340 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



the representation of pictures and designs in gold and silver dust. 

 They are real artists, who wield their small brush with great 

 firmness and skill, and not only work according to patterns, but 

 often develop admirable creative power in designing. 



Besides these two, there are or were still other classes of spe- 

 cialists, e.g., Ao-gai-shi or mother-of-pearl inlayers, and the Saya- 

 shi or sword-sheath lacquerers. 



There is no longer any secret in the Japanese art of lacquer- 

 work, although even in modern times the contrary has been as- 

 serted. Every one who will take the time, and bring to it the 

 necessary previous knowledge, can study in Japan, as I myself did, 

 the manner of obtaining and preparing the raw material. A real, 

 expert study is indeed necessary, and as but few have hitherto had 

 time and opportunity for this, and many have repeated without 

 understanding what they have gained from incompetent Japanese 

 sources, their reports are always full of erroneous assertions. 



For these reasons, and because this treatise is almost exclusively 

 the outcome of personal studies made on the spot and continued 

 later in Europe, a complete statement of the literature of the 

 subject seems unnecessary here. I will indicate only the most 

 valuable works bearing upon it, remarking upon a part of them 

 in passing. 



1. " Memoire sur la vernis de la Chine." By Father d'Incarville, 

 Jesuit and Correspondent of the Academic. This appeared in 

 '' Memoirs de Mathematique et de Physique, presentes a I'Academie 

 Royale des Sciences, par divers Savans, et lus dans ses Assemblees." 

 Vol. iii. pp. 1 17-142. Paris, 1760. 



A free German translation of this may be found in the Supple- 

 ment to Heidemann : " M. Watin's Kunst des Staffiermalers, Ver- 

 i^olders, Lackierers, und Farbenfabrikanten (in ' Neuer Schauplatz 

 der Kiinste und Handwerke '). Ilmenau, 1824." 



In the first sentence of this still readable article, the author 

 states that the lacquer of China is not a composition, but a gum or 

 resin that exudes from the lac tree. Much of what is said about 

 the manner of obtaining the lac, and its use, applies to Japan also, 

 and is as true to-day as then. It is not to be wondered that there 

 are some errors also, as, e.g.^ when d'Incarville calls tea oil a drying 

 substance, and gives it a place beside black Japanese lac, with 

 burned hartshorn. Nevertheless, the article remains instructive and 

 interesting, because in more than one place he gives expression 

 to the superiority of the Japanese as perceived by the Chinese 

 themselves. 



2. Wagener,Dr.G. : "Japanischer Lack. Dinglers Polytechnisches 

 Journal." Band 218, p. 361. 1875. This small work is the result of 

 thorough observation and sound judgment, as is everything which 

 this scientific and cultivated author has written concerning Japan. 



3. Maeda : "Les Laques du Japon. Revue scientifique." 2'"*^ 

 Serie. Vol. vii. pp. 1 17-128. Paris, 1878. 



