JAPANESE WOOD-CUTTING AND WOOD-CUT PRINTING. 



223 



19. A special Mnd of grinding stone, for leveling the surface of I he 

 grinding stone, No. 20. 



20. Grinding stone for taking off the somewhat roughened edges of the 

 knives and chisels, alter they have been sharpened on the stone, No. 21. 



21. Grinding stone. [See No. 



20.]* 



22. Oil pot, in which oil of 

 Sesamum orientate is kept, for 

 rubbing the portions of the 

 plank to be cut, so as to 

 soften the wood and make the 

 cutting easier and cleaner. 



23. Oil brush for the oil just 

 spoken of. 



24,25. Wooden mallets for 

 driving the chisels, Nos. L3-18. 



The originals furnished 

 to the wood-cutters, and 

 the method of transfer- 

 ring them to the flanks. 

 Written characters or pict- 

 ures to be cut on wood are 

 drawn upon a certain kind of 

 Japanese paper, "minogami" 

 or " gampishi," and the draw- 

 ings thus made are pasted 

 [face downward] upon a pre- 

 pared plank, by means of 

 starch paste. The plank is 

 now ready for the engraver. 

 This applies to prints in black 

 only. For color-printing, the 

 outlines of the design are first 

 cut and printed in black ink 

 (Indian ink mixed with a 

 solution of glue) upon "mino- 

 gami," and the designer of 

 the picture then marks the 

 parts to be colored [on differ- 

 ent sheets]. These sheets are 

 then pasted down on the 

 p 1 ks, as before stated, and <Fr 



the engraving also proceeds as before. 



Fig. 1. 

 Japanese Woodcutter s knike. 



Actual size. Two view 8. 

 om the specimen in the U. S. National Musuein.) 



* Mr. Geo. P. Merrill, curator of the Department of Geology, to w horn these stones 

 were submitted, has kindly Supplied the following information concerning them: 

 None of them correspond exactly to the stones used for similar purposes with ns. 

 No. 19 is a dark blue-gray, fine-grained argillaceous rock, impregnated with lime, 



