Japan: Its History, Arts, and Literature/Volume 7/Appendix
Appendix
Appendix
Note 1.—Lit., a "placed thing;" that is to say, an object of art, such as a vase or statue, serving merely for ornamental purposes.
Note 2.—Pronounced "Go Dashi," according to the Japanese sound of the same characters.
Note 3.—The greatest of these men whose names are household words in Japan, were Li Lung-yen (Japanese Ri Riumin), Ma Yuen (Japanese Bayen), Muh Ki (Japanese Mokkei), Hia Kwei (Japanese Ka-Kei), and Ngan Hwai (Japanese Ganki).
Note 4.—For detailed lists of Chinese artists of the Yuan (1260–1367), Min (1368–1646), and later eras the reader is recommended to consult Dr. Anderson's "Catalogue of Japanese and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum."
Note 5.—The prelate Kukai is recorded to have carried from China in the year 806 no less than thirty-six paintings of supernatural scenes as well as portraits of patriarchs, and other priests enriched their country to an almost equal extent in the same century.
Note 6.—Every collector knows these maki-mono, or pictorial scrolls. Sometimes the long series of pictures told their own tale, but generally the drawings served only to illustrate a chapter of history or legend written in their intervals or on their margins.
Note 7.—It will be observed that this record assigns to wood-engraving in Japan an antiquity nearly six hundred years greater than that attributable to the beginning of the art in Europe.
Note 8.—Dr. Anderson assigns 1700 as the time when colour-printing began in Japan, and Mr. S. Tuke has fixed the date at 1710. But the most exhaustive researches assign it to about 1740.
Note 9.—Literally "brocade picture," but the term nishiki (brocade) had long been used in Japan in the sense simply of "many-coloured." Another term originally applied to these pictures was suri-mono (print), but the name subsequently came to designate little single-sheet chromo-xylographs which were sent to friends at the New Year, and also black-and-white prints. Sheets in sequence—two, three, five, seven, or even twelve—which were first introduced by Torii Kiyonaga in 1775, are called tsuzuki-mono. Of nearly contemporaneous origin was the hashira-kakushi-ye (post-concealing picture), a long narrow chromo-xylograph; and to Katsukawa Shunsho (1789) is due the hoso-ye (slender picture), which often shows remarkably clever examples of designing.
Note 10.—Practically all knowledge hitherto collected of the sepulchral relics of Japan is due to the patient and scientific researches of Mr. W. Gowland, and to those of the late Baron Kanda and Professor Tsuboi of the Imperial Japanese University.
Note 11.—Similar moulds exist in Korea, a fact which helps to establish the theory of an industrial connection between Japan and that part of the Asiatic continent in early ages.
Note 12.—It is noteworthy that the mirrors of the ancient Greeks were exactly similar to those of China and Japan, with the exceptions that the Greeks did not use quicksilver and that their decorative designs were engraved.
Note 13.—It is interesting to compare these facts with the historical records on which the Japanese themselves have hitherto been accustomed to rely. Their oldest tradition tells that the Sun Goddess gave a mirror to her grandchild, bidding him worship it as her invisible soul no less fervently than he had previously worshipped her visible presence. There is not any serious attempt to state arithmetically the time when that event occurred, but it necessarily antedates the era of Japan's terrestrial sovereigns, and must therefore be referred to the seventh or eighth century before Christ. Yet Japanese archæologists speak of the art of metal casting as having been acquired from Korea in the first century before the Christian era, and even record the names of two Korean experts—Mai Jun and Sho Toku-haku—who came to Japan to teach the process. In other words, they represent the first exercise of the art as having taken place six or seven hundred years after its products had come into actual use. There is not any irreconcilable contradiction, of course. The Japanese historian may maintain that the mirror had been in his countrymen's possession and had been regarded by them as a rare and wonderful object, long before they understood the processes of its manufacture. But, as a matter of fact, he does not appear to have yet noticed the discrepancy between attested facts and the statements he advances.
Note 14.—Indra and Brama are generally coloured red and green, respectively.
Note 15.—It is significant that painting also was not applied to purposes of portraiture in Japan. A few artists made portraits of themselves, but the professional portrait-painter had no existence.
Note 16.—These zushi have been carried away in great numbers to form articles of decorative furniture in foreign houses, for which purpose they are now expressly manufactured. It is a fancy which to Japanese eyes appears as incongruous as the use of a reredos for an over-mantle or of a monstrance for an epergne would seem to Occidentals.
Note 17.—Gowland, in the "Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry," Vol. XIII.
Note 18.—A vase, a censer, and a pricket-candlestick formed a set, and were collectively called mitsu-gusoku, or "the three articles of furniture."
Note 19.—The credit of this success belongs to Signor Ragusa.
