412 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



province of Ise also furnishes a considerable quantity, as I myself 

 can testify of the towns Matsuzaka, Inagi, Omada, and Tamura in 

 the vicinity of Yamada. The same may be said also of Harima 

 and Mita. 6taka-, Jidzuki- or Jumonji-gamia, strong Broussonetia 

 papers, are used in manufacturing it. In Tokio the process is 

 in essentials as follows : 



1. The paper is spread out on a board so that the smooth side 

 lies upward. It is coated by means of a broad hair brush with a 

 thin rice-paste to which lampblack has been added, and then hung 

 on horizontal poles to dry, which takes from one to two days. 



2. It is generally twilled by the process given on page 408, 

 during which the sheets shrink considerably in both directions. 



3. Then follows a coating of Yegoma-no-abura on the same 

 side, and a thorough drying in the sun, occupying from 5 to 20 

 days, according to the time of year. 



4. Upon this follows a coat of paste-solution in which is mixed 

 the dye which the leather-paper is to receive (red oxide of iron, 

 orpiment, indigo, india-ink, or a mixture of such colours). 



5. After the paper is dry again it is impregnated with lacquer, 

 using Se-shime-urushi for light colours and Hana-urushi for black. 

 Two workmen sit opposite each other, smear their hands with 

 lacquer, and beat them quickly on the sheet spread out between 

 them. Then drying takes place, the sheet being spread out on a 

 frame covered with paper. 



6. If the leather-paper is to be figured, carved wooden moulds 

 are pressed in at the close of the crape-process, and the different 

 colours are put on through paper stencil plates. A metallic re- 

 flecting surface is obtained after the figures are made by fixing 

 bronze powder with lacquer, and polishing when dry. 



There are leather-papers also which contain no lacquer, but are 

 dried in the smoke of a fire of rice straw, and then rubbed. A 

 quite peculiar leather-paper, resembling parchment, is the semi- 

 transparent Yogan-gami, whose method of manufacture I was 

 unable to learn. The Englishman Gaine some years ago de- 

 scribed a process (the product was investigated by Prof Hofmann) 

 whereby he transformed paper into a kind of parchment by dipping 

 it for a few seconds in sulphuric acid reduced one-half with water. 

 But sulphuric acid can scarcely be concerned in the manufacture 

 of Yogan-gami, as it was not known in Japan in former times. 



Paper-fabric, or Shi-fu.^ 



The word Shi-fu in Japan is the name of a peculiar fabric which 

 is now manufactured only in Shiroishi, a small town on the Oshiu- 

 kaido, 13 ri south of the city of Sendai. The warp consists of silk 



^ Shi = Kami, paper; Fu = Ori-mono, fabric; as in Basho-fu, Manilla-hemp 

 fabrics ; Kudzu-fu, fabrics made of Pueraria Thunbergiana. 



