336 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



which have the same appearance, besides the different boxes, some 

 of which, if opened, show that they are intended for candlesticks, 

 and other things, as cigar cups, all made from this peculiar-looking 

 alder wood. The busy people of the Hokone Mountains, who 

 support themselves in this way, keep the preparation of Hari-no-ki 

 {Alims incana and A.Jirnia) a secret, and pass off the articles made 

 from it as the product of Tsuta-no-ki {Actmidia vohibilis. Planch.) 

 whose extremely light, large-pored wood is not really very similar. 

 It is not difficult however for the searching, practical glance to 

 penetrate the secret in the Hakone villages, Hata, Kawabata, Miya- 

 noshita, and several others where this work is extensively carried 

 on, as well as in the little city of Hakone itself, and the bathing 

 resort, Atami. This secret lies in the fact that the trees are felled 

 in the neighbouring woods in spring, when the wood is full of sap. 

 The branches and tops are cut off, and the trunks sawed into 

 lengths of about two meters each, and then left to lie in their bark 

 during the warm, rainy summers, being often turned. The wood 

 in this way becomes mouldy, its red colouring matter undergoes a 

 chemical change not yet investigated, becomes dark brown, and 

 collects in particular places, so that the wood assumes a dark, 

 spotted appearance. In turning on the lathe, both of these changes, 

 the mouldy character and the peculiar marking, show distinctly 

 through the colouring. After polishing with shave-grass, the 

 articles are put back upon the lathe, pressed close to a piece of 

 vegetable wax (R6, see p. 158 ff.) and turned, which gives them a 

 smooth, shiny surface, at the same time filling the pores with R6. 



The turning-lathe just mentioned is a very simple apparatus. 

 The turner has the main element, an iron axis, with one end, a four 

 lined fork, turned towards himself. The other end of the axis rests 

 and moves on a support in the middle of a pan. Between them is 

 a twisted strap ending underneath in two treadles. The workman 

 sits with the legs in a box-like recess, to which the straps with 

 the treadles reach. When he moves the treadles up and down 

 like the blower at the bellows of an organ, the horizontal axis is 

 turned not in one direction, but now to the right and now to the 

 left. The turner places the thick cross-section of wood on the 

 before mentioned fork, and according to his wish turns a narrow or 

 a wide cup-like hollow in it, and then forces in one end of the piece 

 of wood out of which he wishes to form the article. 



Nikko-zaiku (Nikko work). In the celebrated temple and 

 pilgrimage place, Nikko (Imaichi) there are a comparatively large 

 number of shops which deal in simple lacquer wares for home con- 

 sumption, and also with peculiar carved and turned woodwork. 

 The former come from Wakamatsu in Aidzu, the others are manu- 

 factured in Nikko itself, and it is these which are called by the 

 above name. The articles are neither so various and beautiful nor 

 so prized as those from Hakone, but are very peculiar. The woods 

 of the camphor laurel, alder and other trees, so generally used there 



