ENAMEL INDUSTRY. 



495 



holes. They appear almost as a necessary attribute of the entire 

 character of the work. 



The burning in of the enamel colour is accomplished in a 

 manner similar to that of the colours on clay-ware, in a simple 

 apparatus not very well suited to the purpose, which may be 

 described as a muffle without a furnace. Fig. 20 g-ives an illustra- 

 tion of such a one as was used at Awata in Kioto some fifteen 

 years ago. The muffle is made of Kawarake, or brick-paste. Its 

 size depends on that of the objects to be enamelled. In this case 

 it was only 15 J Japanese inches (50 centimeters) high, and \2\ 

 inches (38 centimeters) broad. The hole in the cover, 5 or 6 

 centimeters wide, is used for testing. The muffle usually admits 

 only one article decorated with enamel colours. There are no 

 special conditions in regard to fuel ; charcoal or carbonized wood 

 is placed around the muffle, and heaped up 

 to the top, and then kept tight together with 

 iron wire. The cover is put on with a long 

 pair of tongs when the flames have reached 

 the upper edge. The fire is generally kept 

 up for two hours, and removed quickly as 

 soon as the test shows a perfect fusing of 

 the enamel colours. The cover, however, for 

 reasons easily understood, must not be taken 

 off till after a sufficient cooling. 



The same substances which are used for 

 the purpose in the lacquer industry serve for 

 rubbing and polishing the cell enamel-work, 

 viz., coarse and fine sandstone, slate, and 

 magnolia charcoal, after the second, third, or 

 fourth burning, with ashes of hartshorn and 

 rape oil for polishing.^ 



Substantially the same process is followed 

 in the manufacture of Toki-shippo, or email 

 cloisonne on porcelain, in Nagoya and Kioto, and of Awata- 

 shippo or on Awata-yaki in Kioto, as in Shippo-yaki. Those 

 parts of the clay-wares under consideration which are to be 

 decorated with cloisonne enamel must remain unglazed. The 

 others are treated in the usual way, i.e. with strong fire colours 

 under glaze and with muffle colours on the glaze. When this is 

 done, the net of brass cells, i.e. the contour of the leaves, flowers, 

 and fruits, of animals, and the other several constituent parts of 

 the meander and other figures — in short, of all the single elements 



i,_J'&c^yoQ<yo<i<i€x:xyG<^c>f'>' 



Fig. 20. — MUFFLE FOR 



BURNING IN OF ENAMEL 



COLOURS. 



^ The order in which the above-mentioned polishing materials are usually 

 employed is as follows : i. Ara-to, a coarse-grained grey sandstone from 

 Shinano ; 2. lyo-to, a sandstone from lyo ; 3. Omura-do, a fine-grained white 

 sandstone from Omura in Hizen ; 4. Joken-ji, a yellowish clay sandstone ; 5. 

 Tsu-shima-ishi, a slate whetstone from the island of Tsu ; 6. H6-no-ai-sumi, 

 magnolia charcoal. 



