WOOD, IVORY, AND BONE CARVING, ETC. 425 



Beautiful little tufts of hair-like amianth are often found in Japan- 

 ese rock crystals. These are then called Kusa-iri-sui-sho, i.e. 

 grass-holding crystals, and the tuft of earth-flax itself is called 

 Kusa, grass, designations occasioned by the form and colour of the 

 enclosure ; for these resemble strongly tufts of grass which have 

 been enclosed by clear ice. 



Murasaki-sui-sho, i.e. violet rock crystal, or amethyst, is seldom 

 found in Japan of so great beauty as to warrant its use as 

 an inferior precious stone. Cha-sui-sho, i.e. tea-coloured rock 

 crystal (smoked topaz), appears very often. The Japanese rock 

 crystal excels the Chinese in clearness and transparency. It is 

 found in many provinces, but Koshiu with the Kimpuzan, Mii-take, 

 Komaga-take and other mountains have an old reputation as the 

 chief depositories. Sui-sho, and Amabata-ishi belong, like grapes, 

 to the Mei-butsu or celebrated products of Koshiu. 



Garnet-sand (Almandin) is used for polishing Japanese precious 

 stones (rock crystal and agate), also spectacles. It is found 

 in several places in Japan, but especially in a long extended 

 mountain ridge, the Kongo-san in the province of Kawachi near 

 the boundary of Yamato.^ This reddish brown garnet bears the 

 name Kongo-sha, i.e. " very hard sand," or " diamond sand," and 

 comes in the form of little round grains, which under the micro- 

 scope show more or less distinctly the garnet structure. It is 

 brought to market by way of Osaka. 



In Kofu, the capital of the province of Koshiu or Kai, I found in 

 the autumn of 1874, two establishments for polishing rock crystals. 

 Most of these, however, are said - (according to A. Schenck) to 

 be at the foot of the Mii-take at Kurobara, a day's journey farther 

 north. The apparatus for polishing in Kofu was of a primitive, 

 simple kind. Bent and hardened iron rods in the shape of longi- 

 tudinal sections of hollow cylinders, together with garnet-sand and 

 water, served for polishing the balls. The garnet-sand and water 

 were spread over the iron spout, and the piece of rock crystal 

 was rubbed backwards and forwards in it. The garnet-sand was 

 separated into seven kinds according to the fineness, by sieves. The 

 polishing began naturally with the employment of the coarsest, and 

 finished with the finest sand. 



Meno or Meno-seki, the agate, is the best known of the other 

 precious stones of the quartz family, and is polished in the same 

 manner as the rock crystal. I have not seen these in the places 

 where they are found and polished. Lyman, on the other hand, 

 mentioned such at Oniu in Echiu, Tamatsukuri and Yumachi 

 in Idzumo. He found in both the last-named places, agate. 



^ The Orographical and Hydrographical map in the first volume of this work 

 gives the situation of the Kongo-san westward from the Yoshino-gawa. 



- " Reise von Kofu nach den Quarz- und Bergkrystallgruben bei Kurobara." 

 " Mittheilungen der deutschen gesellschaft Ostasiens," 8 Heft. Yokohama, 1875. 



