LACQUER WORK. 341 



4. Rein: "Das Japanlsche Kunstgewerbe. Oesterr. Monatsschrift 

 fur den Orient." Vienna, 1882. Nos. 4 and 5.^ 



5. Quin, J. J. : " Report by Her Majesty's Acting Consulate at 

 Hakodati, on the Lacquer Industry of Japan." London, 1882.^ 



6. H. Yoshida : " On Urushi Lacquer. Journal Chem. Soc." 

 1883, p. 472 ff. 



7. O. Korschelt and H. Yoshida. "The Chemistry of Japanese 

 Lacquer. Transact. As. Soc. Japan." XII. pp. 182-220. While 

 my limited chemical aids in Japan made it possible for me to 

 make only a qualitative investigation of the raw lac, the authors 

 of this very interesting article have succeeded in throwing light 

 upon the constitution of its several elements. Korschelt particu- 

 larly has pointed out its most important constituent — lac-acid, and 

 thoroughly investigated its properties, besides tracing several inter- 

 esting phenomena in its relation to the lacquer process, and making 

 corresponding statements. Wherein I differ from his conclusions, 

 I have given my own views in the place where such difference 

 occurs. 



* I spent the first five months of the year 1874, and of my stay in Japan, in 

 Tokio, chiefly in the study of lacquer work. After I had set up a chemical 

 laboratory in the German Legation, 1 engaged two experiencedand very competent 

 lacquerers, one of whom, named Kisaburo, was. a thorough artist, and arranged 

 a workshop under their directions. My principal purpose was to become ac- 

 quainted with the art of lacquering, and all the utensils and materials used in 

 the work. In order to accompHsh this, and at the same time to secure for the 

 Royal Museum of Industrial Art in Berlin an instructive collection of samples, 

 I ordered from a joiner one hundred tablets of Hi-no-ki wood {Retinispora 

 obtKsa), each 20 centimeters long by 13 centimeters broad, I kept a journal 

 giving account of all the work, which I myself also participated in, and I also 

 investigated all materials employed. When the collection was finished I sent it 

 with a report to His Excellency the Prussian Minister of Trade and Industry, 

 in Berlin. That report forms the foundation of this treatise. In order to com- 

 plete it, and to learn more of the cultivation and value of the lac tree in the 

 interior of the country, and the other branches of industry, I started upon my 

 travels. The result of this journey was a report concerning the cultivation of 

 the tree, the extraction of the raw lac, and of the vegetable tallow, after I had 

 visited all the great centres of this cultivation, as well as nearly every place 

 where important lacquer work was carried on, and had obtained the most truly 

 scientific information regarding all. The succeeding pages cover the ground of 

 my investigations as briefly as practicable, and treat also of the collection in the 

 Royal Industrial Art Museum in Berlin, which in the nature of its origin and 

 its instructive value may be truly said to stand alone. 



2 In Balfour's Cyclopaedia of India, of 1873, there is this statement: "The 

 manner of preparing the varnish, and the mode of applying it, is and is likely 

 to remain a secret." Sir Joseph Hooker of Kew, in his report for 1882, quotes 

 this, and concludes that Quin, consul in Hakodate, had learned the secret. 

 Both these gentlemen appear to have as little knowledge of the above quoted 

 works of Father d'lncarville and Dr. Wagener as of my own study of lacquer 

 work in Japan. 



