50 INTRODUCTION 



SECTION VI. 



PROGRESS IN INDUSTRIAL ARTS, AND EXTENT OF CIVILIZATION IN JAPAN. 



The Japanese are an exceedingly industrious and ingenious people, and in certain manufac- 

 tures are surpassed by no nation. 



Metals. — They work well in iron, copper, gold, and silver, and, indeed, in all the metals they 

 have. Of iron, it is supposed the supply afforded by their country is not large ; still they have 

 extracted the metal from such ores as they possess, and wrought it into shape. Copper is very 

 abundant, and they understand perfectly well the mode of treating the ore, and preparing the 

 metal for market or for manufactures. Gold also exists, and probably to an extent as yet un- 

 developed ; the deposits are likely, we think, to prove large on fiirther and scientific exploration. 

 At any rate, there does not seem now to be any scarcity of it for the purposes to which they 

 apply it. They have silver mines which they work. They know, too, how to make some com- 

 binations of metals which produce a beautiful effect. Thunberg tells us that they work witli 

 great skill in what they call soivas. This is a mixture of gold and copper, which they color 

 with tousche, or ink, making it a fine blue or black, by an art imknown among Europeans. 

 They make steel, and temper their sword blades admirably. Clocks and watches are also made 

 by them, but in these they are not entitled to the merit of invention ; they have copied from 

 European models. The same may be said of their astronomical instruments ; they make very 

 well the metallic portion of telescopes, &c., and buy mirror glasses from the Dutch, which they 

 grind into suitable lenses. They also manufacture excellent metallic mirrors ; and Golownin 

 says, he saw carpenters' and cabinet-makers' tools, particularly saws, made in Japan, quite 

 equal to any English tools of a similar kind. They are exceedingly quick in observing any 

 improvement brought in among them by foreigners, soon make themselves masters of it, and 

 copy it with great skill and exactness. They are very expert in carving metal, and can cast 

 metal statues. Their copper coinage is well stamped, for they are good die-sinkers ; and several 

 of their operations in metal are carried on in very large and well-ordered manufactories. 



Wood. — No people work better than they can in wood and bamboo, and they jjossess one art 

 in which they excell the world. This is in lacquering wood work. Other nations have 

 attempted for years, but without success, to equal them in this department. In this operation 

 they select the finest wood of fir or cedar to be covered with varnish. They get the gum from 

 which they prepare the varnish from the rhus vernix — a tree that is abundant in many parts of 

 their coTmtry. On puncturing the tree the gum oozes out, of a light color, and of the con- 

 sistence of cream, but on exposure to the air grows thicker and blacker. It is so transparent, 

 that when laid unmixed on wood, the grain and every mark on the wood may be seen through 

 it. They obviate this, however, where it is desirable, by placing beneath the varnish a dark 

 ground, one element in the composition of which is the fine sludge caught in the trough under 

 a grindstone. They also use for the purpose minutely pulverized charcoal, and sometimes leaf 

 gold ground very fine. Tliey then ornament the varnish with figures and flowers of gold and 

 silver. They make, and thus varnish, screens, desks, caskets, cabinets, and other articles, 



