Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/619

AET.] JAPAN 591 face, often enclosing them In irregular-shaped compartments, fitting into each other or detached according to the fancy of the artist and the shape of the object ornamented. The same kind of orna mentation and decorative art is carried out in their woodwork, as may constantly be seen in their cabinets of rnarquetrie and inlaid boxes. Their predilection for geometrical forms is best to be seen in their great variety of diapers. Nor must their floral diapers be overlooked, consisting as they do of an almost infinite variety for covering whole surfaces, in which flowers and foliage form the material. In the spaces of decoration as in all else, the Japanese artist studiously avoids uni formity or repetition of exact spacing. He repeats, but with the greatest irregularity possible, to disguise as it were the repetition of what is in effect the same design or pattern. In close connexion with the diaper system of ornamentation is that known as powder ing, familiar enough in Euiopean art ; but in Japan, following the principle of irregularity, the decorator avoids any regular distribu tion of the design adopted. Lastly, there is a style of ornamentation peculiarly Japanese which consists in the use of medallions grouped or scattered over a surface of various colours and forms and filled in with different diapers, the whole producing an effect as pleasing as it was novel when first introduced to European eyes. And in this treatment of medallion powdering may best be seen the triumph of this system for the avoidance of uniformity and diametrical division. The medallions being of definite forms, and usually geometrical in outline, the ingenuity displayed in overcoming the , difficulty such forms present is very instructive. They are placed either singly or in groups in the latter ease partially, overlapping, and of different outlines in different colours, and filled in with various diapers, the whole being irregularly distributed over the surface in such a way as to avoid diametrical division or uniformity of any kind. This applies to the finer specimens of the work, where all the principles of surface ornamentation and design adopted by the Japanese may be seen in their greatest perfection. But lacquer is the common ware for domestic use, almost as common as pottery and earthenware are in Europe. Cups and saucers, trays and sake bottles, medicine boxes and dishes, are in the poorest houses ; and so excellent is the varnish that neither boiling water nor oil will affect the surface. In the finer and older specimens this hardness increases with age, so that some of them can with difficulty be scratched with pin or needle. The value of such specimens, first introduced into England at the London exhibition of 1862, has now been fully recognized, and the cost of the best and oldest lacquer, always high, has greatly increased of late years. Dr Dresser mentioned in a recent lecture a box of about six inches square, for which he was asked in Japan 100, and he was told that in Yedo (now Tokio) fine specimens were bringing their weight in gold." In the Paris exhibition of 1878 there was a large lacquer screen of great beauty valued at 65,000 francs. It, how ever, was modern, and, with all its beauty, was over-priced. The Japanese also, besides applying lacquer with colours on porcelain, possess in rare perfection the art of lacquering on tortoiseshell and ivory. On these they present minute figures and land scapes with a mixture of gilding and rich colours, sometimes in relief, at other times engraved and sunk, and in this manner they ornament miniature cabinets, jewel boxes, and other quaintly formed miniature boxes, medicine cases, &c. , in a way to defy com petition in their marvellous beauty and delicacy of execution. ils Metals and Bronzes. In all manipulations of metals and amal gams the Japanese are great masters. They not only "are in pos- ze. session of secret processes unknown to workmen in Europe," by which they produce effects beyond the reach of the latter, but show a mastery of their material in the moulding and designing of their productions which imparts a peculiar freedom and grace to their best work. A lotus leaf and flower and seed-pod they will produce with inimitable fidelity in the subtle curves and undulating lines and surfaces, and in the most minute markings of leaf and flower. So birds and fishes and insects cast in bronze seem instinct with life, so true are they to nature, while at other times the same objects are adopted for a purely conventional mode of treatment. Their in laying and overlaying of metals, bronze, silver, and steel, more than rival the best productions of the ateliers of Paris or Berlin, and constitute a special art-industry, with some features of finish and excellence not yet attained in Europe. ud6. Of the metallurgic triumphs of art which the Japanese may justly claim over all competitors, Chinese, Indian, or European, perhaps the greatest is the perfection to which they have brought the designs in "shakudo," an amalgam of which are usually made the brooches or buttons used to fasten their tobacco pouches and pocket-books, or to ornament the handles of their swords. Shakudo is chiefly of iron, relieved by partial overlaying of gold, silver, and bronze. One of the jurors (the late Mr Hunt) of the London exhibition of 1862, an employer of the highest artistic and mechani cal skill in the working of the precious metals, was convinced, as he stated in his report to the commissioners, that "the Japanese were in possession of some means not known in Europe of forming amal