450 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



stencil patterns of tin foil are pasted on the surface of the groundwork, and the open 

 spaces are coated with ro-iro-urushi, and then sprinkled with ao-gai or mother- 

 of-pearl powder. When dry the patterns are removed, and the whole is coated with a 

 mixture of ro-iro and se-shime-urushi, and then the strewn mother-of-pearl is carefully 

 rubbed with magnolia charcoal. A second coat of the same lacquer varnish follows, 

 then a second rubbing, and finally the polishing. The same course is pursued in the 

 simpler work of strewing the whole surface evenly with mother-of-pearl powder. The 

 beautiful green and violet iridescence of small mother-of-pearl pieces on the lacquer 

 wares decorated with it depends on its varying position toward the light and the 

 uneven coating of the transparent lacquer varnish. 



Shari-nashi-ji, i. e. tin (dust) pearl ground. — The tin dust (or bronze powder 

 instead) is strewn with a little sieve, evenly or in stripes and figures, on the moist coat 

 of naka-nuri and when dry covered with a coat of se-shime. With this it takes a 

 brown color, like the scattered powder of a precious metal. The gold ground becomes 

 lighter yellow and more lustrous with age, the scattered tin or bronze dust on the 

 contrary grows darker and duller, as may be easily observed in many of the common 

 Japanese lacquer wares. It is to be understood that the strewing of metal powder 

 does not finish the work, but that a coat of transparent lacquer and the polishing 

 process must follow. 



Simple lacquer wares, ornamented with inlaid, ivork. — 1 rank this group next to 

 the preceding, because its execution, although demanding some skill, does not, any 

 more than the foregoing, necessitate a real artistic talent. The precious metals also 

 are either not at all, or only exceptionally, employed in this. The inlaid mother-of- 

 pearl work, ao-gai zaiku, as cabinets, boxes, dishes, etc., which are brought in such 

 numbers to Europe and made chiefly at Nagasaki, belong principally to this class. 

 It is customary to incrust even the finest lacquer wares with mother-of-pearl, ivory, 

 and precious metals, and to form from them reliefs of flowers and other natural objects. 



This branch of lacquer industry is already old, as articles in the Dutch, Dresden, 

 and other collections testify. The common ao-gai comes from the inside of the shell 

 of the Haliotis, each shell yielding only one thin plate. The finer or ma-gai ao-gai, 

 i. e., ao-gai imitation, is the product of the large Trochus, and comes principally from 

 the Eiu-kiu islands. Both kinds (in Trochus, the last convolution) are scaled off in 

 thin, transparent sheets, in a painstaking, primitive way. 



The mother-of-pearl sheets are laid on the design, which is pricked through with 

 India ink and brush. The colors (Prussian blue, gamboge, and a mixture of the two 

 for green, also sienna, carmine, carthamine, etc.) are rubbed together with hot glue 

 water and laid on with the brush according to the pattern, on the right places in the 

 mother-of-pearl. When dry, the painted portions are covered with silver foil laid on 

 with glue water and again dried. Then the mother-of-pearl is cut with a sharp chisel 

 into the shapes designated on its opposite side (leaves, flowers, etc.), with their cor- 

 responding transparent colors. These are glued on the dull groundwork of vases, 

 plates, cabinets, etc., and all the depressed intervals filled up with black lacquer. 

 Then the whole surface, including the inlaid work, is covered with two coats of trans- 

 parent varnish, and if necessary rubbed with charcoal and polished. The underlying 

 silver foil is used to protect the colors on the under side of the niother-of- pearl from 

 the lacquer, and to bring them out more clearly; but this is done only in the more 

 valuable articles. Instead of mother-of-pearl, an inlay of tin is sometimes used, 

 which is treated, of course, differently, and then never loses its color and polish. 



