December r, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



51s 



instructions from Her Majesty's Charge cV Affaires a.t Tokio. 

 Great diffculty lias been experienced in obtaining 

 thoroughly reliable information, as not only arc the artificers' 

 for the most part, uneducated, but they are entirely ignorant 

 of what takes place in any other department except that 

 to which they hare been brought up. A well-known and 

 most intelligent manufacturer, who has been over twenty 

 years himself a worker in gold lacquer, was quite unaware 

 of the mode of tap)ung and treating the trees, and had 

 never even seen a cut specimen of the wood. He states 

 that his head workman, a highly-skilled artizan, over lifty 

 years of age, hardly knows the name of a single article 

 that he uses. 



The nil us vernicifera, the well-known lacquer tree of 

 Japan, is met with all over the main island, and also in 

 smaller quantities in Kiushiu and Shikoku, but it is from 

 Tokio northwards that it principally flourishes, growing 

 freely on mountains as well as in the plains, thus indicat- 

 ing that a moderate climate suits the tree better than a 

 very warm one. Since early days the cultivation of the 

 tree has been encouraged by the Government, and as the 

 lacquer industry increased, plantations were made in every 

 province and district. The lacquer tree can be propagated 

 by seed sown at the end of January or the beginning of 

 February. The first year the seedlings reach a height 

 of from 10 inches to 1 foot. The following spring the 

 young trees are transplanted about 6 feet apart, and in 

 ten years an average tree should be 10 feet high, the 

 diameter of its trunk 2^ to 3 inches, and its yield of 

 lacquer sufficient to fill a 3-ouncc bottle. 



A more speedy method is, however, generally adopted. 

 The roots of a vigorous young tree are taken, and pieces 

 6 inches long and the thickness of a finger are planted 

 out in a slanting direction a few inches apart, 1 inch being 

 left exposed above the ground. This takes place in the 

 cud of February and through JIarch, according to the 

 climate of the locality. These cuttings throw a strong 

 shoot of from IS to 20 inches the first year, and are like- 

 wise planted out the following spring. Under equally 

 favourable cu-cumstances these trees would in ten years 

 be nearly 25 per cent larger in girth, some 2 or 3 feet 

 higher, and would yield nearly half as much more sap 

 than the trees raised from seed. 



It has not hitherto been the custom to bestow any 

 special care on the trees after planting them out, but in 

 cases where leaf or other manure has been applied they 

 are much finer. Of late years hill sides and waste grounds 

 alone have been used for lacquer plantations, as, owing 

 to the rise in the price of cereals and farm produce 

 gener.ally, it does not pay the farmers to have their land 

 cumbered with trees. Those that have been hitherto 

 planted along the borders of the fields are being rapidly 

 used and uprooted, and, where practicable, mulberry trees 

 are planted instead, with a view to rearing silkworms. 

 Nevertheless, as a good workman is expected during the 

 season to tap an average of 1,000 trees ten years old, and 

 as the Province of Yechizen alone sends out about 1,500 

 "tappers" yearly to the various lacquer districts, it will 

 be seen that an immense production annually takes place, 

 stimulated, doubtless, by the demand for cheap lacquered 

 articles abroad. To remedy the possible exhaustion of the 

 supply, and in view of the great rise which has taken 

 place in the price of lacquer, several companies are being 

 projected to plant waste lands with the trees. A ten-year-old 

 tree, which some five years ago only co.st from 1 to 2 sen, 

 now costs 10 sen, which, allowing even for the depreciation 

 in the value of the paper currency, shows a rise of about 

 300 per cent. 



The best tran.sparent lacquer comes from the districts 

 of Tsugaru, Nambu, Akita, and Aidzu. It is largely used by 

 the workers of Kioto, Osaka, and the southern provinces, but 

 though also used in Tokia is not so much appreciated 

 there as the lacquer produced from the neighbourhood 

 of Chichibu in the Province of Mus-ashi, from Nikko in 

 Shimotsuke, and that produced in the Provinces of Kodzuke 

 and Sagami, which hardens more rapidly, and is best for 

 black lacquer. 



There are some districts the lacquer obtained from 

 which is best for certain kinds of work, but is not so 

 well adapted for others. The kind which is used for 

 transjiarent lacquer is mixed in large tubs, to insure a 

 uniform quality, and beiug allowed to stand for some time 



(say, a week or ten days), the best portion, which is 

 ordinarily 70 per cent of the whole, is skimmed off. 