Note 20.—The method of applying the gold was to "lay it thickly over varnish composed of hone-powder and lacquer upon hempen cloth." (Satow.)
Note 21.—Shitan is a favourite wood in China and Japan. It is the material used by the Chinese for making reading-desks, book-cases, vase-stands, and many other objects of furniture or decoration. In its natural state its colour is red, but before it emerges from the workman's hands it is stained black, and under the friction of use it develops a beautiful glossy surface. It is hard, close-grained, and almost knotless, being thus specially adapted for carving.
Note 22.—This device has been utilised in recent years for making metal (silver or shibuichi) cases to contain match-boxes.
Note 23.—From about the year 1830 the use of huge tobacco-pouches obtained much vogue among the artisan classes. Generally these pouches had silver chains for attaching the netsuke, which was of the button (manju) variety and proportionately large. Sometimes the silver chains numbered as many as fifty, and to such an extent was this extravagance carried that a man wearing clothes worth ten yen would have a tobacco-pouch worth one hundred yen.
Note 24.—In families whose ancestors had the honour of serving the Tokugawa Court, there are preserved and treasured long rolls of brocade consisting entirely of tobacco-pouch covers sewed together. These serve primarily to illustrate the extraordinary variety and beauty of the stuffs used for covering pouches, and incidentally to record the long service of the families possessing them, for each pouch was a New Year's gift from the Shōgun.
Note 25.—The shima-dai itself is generally of pure white-pine, and the trees, crane, and tortoise which it supports are of silver and gold; but the figures of the old man and the old woman are invariably wood-carvings.
Note 26.—Such chiselling was called itto-bori, or "single-stroke carving."
Note 27.—Manufacturers of all small wooden objects were generically called himono-shi.
Note 28.—From the close of the seventeenth century, worshippers at the shrines of Sugi-no-Mori Jinja in Yedo fell into the habit of presenting an image of clay or wood on the occasion of making a vow or returning thanks to the deity. There were eight houses where these images were manufactured, and where, also, the puppets used in festival processions were modelled, the material employed for the latter being usually a variety of paper called mino-gami, which can be worked up to the consistency and strength of planking. The nature of these puppets will be apparent from the fact that the most remarkable among them were the Denshichi-migyo which had movable eyes. They derived their name from that of their maker, Takeoka Denkichi, who, in 1873, constructed with mino-gami an exact copy of the Kamakura Dai-Butsu for the Vienna Exhibition. The Takeoka family, now represented by Takeoka Gohei, were inspired by the example of Matsumoto Kisaburo to effect great improvements in the manufacture of these puppets.
Note 29.—This has been demonstrated by experiments conducted in Yezo by Professor H. S. Munroe, an American mining-engineer.
Note 30.—Reference may be made to two huge carp, about nine feet in height, which stand at either extremity of the roof-ridge of Nagoya Castle. According to popular belief they are made of pure gold, but they are in fact copper plated with the precious metal.
Note 31.—The gilding process is thus described by Mr. W. Gowland, formerly Assayer at the Imperial Japanese Mint, in one of a series of valuable essays read before the Society of Chemical Industry: "The object of copper or bronze to be gilded was immersed in vinegar made from the juice of unripe plums until a clean metallic surface was obtained. It was then washed with water and dried over a brazier, and mercury was applied to it while it was still warm. When the surface had thus been amalgamated, the gold was laid upon it in the form of leaves. A stronger heat was then applied, the mercury was volatilised, and the gold left perfectly adherent." Japanese accounts add that tonoko (freestone powder) was mixed with the mercury for application to the surface of the metal; that the process of plating was repeated two, three, and even four times, and that polishing with tonoko was finally resorted to. They also mention another method: the metal, having been boiled in lye, was carefully polished, first with charcoal and afterwards with emery powder, a brush of split bamboo (called sasara) being employed for the purpose. It was then immersed in plum-juice, afterwards covered with a mixture of mercury and gold-dust, and finally heated to volatilise the mercury. Polishing by friction with steel needles, and, if necessary, "colour-finishing" (iroage) were the final processes. These descriptions apply to silver plating also.
Note 32.—This statement indicates that refining processes of great efficiency were adopted in Japan. That is the case; and considerable interest attaches to the fact, for these processes seem to have been devised, in great part, by the Japanese themselves. Mr. W. Gowland says: "When gold was found to contain an undue proportion of silver, it was submitted to a curious process for the separation of the latter metal. It was first reduced to a coarse powder by heating it to near its melting-point and then rubbing it on an iron plate with a stone or iron rubber. The coarsely powdered gold was then mixed with common salt, and a certain proportion of clay, and piled up in the form of a cone on an earthen dish. The whole was then placed in a furnace containing charcoal fuel, and was kept at a red heat for at least twelve hours, by which means the silver was converted into chloride. The dish with its contents was then removed, washed with hot brine and water, the silver chloride was dissolved, and the gold left in a purified state." The test for silver was made with the touchstone, but the test for copper was effected by a method "unique in assaying operations." The metal was heated to redness over a charcoal fire, and when at the proper temperature, was rubbed with a stick of hinoki (the wood of the Thaya obtusa) and then immersed in water. The presence of copper and its approximate amount were determined by the colour and appearance presented by the part to which the stick of wood had been applied. So successful were the old operators in the application of this test that it is rare to find more than 0.25 to 0.35 per cent of copper in the old gold coins. If the test showed an excess of copper, it was removed by cupellation with lead.
