4o8 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



until the required thickness is obtained. Then the articles are 

 dried, cut, and lacquered. 



In this way hundreds of small, light, and yet durable articles 

 are made, which find ready acceptance. Thus, not only dolls' 

 heads and other toys, but also pretty little plates and saucers, tea- 

 caddies, and pipe-cases are produced ; and they look as if made 

 of lacquered tin-plate or wood. They answer all purposes of 

 strength and durability, are surprisingly light, and cheap in price, 

 being similar in this respect to papier mache, but far exceeding it 

 in firmness and elegance. 



Paper hangings or Kara-kami, i.e. China paper, also are made 

 and used in Japan, not in long rolls, but in sheet size, and not to 

 a large extent. Many of the printed patterns are not less beauti- 

 ful than our finer papers, and are far superior to them in durability. 

 As the name indicates, this industry also originated in China, where 

 paper was first used for hangings. 



Manufacture of Chirimen-gami, or Crape Paper. 



By a very simple mechanical process, the smooth surface of 

 several bark papers, and of picture sheets made by the colour press, 

 are twilled, and stiff cardboard paper is made soft and pliant as 

 chamois skin, and given also an elasticity which surprises us, 

 especially in certain kinds of leather-paper. The tools which are 

 used in the manufacture of Chirimen-gami, are the Momi-dai,^ a 

 kind of lever press, and the Katas, or moulds, large brown sheets of 

 thick paper which are grooved in parallel furrows, either all to one 

 side, or in several directions, and on being moistened show con- 

 siderable elasticity. 



The press (Momi-dai, Fig. 14) is usually made of Kashi, the 

 wood of an evergreen oak, or some other hard wood. It stands 

 on a foundation consisting of a large, heavy board, through which 

 two perforated posts are fastened as tenon-bearers, between which 

 lies the fulcrum of a lever ad. b c\?> 2. wooden cylinder of 2 to 3 

 centimeters diameter, and length varying according to need, i.e. 

 whether the sheet rolled around it is large or small. This also 

 determines the height to which the tenon for the fulcrum of the 

 lever is raised. The cylinder b c rests at ^ in a pan-like hollow of 

 the board, in order to prevent change of position, and goes through 

 an elliptical hole in the arm of the lever. As a <^the long arm 

 of the power (2J to 3 meters long) is considerably longer than 

 that portion from the cylinder to the end of the lever d^ a great 

 pressure on the paper sheets rolled around the cylinder can be 

 applied. The sheets are moistened by sprinkling with a wet 

 brush, or by piling them up in alternate layers with wet paste- 

 boards, and subjecting them in this way for an hour, to a mild 



1 Momu = to rub, to make soft ; dai = table. 



