INVESTIGATION OF JAPANESE LAQUOR. 251 



to be tapped without any injury to the tree itself; and after 

 three or four years more, in the districts where from its 

 seeds the manufacture of candles is not carried out, it is cut 

 do^ATi, and from the entire tree the whole of the " urushi " 

 is extracted ; hence we never meet with any large trees in 

 these districts. In the provinces of Aidsu and Youezawa, 

 where the manufacture of candles from its seeds is the 

 principal production, the trees themselves are never cut, and 

 cutting them was prohibited by the authorities in feudal 

 times, so that even nowadays many trees are as high as 30- 

 35 feet. 



How to obtain the Juice " Urushi.'' 

 The tapping of the juice is conducted from the end of 

 April to the end of November. For this purpose a num- 

 ber of incisions are made in the bark, which just reach 

 the wood; the sap immediately runs out, which, coming in 

 contact with air, is blackened on the surface, and forms in 

 time a hard crust. 



These incisions are made at first about 36 centimetres 

 distant from one another, on the alternate sides of the 

 trunk ; and the sap is collected by means of a bamboo or 

 iron spatula. 



After about four days new incisions are made above and 

 below the former cuttings, and the sap is collected by a 

 spatula as before. Similar operations are conducted until 

 the end of the due season, when the whole tree is 

 covered with a number of cuttings, and (in the districts 

 where only sap is obtained and candles are not manufac- 

 tured from its seeds) is cut down. The branches from 

 trees which are cut down are made into pieces of about 

 2'5 feet, and made into fagots, and soaked under water 

 from ten to twenty days ; they are then taken out, and the 

 incisions are made by means of a certain kind of knife, and 

 the juice is collected. This is the way by which juice is 



