414 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



Oil-paper and Water-proof Cloaks. 

 {Japanese : Abiira-gami and Toyu.) 



The oiling of certain Japanese papers is intended either to make 

 them transparent, e.g., for lanterns, or as a protection against water, 

 as for umbrellas and the regular oil and leather-paper. The Yego- 

 mano-abura (see p. 155) is always used for this purpose, while the 

 paper employed is a stout Broussonetia paper; in Niigata, ^.^., the 

 Senka from Oyachi, in Tokio a similar one from Tosa and lyo. 

 In the first-named place the sheets are pasted together by rolling 

 and kneading before they are made soft, and in the latter after this 

 is done. In Tokio it has been the custom to make the paper 

 pliant by means of the crape process (see Fig. 14). The gluing 

 together of the sheets is done with a mixture of paste made from 

 the flour of the common brake (p. 6^) and Shibu (p. 183). After 

 the sheets are glued together to form large pieces, made soft, and 

 again smoothed out with the hands, they are painted with a broad 

 brush on one side with a mixture of lampblack (Matsu-susu) and 

 Shibu, and then laid in the sun to dry. This takes at least five 

 days. Then follows a coating of Yegoma-no-abura (Perilla oil) 

 mixed with Shibu, another drying, and a new coat of this cold 

 mixture, the oil of which must have been previously boiled, and at 

 last the final drying. The entire process takes at least 15 days in 

 good weather. Lampblack, of course, is only used for black oiled 

 paper and waterproof cloaks ; for lighter varieties, gamboge or 

 some other light colour is used. 



These oil papers cannot compete in Europe with oil-cloth and 

 india-rubber textures, as they are far inferior in appearance and 

 durability. Their manufacture in Japan does not date back much 

 before the opening of the country. In earlier times people wore 

 common coarse cloaks or mats of rushes and grass, e.g., Mino 

 (page 172), as a protection from rain. 



To protect the head from rain and sun the Japanese began very 

 early not only to wear large hats made of willow and other 

 materials, but also to make clumsy paper umbrellas and parasols, 

 which were in general use. But the oiled Karakasa could not 

 be used in the sun, nor the unoiled parasol (Hi-gasa) in the rain, 

 therefore the quick acceptance of the European silk umbrella 

 by the well-to-do classes is easy to understand, as these were not 

 only lighter and handier, but had the preference, especially in that 

 they could be used " en tous cas " in every sense of this expression. 

 It was very much the same with hats. In fact, fifteen years ago the 

 felt hat and silk or cotton umbrella were the foreign articles (now 

 they are manufactured in the country in sufficient quantity and 

 quality) which, next to the petroleum lamp, had pushed farthest 

 into the interior of the country. Soon there will be no more 



