during the past twenty years (1880–1900), and much of it is due to the assistance of a profoundly skilled German expert, the late Dr. Waagener.
* ↑ ​Note 57.—It is a mere accident that the representatives of the Kyōtō and Tōkyō schools are both called Namikawa. There is no relationship. Moreover, the Kyōtō Namikawa is himself an expert of the highest skill; the Tōkyō Namikawa is only an enterprising and resourceful employer of experts.
* ↑ ​Note 58.—In connection with the question of technical processes a fact of some interest may be mentioned. Up to the year 1890 the cloisons were attached to the base with solder which, when repeatedly exposed to the heat of the furnace, showed a tendency to "boil," thus causing holes in the enamel. Hence it often happened that vases or plaques upon which great labour had been expended, were found to be disfigured by pittings and scars when they finally emerged from the fire. These defects were usually hidden with wax, the result being that a specimen showing a glossy uniform surface at the ​time of purchase, was subsequently found to lose its lustre and develop unaccountable blemishes. From 1890, when the choicest kinds of enamels began to be manufactured, a glue obtained from the root of the orchid (ran) was substituted for brass solder, the danger of flaws being thus avoided at some expense of durability.
* ↑ ​Note 59.—The most scientific and exhaustive information with respect to lacquer manufacture is to be found in the "Industries of Japan" by Professor Rein, who studied the processes by engaging in them with his own hands. The practical experience he thus gained, supplemented by scientific knowledge, enabled him to publish the first really satisfactory monograph, to which free recourse has been made for the details here given.
* ↑ ​Note 60.—The process of evaporating the moisture is constantly seen in the streets of cities. The lac is put into large pans, and these being placed in an inclined position, their contents are stirred for several hours with a large spatula.
* ↑ ​Note 61.—The drying of lacquer is not effected by heat: a damp, cool atmosphere is essential. The object is usually enclosed in a wooden chest of which the sides and cover have been saturated with water.
* ↑ ​Note 62.—Many collectors have been betrayed into purchasing, as genuine tsui-shu, specimens which are simply carved wood overlaid with red lacquer, in the manner of the Kamakura-bori mentioned in the text. Note must also be taken of imitation tsui-shu, of which the surface is a putty,—composed of lacquer, ochre, glue, and wheat-flour,—having a decorative design impressed on it. This kind of lacquer is largely applied to articles of wood or porcelain, such as trays, tobacco-boxes, vases, lecterns, etc.
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