The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1860-06-06
5f(istellautous,
Japanese Industry.

The Japanese are an industrious and in.
geDious people. Nearly all the useful met
ais Gre worked by them with great skill, es'
pecially iron, copper, gold, and silver; and
they possess an art in the combination OF
metals for beauty and effect unknown to
other people. Their sword blades are nd-
mirabe. They also manufacture astronom-
ical instruments, ond clocks and watches,
which are copied after European models,
Probably introduced by the Dutch. Their
mirrors are metallic and beautiful. Their
carpenters and cabinet makers tools are
also equal to any Of European manufacture.
They are said to lie very quick in observ-
ing any improvement, introduced by foreign
ers, make themselves masters of it, and
copy it with skill and exactness. Their
coinage is we'll stamped, as they are good
die sinkeFs. In wood, no people work bet
ter, and in tcquerng they excel the world
Other nations have attempted, in vuin, to
initiate and equal them, owing chiefly to the
material necessary in preparing the wood,
which is the gum ofa tree known only to
themselves, called the varnish tree. Oc-
casionalIy specimens of their lacquer work,
through the Dutch residents of Dez zima,
have found their way to this country; but
it is said the best samples are never sent
out of the kingdom. They manufacture
gluss, both colored and uncolored, and their
porce lain is both delicate and beautiful be-
yord all rivalry. Paper they produce in
abundance, and principally from the burk OF
the mulberry tree. 1t is Of different quail
ties, and some oil it is as sot and flexible as
cur Gotten cloth, for which it might be mis-.
taken Al d is used for huLdkerchiefs aud
ether domestic wants.
They make silk, the best of which is su
perior to that of China, and is said to be wo-
ven by criminals of high rank, who are up
on small, unproductive island, deprived OF
their property, and made to support them
selves by their labor. The expectation Of
these silks, it is said, is prohibited. As a
substitute for cotton cloths, as before re-
marked, in the manufacture Of which they
have little skill, they use their coarse, spon
gy paper, hicb is quite as useful and dur
able. AS they have no sheep or goats, the
manufacture of wooens is unknown among
them. Very little leather is produced in
Japan, owing to the Buddhist superstition
referred to in former article, which makes
those manufacturing or vending it outcasts
from the rest of the population. 1t is never
used for shoes or other coverings for the
feet, such being made from plated straw
for the lower classes; the nobility and dig
nitories wear slippers made Of fine rattan
slips, neatly plated. The ragged appear
ance OF their feet frequently affords ridicul-
GUS contrast to the splendor and richness
of,he other portions OF their picturesque cos
tune.
We have alluded to the ingenuity Of lht
Japanese I: take the following as an exam
ple in clock making. 1t is the account o
one given by former Governor DUTCH o
Dezima, q small island appropriated to the
Dutch Company, and to which they are ex-
clusively confined:
"The clock is contained in frame thret
feet high, by five feet long, and presents I
fair landscape at Doontime. Plum ant
cherry trees in full blossom, with othe
plants, adorn the foreground. The back
ground consists Of hill, from which falls
cascade, 6killiully initiated in glass, tha
forms softly flowing river, first wlndin
,rcund rocks placed here end there, the
running across the middle of the landscap
till lost in a wood Of fir trees: A golde
sun hangs aloft in the sky, and turning upo
q point, indicates the striking Of the hour
On the frame below, the twelve hours {
the day and night are marked, where
slowly creeping tortoise serves ss han'
bird, perched upon the branch of plu'
tree, by it's song and the Clapping Of !
wings, announces the moment when the ho'
expires, and as the song ceases bell is mat
10 strike the hour, during which operate
ia mouse comes out Of grotto and ru'
" the bill."-Ns,O York Express.