Note 33.— In the case of gold this was effected by painting the object with a mixture of iron sulphate, copper sulphate, potassium nitrate, calcined sodium, chloride and resin, made into a paste with water. It was then carefully heated on a grating over a charcoal fire, subsequently immersed in a solution of common salt and then washed with water, the silver being dissolved out of the upper layer of the alloy and a surface of pure gold left (Gowland). In practice, the kinzokushi obtained his nitrate of potash by using gunpowder. In the case of silver, the following interesting account is given by Mr. Gowland: "When bars of debased silver (i.e. silver containing undue proportions of copper) were cast, a practice which unfortunately was not seldom followed, even in the old mints—especially for commercial bars—if the military rulers of the country were in need of money, a special mode of procedure was adopted. The silver was poured into canvas moulds, which were set in troughs of hot water, the reason for this being that the alloy contained so much copper that, if cast in the ordinary way, the bars would be coated with a black layer of oxide from the action of oxygen of the air on the copper, and this was difficult to remove. By placing the moulds under water this oxidation was prevented, and castings with a clear metallic surface were obtained. The bars were, however, of a coppery hue, and this required removal. They were therefore heated to redness over a charcoal fire, and then plunged into vinegar—made from the juice of unripe plums—containing common salt in solution. After digestion in this for some hours, they were washed with water and then boiled in plum vinegar without salt for one or more hours, when they were washed with boiling water and dried. By these operations the copper in the alloy was removed from the surface layers and a coating of pure silver left."
Note 34.—Professor Rein, in his great work "The Industries of Japan," describes the method adopted by the celebrated artist Gorosaburo of Kyōtō to produce a dark coffee-brown patina on copper and bronze: "Equal weights of green vitriol, copper vitriol, and sulphur are mixed with water. The copper article is then dipped in this bath, which must be often stirred on account of the finely distributed sulphur, and then rinsed in a second bath prepared in the same way but very much thinner. This process is repeated until the necessary corrosion is recognised by long practice. The vessel is then brought to the brazier and heated on an iron grate, whose bars are from eight to twelve centimeters distant from each other, and with frequent turning. In order not to endanger the soldering, these bars are sprinkled from time to time with water in which kariyasu (Calamagrostis hakonesis) has been boiled. The vessel is now rubbed with a cloth; then painted lightly with lacquer, rubbed again with the cloth, painted once more, and now heated until the sprinkled kariyasu water, rolling away in balls, indicates the amount of heat. The copper article is then taken from the grate with a pair of tongs and coated with a mixture of raw lac and lamp-black. It is then heated again up to the point where the water rolls away in balls, brushed over and painted anew with the lac mixture, and so on, till colour and lustre have the desired shade, whereupon the work is finished and the article is set aside for a second cooling."
Note 35.—In hōn-zōgan, or true inlaying, a distinction is made between hira-zōgan (flat inlaying), where the inlaying is level with the surface of the field, and takā-zōgan (relief inlaying), where the outlines of the inlaid design are in slight relief.
Note 36.—M. Gonse, in L'Art Japonais, dismisses the Goto family in a single paragraph, and sums up their style thus: Leurs décors sont monotones poncifs et d'un goût un peu chinois; leur invention est pauvre.
