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280
Notices of Japun, No. 1X.
MAY,
before the Japanese pictures passed into the engraver's hands; a suspicion cer tainly not weakened by the inspection of the Japanese rooms in the Royal Museum at the Hague, where we are told to seek the best specimens of every description that can be smuggled into Dezima and on ship-board.*
The Japanese are unacquainted with oil-painting, but skillful in the manage. ment of water-colors. These they prepare from minerals and vegetables, obtain. ing tints far more brilliant and beautiful than ours.
Prints they have in abundance, but only wood-cuts. The art of engraving up. on copper has, however, been recently introduced amongst them, and adopted with an eagerness which promises well for its cultivation.
Of the art of sculpture, no trace appears in any of the authors, beyond the oc- casional mention of a little ornamental carving; but we are told that the Japanese have attained as much excellence in casting as is compatible with utter disregard of proportions. They are said to cast handsome vases and images, and their bells are remarkable for the beauty of the bas-reliefs that adorn them. These bells have no metallic tongues, but are sounded by striking them externally with wood. Of architecture, as an art, no idea exists in this country. Of military engineer. ing and navigation, as sciences, the Japanese are also ignorant, though they have the compass, and probably also possess such knowledge of military tactics as is sufficient for their purpose.
1
Of the lacker-work, known in this country as Japan, all the writers assert that no adequate idea can be conceived from the specimens commonly seen in Europe. What is really fine cannot be purchased by foreigners; and the best ever obtained by the members of the factory are received as presents from their Japanese friends. These are mostly deposited in the Royal Museum at the Hague; and although esteemed at home scarcely second-rate, are so really superior to the ordinary Japan, that no opinion should be given upon the beauty of the art, with- out having inspected that collection.
The whole process of lackering is extremely slow. The varnish, which is the resinous produce of a shrub called urusi no ki, or 'varnish plant,' requires a tedious preparation to fit it for use. It is tinted by slow and long-continued rubbing upon a copper-plate with the coloring material; and the operation of lackering is as tedious as its preliminaries. Five different coats, at the very least, are successive- ly applied, suffered to dry, and then ground down with a fine stone or a reed; † and it is only by this patient labor that the varnish acquires its excellence. The brilliant mother-of-pearl figures consist of layers of shell, cut and fashioned to the shape required, and colored at the back; then laid into the varnish, and subject- ed to the same coating and grinding process as the rest, whence they derive their glittering splendor.
The Japanese do not understand cutting precious stones, and therefore set no value upon them, which may account for the want of jewellery in the dress of both
*
Dr. Von Siebold's Japanese museum is said to be richer and superior to the Japanese rooms in the Royal Museum. It has very recently been purchased by the Dutch government to add to their museum at the Hague.
+ Grinding with a reed, or rush, sounds strange; but Fisher's words, "Met enn fignen steen of bies afgeslepen," admit of no other interpretation, the diction- ary affording no other signification of bies than 'rush,' or 'reed.' If we suppose the warehouse-master, or the interpreter through whom he obtained his informa. tion, to have included bamboo in the genus reed, the difficulty would be much lessened.