3S8 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



on paper laid under the warp, and the coloured woof threads were 

 chosen accordingly, but did not extend across the entire breadth 

 but only so far as needed by the figure, and the next figures were 

 filled out with other colours before or after. Beautiful table 

 cloths and Fukusa, i.e. fabrics for wrapping up and covering presents, 

 for example, fine lacquer-wares and other articles, were manufactured 

 in this way, as well as material for little bags — especially Tabako- 

 ire, for preserving cut tobacco. Their value and price were of 

 course far behind that of the genuine brocades. 



We have also to mention the Yuzen-somi. A peculiar art, practised 

 by Hata Zenshiki and others in Kioto, consisting in painting the 

 pattern on the finished silk fabric. For this purpose, the interstices 

 between the figures of the design are covered with Nori (paste) to 

 protect from capillary attraction and the running of the colours at 

 the edges. The rest of the process is very much like painting on 

 silk in general. 



In the manufacture of Birodo or velvet, nothing was formerly 

 attempted but the plain and the ribbed fabric.^ The apparatus for 

 making it resembles our earlier velvet looms. The pile of the upper 

 part of the warp is wound around parallel copper sticks or needles. 

 When the fabric is finished, the nap or meshes are cut by a knife 

 running between two jacks, and the needles are taken out. The 

 Japanese velvet manufacture has its seat in Kioto and Nagahama. 

 In 1874 it was entirely abandoned at Ishida, a place east of the 

 Biwa Lake and not far from Nagahama, because, as one manu- 

 facturer told me, the import had so run down the price, and on the 

 other hand the export of raw silk had so increased its value, that 

 it was impossible to manufacture with profit. 



Nui-mono or Nui-haku, embroidery, especially with silk on silk 

 or woollen material, is closely connected with silk weaving. It is 

 a highly developed branch of Japanese art industry, in which the 

 ruling traits of Japanese workmen, pleasure and satisfaction in the 

 product of their labour, combined with carefulness, great skill, and 

 admirable taste, are again displayed. By an ingenious alternation 

 and combination of flat embroidery and feather-stitch, sewing on 

 cords and the like, and a wise choice, association, and shading of 

 colours, surprising effects are produced, and a considerable degree 

 of life is communicated to the flowers, birds, butterflies, and other 

 subjects copied by the needle. 



Embroidery has been an employment in Japanese houses from 

 ancient times till now. Mothers teach their daughters at an early 

 age to form a pleasing mosaic with different coloured patches, from 

 which they make covers for chopsticks and tooth-picks, battle- 

 dores for a kind of shuttle-cock game, and other articles. When 

 older, making and adorning of dolls' clothes furnish a large oppor- 



^ During the last few years, they have, however, succeeded in covering ribbed 

 velvet with pictures in different colours and shades, which are real works of art, 

 and at least equal to anything of the kind woven in France. 