gams, and of overlaying one metal on another, and in the most minute and delicate details introducing into the same subject, not covering an inch, silver, gold, bronze, &e. , so as to make a variegated picture of divers colours." Cloisonne, Champleve, and Repousse Work. In the varied appli- Cloi- cations of the art of enamelling, the Japanese have run their great sonne rivals in cloisonne work very close, although upon the whole the work. Chinese have the superiority, their colouring being more brilliant and finely toned in harmony, and their work more solid and satis factory both to the eye and the touch. A dull and sombre tone is generally adopted in Japanese cloisonne work, which much impairs the beauty of their good workmanship in its general effect. The mode of producing cloisonne work has often been described. It derives this name from the process of building up the design in cells formed by raised septa varying from ^ to ^ of an inch in depth ; these labyrinthine cells forming elaborate patterns of flowers, diapers, frets, &c., are soldered on the surface of the vases selected, made generally of copper ; and into these cells the enamel of the consistence of oil paints and of the various colours required by the pattern is carefully pressed by a wooden spatula. When com plete the piece is placed in a primitive kind of oven or "njuffle," where it is fired with a regulated heat until the paste is fused and con verted into a vitreous substance, when it is allowed very gradually to cool. This is a process which, however primitively conducted, as most things are both in China and Japan, and with very simple tools and rude contrivances, is nevertheless one which requires to be watched with the greatest care and judgment. Too much heat would injure the colours, and might fuse the septa or the copper foundation, in which case the whole vessel would become misshapen, or clouded in colour and otherwise marred and rendered worthless. Apart from the risky nature of the process, the enamel colours are very valuable, and the artistic labour required in the pattern and manipulation is too great to allow cloisonne articles to become otherwise than costly even in China or Japan. And as to their reproduction in Europe, or any rivalry there, M. Christophile of Paris is understood to have devoted much time and money for the attainment of this object, and succeeded in producing some very beautiful specimens which were exhibited at one of the international exhibitions in London ; but the production proved too costly to pay as a matter of business. A good deal has been manufactured in China of late years, it is true, to meet a somewhat indiscriminating demand for articles in such great request. That these modern productions should be inferior to the older work, pro duced in a much more leisurely way, and for temples or palaces rather than for sale in open market, will be readily understood. The arts of champleve and repousse are not unknown to the Japanese, but both are less practised than the other kinds of metal work above described. Of the latter Mr Mounsey, late secretary of legation in Japan, succeeded in finding and bringing away many very fine specimens in silver. Carving. A nation showing such artistic power in metals, and in Carving, more fictile material, such as clay, could not fail to excel in wood and ivory carving. Perhaps in no department are they better known, owing to the large number of "nitsuke," as the little ivory groups of figures are called, replete with life and humour, that are to be seen in a hundred shops in every capital. These in the days now rapidly passing away used to be employed as buttons, and were as much matters of costly fancy as seals and rings or brooches with us. Whether they take wood or ivory for their material, the result is equally admirable. There are nitsuke and nitsuke, however, as there are artists and artists. Many of the nitsuke that have been imported into Europe in vast quantities of late years are but poor specimens of the Japanese carver s skill, fancy, and invention. Wall Papers. There is a great field for the display of their origin- Wall ality and love of variety in the wall papers, which are much used papers, to ornament their walls and screens. What has already been said of their decorative system and methods of surface ornamentation applies to their wall papers ; and the system itself is nowhere so severely tried, because something of mechanical reproduction is unavoidable. Whether stencilled or printed, the design of a single square must of necessity be the same in each. By what force of imagination and ingenuity they disguise the effect of exact repetition, and lead the , eye away from noticing the uniformity, can only be realized by inspection of the papers covering the walls of an apartment, and no description could supply a substitute. Suffice it to say that their art-principles triumph, even under this severe trial. Textile Fabrics and Embroidery. Of textile fabrics and em- Textile broideiy, in both of which they have developed an industry pecu- fabrics, liarly their own, something of the same kind may be said as of their wall papers. These fabrics have, however, been so familiarized in England by the eager adoption of the best and most novel in female costumes that their chief characteristics must be very generally known. It was the custom in former times for each daimio to have his private looms, for weaving the brocades which he himself and his wife and family required, and also the fabrics of less costly materials for his retainers. The robes manufactured for the court at Kioto and Yedo were in like manner only to be