Mr. John O. Pelton on Japanese Lacquer. 245 
‘cloudy weather in the absence of sunshine. We know how wide 
the crocus opens in bright sunshine, but it will open equally 
wide if brought into a warm room with only artificial light. 
As we should have expected, the amount of sunlight before 
each plant came into flower was much greater in 1895, when 
with bright frosty weather the ground was covered with snow, 
than in the mild cloudy season of 1896. But it is difficult to 
understand why in 1898—which, as I have said, was neither a 
particularly early nor backward season, and which was preceded 
by a cold December—the amounts both of day temperature and 
of sunshine necessary to bring the plants in question into flower 
should have been as a rule markedly less than either in the mild 
first quarters of 1894 and 1896, or in the cold one of 1895. 
136.—JapanEsE LacquEr: 11s History, MANUFACTURE, AND 
DeEcoRarTION. 
By Jonn O. Petron. 
(Read March 16th, 1897.) 
Tue prominence given to Japan during the last thirty years 
may be due to many causes, but undoubtedly the quality which 
mainly riveted the attention of the Western world was the 
glorious revelation of artistic genius which astonished and de- 
lighted all beholders. Although Japan had been accessible to 
navigators and to a limited number of Dutch traders for cen- 
turies, so little was really known regarding the inner life of her 
inhabitants that Sir Rutherford Alcock, the first British Pleni- 
potentiary Extraordinary, who, in 1859, entered upon his duties, 
described them as “a people grotesque and savage.”’ It was not 
long, however, before this feeling changed into one of the most 
_ ardent admiration and appreciation. 
No record exists of the birth of the lacquer industry in Japan. 
_ Tradition states that even before the Christian era an officer was 
“appointed by the imperial court to superintend its manufacture ; 
_ there are pieces now existing in Japan said to date from the 
third century. I can, however, state with certainty that the 
‘industry is at least 1800 years old, as in the Nihonji, the ancient 
Chronicles of Japan, lacquer is mentioned in the year 567 in 
such a manner as to convey the impression that it had existed 
Some time before that date; well authenticated pieces dating 
om the eee and eighth centuries are preserved in the royal 
treasury at Nara. 
