IVOOn, IVORY, AND BONE CARVING, ETC. 



421 



other favourite flowers. The wood ornaments on the portal of the 

 Higashi Hon-gwan-ji, the metropolis of the eastern branch of the 

 Monto sect at Asakusa in Tokio, are admirably beautiful and care- 

 fully executed, consisting of the leaves of flowers of the paeony 

 and chrysanthemum. Besides these, the Japanese armorial ani- 

 mals are often carved in wood with great skill and artistic force. 

 Europeans in modern times have done much to promote this 

 branch of industry by ordering hunting, and other animal pieces, 

 to hang in dining rooms. 



ZOGE-NO-HORI-MONO, OR IVORY CARVING.^ 



The ivory work of Canton, e.£: the ornamental balls of open 

 work one within the other, and many landscapes, stand unrivalled 

 as evidences of surprising skill combined with astonishing patience 

 and perseverance. But many Japanese works of this description, 

 especially their Netsukes (Z6ge-no-netsuke) show a much more 

 developed artistic talent. Kioto, which in former times was the 

 chief seat of ivory carving, has been long surpassed by Tokio, which 

 furnishes besides Netsukes, jewel cabinets for ladies, chests and 

 boxes, card cases, chessmen, buttons, brooches, and many other 

 articles, partly for the domestic market but mostly for foreign 

 countries. The articles are in general made with extraordinary 

 care, and ornamented, not only by engraving and carving, but often 

 by well designed lacquer-work besides. On the other hand, ivory, 

 like mother of pearl, is inlaid in fine lacquered articles. 



Connected closely with this work is that of Hone, or bone carving, 

 for- which the thigh bone only of the larger domestic anim-als is 

 used. But owing to the limitations of the material, in view of its 

 smaller size and more difficult working, and its much inferior ap- 

 pearance to that of ivory, it plays but a modest part in Japanese 

 industry and is very little used for Netsukes. Those many small 

 articles which with us are turned by the lathe out of bone, are 

 either not used, or some other material is employed in making 

 them. Agriculture and the branches of chemical industry have up 

 to this time made even less use of bones. 



Bekko-zaiku, tortoise-shell work and its horn ornamentations, 

 are executed mainly in Nagasaki and Osaka. The two substances 

 here regarded are closely related in quality and in the purposes 

 which they serve. Both are made soft by warm water and also by 

 dry heat, and are then easily stretched and bent, pressed and 

 formed, split apart and welded together, properties on which the 

 art of working them up is founded. 



Bekko, tortoise-shdl, comes principally from Chelonia imbricata^ 

 L., the genuine loggerhead turtle, which is found in all tropical 

 seas, but especially in the Malay Archipelago and Indian Ocean. 

 Singapore in Asia, and London in Europe, are the principal mar- 



^ Zoge = ivory ; hori = to dig, to carve ; mono = work. 



