TEXTILE INDUSTRY. 387 



awakened great interest with European silk manufacturers. The 

 paper is cut into narrow strips and is then either spun around 

 silk thread or is itself twisted into a thread, and woven in. The 

 fabrics in this way look just as if they were inwrought with genuine 

 gold and silver threads, but differ in that they are cheaper and more 

 flexible. 



To make Kin-gami or gold paper, Usude-Torinoko-gami, a Gampi 

 or Kodzo paper (see Paper Industry) is painted over on one side with 

 a mixture of raw lacquer (Ki-urushi) and sulphur (Iwo), and rubbed 

 smooth with paper balls or pillows, when it is overlaid with genuine 

 gold-foil (Kin-paku) and then the entire gold covering is rubbed 

 over with loose cotton balls. The Hon-kin-gami, or genuine gold 

 paper, so prepared, can be used immediately after drying. In 

 making Gin-gami or silver, paper, the sulphur must of course be left 

 out. This is prepared with Shofu or wheat-flour paste instead of 

 lacquer, and then overlaid with Gin-paku, or silver-foil. An imita- 

 tion is made with tin-foil (Shari or Sudzu-haku) which is fastened to 

 the paper with Shofu. Silver and tin-foil are also used to imitate 

 genuine gold paper, receiving a coating of colour for this purpose. 

 Such a coating is prepared by the aid of a yellow solution and glue- 

 water, through which the white metal underneath appears of a 

 greenish yellow colour with a bright lustre. Other gold-yellow 

 shades are obtained by coating the white metal-foil with a mixture 

 of Shofu and Beni (carthamine) or Beni-gara (red oxide of iron). 



The real and the imitated gold and silver paper prepared in one 

 way or the other, are cut by a machine into narrow strips, Kin-shi 

 and Gin-shi, or gold and silver threads, which are spun with silk or 

 cotton threads. Of course only the real gold or silver paper is 

 used in valuable brocades. In spinning it with silk the thread runs 

 from the little reel of a hanging spindle over a frame. The strip of 

 gold or silver paper is held with the paper side towards the thread 

 and the spindle set in motion, whereby the narrow strip winds itself 

 around the thread and is bound tightly to it. When one strip is 

 wound, another is taken, and so on.i 



Tzudzu-re-no-nishiki or brocading with short threads. In 1875 

 Yasuda Mosaburo manufactured in Kioto a kind of brocade bearing 

 this name, after a peculiar process. Warp and woof consisted of 

 strong, twisted silk and gold-paper threads. The case of the loom 

 was wanting, therefore there was no proper fastening and the cross 

 threads were laid in with the fingers and pushed in with a comb 

 by hand, as was done universally in olden times. The pattern 



^ It may be of interest to know that the Industrial Art Museum in Berlin 

 has not only samples of the several brocades, but also these paper metal 

 threads. The collection contains : Hon-kin-gami, genuine gold paper, and 

 Usu-kin-gami, thin gold paper, Shari-gin-gami, tin-silver paper, Shari-kin- 

 gami, tin-gold paper, also the same with a greenish appearance, and Hon-kin- 

 shi, real gold-paper thread over silk, Iro-hon-kin-shi, gold-silver threads on silk, 

 Iro-kin-shi, tin-foil gold on cotton, Kiri-kin-shi cut tin-gold paper strips, and 

 other samples. 



