LACQUER WORK. 371 



varnishing with Nashi-ji-urushi or Se-shime, rubbing with magnolia 

 charcoal and water, and finally the several processes for obtaining 

 the requisite polish. 



In cheap lacquer wares, wherever Taka-makiye is used, bronze 

 powder and tin dust are substituted for precious metal, and the 

 whole work is executed at low price and correspondingly small 

 outlay of art or time. It is in the same relation to the exquisite 

 accomplishments of the Makiye-shi, that the wall decoration of the 

 house painter is to the frescoes of the eminent artist. A more 

 comprehensive discussion of the many art fancies and methods of 

 which the Japanese artist avails himself, including the inlaying of 

 ivory, mother-of-pearl, and precious metals, is manifestly quite im- 

 possible, and any further explanation in this direction would be 

 neither of interest nor use. 



In the moonlight autumn scene (Plate VII.) the artist has em- 

 ployed several of the decorations mentioned under Hira-makiye 

 and Taka-makiye. In it we have night represented by means of 

 the irregularly strewn Nashi-ji on the black lacquer, and by the 

 moon behind a cloud. Autumn is indicated by the wild geese 

 (Gan) flying down, and the two favourite flowers, Kiku-no-hana 

 {Chrysantheimim sp.) at the right, and Omina-meshi {Patrinia sp.) 

 at the left. The geese, banks of the stream, and flowers are in 

 relief, and are executed last. The flowing water is produced very 

 much as the sample of spotted lacquering (Plate VI. fig. c), and 

 Kin-ji (gold ground),Gin-ji(silver ground),and Nashi-ji (pear ground) 

 may be recognised in different places. There is also noticeable in 

 the feathers of the geese, the careful modelling and chasing of the 

 relief before it has received the gold ornamentation. Only one 

 other decorative form of raised lacquer work, the Giyo-bu-Nashi-ji, 

 remains to be briefly noticed. It is often seen on tree-trunks and 

 rocks, is always done in pure gold, and is an unmistakable token 

 of careful labour. We see it on the raised banks of the stream, 

 laid on with squares of gold leaf in rows like paving stones, 

 decreasing in size in the distance, and gradually lost. These pieces 

 of gold leaf, called Kiri-kane (see i, p. 367), are laid on one after 

 the other with the point of the Hirame-fude (see 7, p. 355) on 

 the places designed and still moist with lacquer. 



Tsui-SHiu, Carved Cinnabar Lacquer, or Peking Lacquer. 



In our Industrial Art Museums, small tables are to be seen 

 from China and Japan, and bearing the name Peking lacquer, 

 or carved lacquer work. Some of these are made with open-work 

 ornamentation, and there are dishes, boxes (Fig. 13), and other 

 articles which differ widely from the earlier mentioned work in their 

 beautiful and very peculiar modes of decoration. On the ground- 

 work intended for this variety, cinnabar lacquer is applied partly 



