LACQUER WORK. 365 



stripes and figures on the moist coat of Naka-nuri (see loth process 

 of groundwork), and when dry covered with a coat of Se-shime, 

 With this it takes a brown colour, Hke the scattered powder of 

 a precious metal. The gold ground becomes lighter yellow and 

 more lustrous with age, the scattered tin or bronze dust on the con- 

 trary grows darker and duller, as may be easily observed in many 

 of the common Japanese lacquer wares. It is to be understood that 

 the strewing of metal powder does not finish the work, but that a 

 coat of transparent lacquer, and the polishing process must follow. 



3. Simple lacquer wares, ornamented by inlaid work. I rank 

 this group next to the preceding, because its execution, though 

 demanding some skill, does not any more than the foregoing neces- 

 sitate a real artistic talent. The precious metals also are either not 

 at all, or at least only exceptionally, employed in this. The inlaid 

 mother-of-pearl work, Ao-gai-zaiku, as cabinets, boxes, dishes, etc., 

 which are brought in such numbers to Europe, and made chiefly at 

 Nagasaki, belong principally to this class. It is customary, how- 

 ever, to incrust even the finest lacquer wares with mother-of-pearl, 

 ivory, and precious metals, and to form from them reliefs of flowers 

 and other natural objects. 



This branch of lacquer industry is already old, as articles in the 

 Dutch, Dresden and other collections testify. The common Ao-gai 

 comes from the inside of the shell of the Haliotis, each shell yield- 

 ing only one thin plate. The finer or Ma-gai Ao-gai, ie. Ao-gai 

 imitation, is the product of the large Trochus, and comes princi- 

 pally from the Riu-kiu islands. Both kinds (in Trochus, the last 

 convolution), are scaled off in thin, transparent sheets, in a pains- 

 taking primitive way. 



The mother-of-pearl sheets are laid on the design, which is 

 pricked through with India-ink and brush. The painting colours 

 (Prussian blue, gamboge, and a mixture of the two for green, also 

 sienna, carmine, cartharmine, etc.) are rubbed together with hot 

 glue-water and laid on with the brush according to the pattern, on 

 the right places in the mother-of-pearl. When dry, their painted 

 portions are covered with silver-foil laid on with glue-water, and 

 again dried. Then the mother-of-pearl is cut with a sharp chisel 

 into the shapes designated on its opposite side (leaves, flowers, etc.), 

 with their corresponding transparent colours. They are glued on 

 the dull groundwork of vases, plates, cabinets, etc., and all the 

 hollow intervals of space are filled up with black lacquer. Then 

 the whole surface, including the inlaid work, is covered with two 

 coats of transparent varnish, and if necessary rubbed with charcoal 

 and polished. The underlying silver-foil is used to protect the 

 colours on the underside of the mother-of-pearl from the lacquer, 

 and to bring them out more clearly ; but this is done only in the 

 more valuable articles. Instead of mother-of-pearl an inlay of tin 

 is sometimes used, which is treated of course differently, and then 

 never loses its colour and polish. 



