SPECIAL SUBJECTS
shunkei (reddish-yellow) lacquer; yegoma oil and cinnabar for shu-uruishi (red lacquer); acetous protoxide of iron for ro-iro-urushi (mirror-black lacquer); dust of gold or silver for kin-iro (golden) or gin-iro (silver) lacquer; and so on. The preparation of the lac up to this stage is the function of a special class of workmen, whose task ends when the liquid is ready for use.
Passing now to the duties of the nuri-mono-shi or lacquerer, let it be supposed that the object to be lacquered is a box made of hi-no-ki (Retinispora obtusa), a white pine, which, owing to its fine grain and freedom from knots and resin, is considered specially suitable. The box having emerged from the hands of a skilled joiner, its walls are as thin as paper and its parts beautifully fitted. The lacquerer's first task is to apply a lute, called kokuso, which consists of rice-paste and lac mixed with fine cotton wadding. This he pastes with a pointed spatula over all lines of joining, wooden pin heads, knots, or other imperfections, having previously pared down these places with a knife. Next he spreads a thin coat of lac-sizing over the whole surface, the object being to solidify the latter by filling up the natural pores of the wood as well as all accidental fissures. Then follows another operation of luting, the putty used being compounded of ground pottery, rice-paste, and lacquer. Each of these processes is separated by an interval long enough to thoroughly dry the lacquer. After the second operation of luting, the surface is burnished to perfect smoothness by means of a special kind of sandstone. The next process is one of the most important. The whole object is covered with a layer of Japanese paper—the long-fibred variety known as mino-gami—or of
351
