430 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



Incrusting, or incrustation, Is the name given in art industry to 

 the decoration inlaid in the surface or crust of an article. Thus, 

 intarsia work, enamelling and damascening are all varieties of in- 

 crustation. 



Plating, Jap. Kin-kise and Gin-kise. The covering of a common 

 metal with gold or silver in sheet form, where the precious metal 

 is made fast to the foundation by hammering, pressing or rolling, 

 is called by this name. The inside of the copper-box (fig. i6) 

 was silvered by plating. 



The last chapter of this section will give all necessary details 

 concerning the metal decorations of the Japanese by means of 

 enamel (Shippo), i.e. opaque coloured glassy flux, while the equally 

 important subject of patina-work or of colouring (Iro-tsuke) will be 

 explained in the section concerning bronze work. 



Iron, Tetsu or Kurogane. 



The consumption of iron of all kinds has grown so enormously 

 since the opening of Japan, that the home production has not been 

 able to keep pace with it, and the average yearly importation, since 

 1868, mounts up to nearly two millions of yen. But even in earlier 

 times, during the long rule of the Tokugawa, the iron produced in 

 the country itself did not suffice for the demand, so that China and 

 Holland were obliged to contribute to its supply. 



The Japanese smithing has been developed chiefly in making 

 weapons and armour, also in casting and decorating cast-iron water 

 kettles, whereas its accomplishments (apart from the hardening of 

 steel) in the manufacture of all those little tools and utensils used 

 in daily life and handicraft, cannot be very highly valued. 



Among the nations of Eastern Asia the Japanese were known 

 as skilful workers of iron, which their celebrated Katana-kaji, or 

 armourers, transformed into famous weapons of excellent steel. 

 They produced swords by which one could cut through iron nails 

 without nicking the blades in the slightest. These swords were as 

 celebrated in Eastern Asia during the Middle Ages as those of 

 Indian steel, crtSepo? "IvScko^ (Arrian), and the polished weapons 

 made out of this material in the Persian Empire of former times.^ 

 Magnetic iron, in the form of ferruginous sand, was the raw 

 material in both cases. Its reduction is carried on even now in 

 Japan, in small smelting furnaces with charcoal, occupying three 



of this exist in many collections of Roman antiquities. I remember, for in- 

 stance, one — a Roman sword, inlaid with silver, at the Museum at Mayence, 

 that was found in the Rhine. 



^ On the plateau of the Deccan, especially in Hyderabad near Dundurti and 

 eastward from Nimal, magnetic iron was obtained, from which the Indian steel 

 was made which furnished the celebrated Indian and Persian cut and thrust 

 weapons, as well as the Damascus blades. 