 This is used for JVa^kiji -dad Sim lacquer, while the remainder 

 is used for making inferior mixtures, such as Johaiia, etc., 

 all described elsewhere. Almost all the various classes of 

 lacquer are similarly dealt with to iusm-e uniformity, as 

 some qualities dry much quicker and are better than others, 

 and the slow drying qualities would otherwise remain 

 unsold. 



The whole country produces at present on an average 

 from 30,000 to 35,000 tubs per annum, each tub being of 

 about 4 gallons capacity. Some 70 to 80 per cent of this 

 total amount is produced from Tokio northwards. Nearly 

 one-half of the lacquer produced is sent to the Osaka 

 market, where it is prepared as required and resold all 

 over the western and southern provinces, the remaining 

 portion being used up locally and in Tokio. 



The usual age at which a tree is tapped is ten years, 

 but in some few cases a tree is tapped when only tluree 

 or four years old. The best lacquer for transparent varnish 

 is obtained from trees from one to two hundred years old, 

 as their sap has more body, and is more glutinous. The 



tools used in obtaining the lacquer are as follows: 



Kaira-nutki (bark parerj, a cm-ved knife with which the 

 workman smooths all inequalities of the bark before 

 tapping the tree. 



Yeda-yama (branch sickle), an instrument with a gouge 

 on one side and a knife on the other, fitted with a piece 

 of bamboo to give the hand a good hold when tapping 

 branches. 



Kuki-yama (scraping sickle), a similar instrument, with- 

 out the piece of bamboo u.sed for tapping trees generally. 

 i'eguri (a gouge), used in autunm to scrape the bark 

 smooth before gi\-ing the final cut with the kaki-yaiua. 

 ^V«tMi-/->«-rt (summer spatula), used for scraping the sap 

 out of the incisions into the receptacle named iju. 



Hocho (knife), used for cutting the bark of branches in 

 obtaining seshime or branch lacquer. 



Seshime-bera (seshime spatula), used for collecting the 

 sap which exudes from the incisions in the bark of the 

 branches. 



<io, the bamboo or wooden pot, in which the .sap is put 

 as it is collected. 



Go-i/uri (pot gouge), a long straight knife for scraping 

 the lacquer out of the pot into the tub. 



Te-bukni-o (glove), worn by the tapper to protect his 

 hand from contact with the sap. 



The first tapping takes place about the beginning of 

 June. The standard number of trees allotted to a tapper 

 for the season is 1,000— presimiing them to be about ten 

 years old (the size of the small .specimen), about 800 of 

 the size of the large specimen, and so on, less and less 

 according to the size of the trees. Having cleared away 

 the grass from the roots, the workman makes the round 

 of his allotted trees, marking each with small notches about 

 h inch long. The first of these notches is made about 6 

 mches from the bottom of the tree on the right hand 

 side; and ne.xt, one "hand stretch" higher up on the left 

 hand side; the next, one "hand stretch" higher on the 

 right, and so on, alternately as far as the workman can 

 reach. These preliminary markings, which are to determine 

 all the places for subsequent tapping, take fully four daj-s 

 being at the rate of 250 trees a-day. The tapper then 

 goes round, provided with the bark scraper, the ordinary 

 .scraping sickle, the summer .spatula, and the pot to hold 

 the lacquer, and first smoothing the bark where required 

 gives one cut above and one cut below the two lower 

 marks, and one cut above the remainder of the other 

 marks, the cut being in each case about H inch lon^. 

 After giving the cut the instrument is reversed, and the knife 

 is run along the incision to insure the bark beiug entirely 

 cut through. This process is repeated every four days 

 each incision being made a httle longer than the i)reced- 

 ingone, up to the fifth tapping, inclusive, after which the 

 remaining incisions are made of the same length. At e.ich 

 round, when all the requisite incisions »have been made 

 on the tree, the workman gathers the sap which has exuded 

 with the spatula, beginning with the two lowest incisions 

 and so on to the uppermost cut. Twenty-five is considered 

 the normal number of cuts, which, at " the rate of one 

 incision at each place every four days, occupy one hundred 

 working days, and allowing for some twenty days of raia 



