September, 1917 
23 
The box is a favorite 
object of the lac- 
querer’s art. This 
shows butterflies 
against a gold back¬ 
ground 
pean interest in collecting lacquer at the time. 
In recent years Canton and Foochou have 
been centers for the manufacture of painted 
lacquer, called hua ch’i, and Peking and Soo- 
chou for carved lacquer, or tiao ch’i. How¬ 
ever, the collector must not look for any pieces 
of finest quality in the tiao ch’i since the reign 
of Ch’ien Lung, who lent carved lacquer-work 
his wannest approbation. Bushnell tells us 
that the /Arabian traveller, Ibn Batuta, who was 
in Canton about the year 1345, made notice 
of the excellence of the lacquer-work he found 
there at that time. That of Foochou is de¬ 
scribed in the words of M. Paleologue as “most 
seductive to the eye from the purity of its 
substance, the perfect evenness of its varnished 
coat, the lustrous or deep intensity of its shades 
and the power of its reliefs, the breadth of the 
composition and the harmonious tones of the 
gold grounds and painted brush work.” 
Japanese Lacquers 
Of late years the collecting of 
the lacquers of Japan has 
engaged many of the most en¬ 
thusiastic and discriminating 
connoisseurs and there are 
many public, as well as private, 
collections of lacquer objects in 
America. The late Mr. E. Gil¬ 
bertson, an English authority of 
renown, had the following to 
say in reference to the most im¬ 
portant and extensive class of 
Japanese lacquers, the inro —■ 
those little cases used for medi¬ 
cines and seal boxes indispens¬ 
able to every Japanese gentle¬ 
man’s attire, carried, attached 
by a silken cord to an elaborate 
button of large size, or netsuke, 
and hung through the sash: “If 
a collector is compelled, for want 
of space, or from any similar 
reason, to confine himself to one 
particular class of Japanese Art 
work, he cannot do better than 
select the inro as the most de¬ 
sirable object. If the netsuke 
which were attached to them are 
added, there is no question as to 
what his choice should be. As illustrations of 
the history, mythology, and folk-lore of the 
country they are hardly so rich as the metal¬ 
work, or the netsuke; but, as regards that ex¬ 
tremely interesting branch of Japanese Art— 
the branch in which they stand and have always 
stood absolutely supreme—the art of working 
in lacquer, the inro is of surpassing value. It 
is there one must look for the most perfect 
examples of lacquer work of every description. 
Not that the larger works, such as writing 
boxes, perfume boxes, etc., do not afford equally 
fine examples of the work of the great artists— 
finer, indeed, from a pictorial point of view, 
because of the larger spaces available; but in 
the inro one often finds a treatment of the sub¬ 
ject and of the material that would be inap¬ 
plicable to the larger surface. The very limit 
of space and the form in the inro often bring 
out the artistic knowledge of the designer— 
very frequently the executant at the same time 
—in a most remarkable manner. Wonderful 
harmony both of color and composition are 
often combined with a minuteness of detail 
that makes one wonder what sort of eyes and 
hands the lacquerers possessed.” 
Of the varieties of Japanese lacquer one 
may make mention of the nashiji, generally 
known to western collectors as avanturine, so 
named by Europeans from its resemblance to 
The jewel case, built 
in sections that fit 
one into the other, 
was skillfully lac¬ 
quered with an all- 
over design 
avanturine Venetian glass. When kirikane 
(torn gold leaf) is employed the lacquer is 
called Giobunashiji. The Togidashi lacquer 
is that where the pattern is produced by grind¬ 
ing and polishing, revealing the gold ground. 
Hiramakiye is the Japanese term used for all 
those lacquers which have design not raised 
above the surface more than the thickness of 
the lines that trace it. Then there is to be 
found a combination of the flat-gold lacquer 
with the relief-gold lacquer. “Low relief,” 
says Huish, “is accomplished by dusting the 
design in wet lacquer with fine camellia char¬ 
coal powder; for high relief sabi (a mixture 
of burnt clay and lac varnish) is used; both 
when dry undergo various polishings and 
grindings.” The red Japanese lacquer is 
known by the native name of tsuishu, and the 
black lacquer is called tsuikoku, those in which 
the design is carved out of the lacquer formed 
of superimposed layers which 
are exposed by the incisions of 
the graver are called guri. The 
chinkinbori lacquer, in imitation 
of the Chinese lacquer, is a sort 
of patterned lacquer, the design 
of which is produced with a rat- 
tooth graver and the incision 
filled up with gold. 
The Japanese Artists 
I do not know of any recog¬ 
nizable work of a Japanese 
lacquerer antedating that of 
Honnami Koyetsu (1556-1637). 
Koma Kiuhaka who died in 
1715 was another lacquerer of 
great distinction, the founder, in 
fact, of a “school.” Bunsai, 
Koriu, Yastuda and Yasunari 
were brilliant followers. Koriu 
(1661-1716) was the most 
famous lacquerer Japan has 
ever produced. It was he who 
first used to any extent in Jap¬ 
anese lacquer mother-of-pearl 
and pewter ornament in combi¬ 
nation with the decoration. 
Collectors will find few sig¬ 
natures on pieces of lacquer; the 
work itself will be the guide. 
One might accuse Gauguin or Matisse of this, but, in fact, 
it is a panel from a Chinese lacquer screen—a quaint 18 th 
Century forecast of futurism! 
A shallow Japanese bowl 
with the imperial flower in 
dull and greenish gold on 
a vermilion ground 
A perfect bit of early 19 th 
Century Japanese lacquer, 
a willow tree in gold on a 
black ground 
Dragon flies are in the 
solid panel and grasses in 
the open fan-shaped deco¬ 
ration of this bowl 
The unusual composition 
of the decoration on such 
a Japanese lacquer piece 
gives it added interest 
