338 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



of being lacquered is often covered with fine rattan braiding, glued 

 on, also in egg-shell porcelain. 



It is more often the case that straw mosaic is used for decora- 

 ting small wooden ware. These are little cabinets, boxes, bowls, 

 and other articles commonly made of Kiri-wood, which are very- 

 popular because of their lightness. The most beautiful of them are 

 sent from the province of Tajima to the treaty ports. These, as 

 well as the favourite straw toys of children, made also at Omori, on 

 the Tokaido, between Yokohama and Tokio. Barley straw split 

 and coloured with aniline dyes is used for mosaic work. The 

 ornaments are first placed together after a pattern on bast paper, 

 and glued on with Fu-nori or some other paste, and then in the 

 same way fastened to the wood. Even in this work, the common 

 labourer manifests a cultivated taste in the arranging and contrast- 

 ing of colours that is not to be found in any other nation. 



The manufacture of toys, or Omocha, belongs also to this small- 

 wood industry (I recall only the koma or top) in which the Japanese 

 show themselves very skilful and careful workmen. We turn now 

 another branch of industry in which these qualities are manifested 

 in a far higher degree. 



Lacquer Work. 



Prefatory Observatmis. — Mangier of Obtaining the fapaiiese Lacquer; 

 its Properties. — The Urushi-kabiire or Lacqner Poisonifig. — Pre- 

 paration of Raw Lac for the Lacqiierer. — Prices of the Material. 

 — Other Materials and Utensils needed in the Work. — Laying on 

 of the Gronndzuork and Simple Lacquer Ornamentation. — The 

 Work of the Lacquer Painter or Makiye-shi. — Plain and Relief 

 Gold-lacquer Decoratio7is. — Lacquer Carving. — Historical Items 

 concerning Lacquer Work. 



Prefatory Remarks. 



Among the many well developed branches of Japanese art 

 industry, lacquer work undoubtedly takes the first place. In no 

 other have the feeling for art and artistic ability of the Japanese, 

 their free play of fancy, and their admirable perseverance and skill 

 in executing their richly figured pictures, developed earlier and 

 more. In none have they so quickly disengaged themselves from 

 their Chinese masters and patterns and stood more independently, 

 and finally in no other have they so surely won eminence among 

 all civilized people.^ Besides, in scarcely any other branch of their 

 industry is the employment and use of the raw material so varied, 



^ Father d'Incarville, 128 years ago bore repeated testimony to the superiority 

 of Japanese lacquer work over that of the Chinese, from which it sprang. The 

 Enghsh designation " to Japan," is likewise intended to signify lacquering. 