Note 37.—There are some misapprehensions among European collectors with regard to this part of the subject. Errors of date are seldom of much importance in such matters, but occasionally they are worth noticing when they affect the history of the art's development. Thus M. Gonse depicts, among the oldest guards to which he refers, one by Toshiharu (of Yedo), and assigns it to the end of the fifteenth century. But Toshiharu was one of the "Three Masters" of the Nara family, and worked in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. Again, M. Gonse puts Kaneiye at the close of the fourteenth century, whereas he flourished a hundred years later. He also shows a guard by Nagayoshi (of Yamashiro)—"incrusted with bronze and gold of different tones," having a design of monkeys and a vase of flowers—which, according to M. Gonse, shows plain evidence of Persian influence, and in that context the French critic explains that Namban-tetsu means "iron of Persia." Now this guard belongs to a comparatively modern class known in Japan as Heian-tsuba (guards of Heian), and justly condemned as most inferior specimens. They have no connection with any chapter of the art's history, but simply represent bad, vulgar workmanship. The design is borrowed from a Chinese picture. As for the term Namban-tetsu, it has nothing whatever to do with Persia, but was formerly applied to all iron imported from Occidental countries. The guard referred to by M. Gonse bears the date "1498," but that seems to be a capricious addition on the part of the maker. He might with equal truth have written "1948." Further, speaking of the use of trans-lucid enamels in the decoration of sword-furniture, the same author accredits the innovation to Kunishiro, whom he places at the end of the sixteenth century. Kunishiro was an insignificant workman of the eighteenth century. There is no record of his having employed vitrifiable enamels for such a purpose, and if he did, he had been long anticipated by the Hirata family. M. Gonse also makes Kinai of Yechizen a contemporary of Nobuiye, and puts them both at the end of the sixteenth century. But Nobuiye flourished in the first part of that century, and the great Kinai in the second half of the seventeenth. These comments are made simply in the interests of accuracy, and not with any intention of criticising an author whose knowledge, considering the circumstances under which it was acquired, must be pronounced remarkable, and who has brought so much light to bear on every branch of Japanese art.
Note 38.—Runinaga and Yoshishige are described by tradition as the first really skilled artists of Kaga. Their personal names were respectively Jiro and Goro, and their carvings were known as Jiro-saku and Goro-saku.
Note 39.—A kozuka by Toshihisa was sold fifty years ago for a sum which would now represent 1200 yen. It was made of iron, and the design, chiselled in high relief, represented the Chinese celebrities Liu Pei, Chu Koh-liang, and Kwan Yu.
Note 40.—Not to be confounded with the Okamoto family of Kyoto, founded by Harukuni in 1740, the second representative of which is the celebrated Naoshige, known in the art world as "Tetsugen."
Note 41.—The meagre nature of the information contained in Japanese records with regard to the Kinai experts is remarkable. They are spoken of merely as "Kinai," neither their family names nor their dates being given. The writer of these notes caused special investigations to be made in Yechizen, and found that the first Kinai was called Ishikawa, the second Takahashi, and that the family was a branch of the Miyōchin. The tomb of Ishikawa Kinai shows that he died in 1680, and that of Takahashi Kinai, that he died in 1696. There is in Yechizen a tradition that the feudal chief of the province ordered the second Kinai to carve a pair of iron menuki in the shape of mandarin ducks. Kinai did not complete the work until three years had passed, and, almost immediately afterwards, one of the menuki was lost during the chief's journey to Yedo. Kinai, being required to replace the missing menuki, chiselled a substitute in one day, and was then severely rebuked for having previously taken three years to accomplish a work which could easily have been finished in as many days. His answer was: "Put those two menuki in water and observe the difference." That being done, the new menuki sank at once, but the original one floated, so delicately had it been chiselled.
Note 42.—It has been found by measurement that lines cut in guards of iron shakudo, etc., have a width not exceeding 3/100 of an inch. The tool used for such work is scarcely imaginable.
Note 43.—Yoshitsugu's personal name was Kichiji, and he received the appellation of "Kichiji Kinai" from contemporary connoisseurs, who placed him on the same level as the great Kinai.
Note 44.—Not to be confounded with Masu-ya. There were four well-known experts whose ateliers went by the name of Masu-ya. They were, Uyemura Kuninaga (1680), of Kyōtō, known as "Masu-ya Kuhei;" Uyemura Kichibei, of Kyōtō, known as "Masu-ya Kichibei;" Torii Jōkwo, of Ōsaka, known as Masu-ya Uhei; and Uyemura Munemine (1720), or Masu-ya Kihei.
Note 45.—Miidera is the name of a famous temple on the shore of Lake Biwa in Omi. An autumn evening on the lake while the bell of the temple tolls is one of the "Eight Views" of Omi.
Note 46.—One of Jōi's guards (shakudo) carries the picture known as Munetaka no Matsu. On the face, Yoshitsune, in full armour, rides to his final victory over the Taira; on the reverse, a troop of armed men with halberds and banners, appear partially above the rim of the guard so as to suggest distance and numbers. This guard was sold forty years ago to a Japanese provincial magnate for the equivalent of about 500 yen in the currency of the present time.
Note 47.—The attention of collectors should be drawn to one point connected with the Hamano experts. It is that among the eleven art names used by Shōzui, four (Otsuriuken, Miboku, Rifudo, and Kankyo) appear upon the works of Masanobu, and two (Otsuriuken and Miboku) upon the works of Norinobu. Thus a specimen cannot be exactly identified merely because it bears one or more of these names. Another point is that Masayoshi, a pupil of Shōzui, was called "Shōzui Bozu" (old man Shōzui), and being exceptionally skilful as an imitator of old masterpieces, did not hesitate to copy the works of his teacher and to mark them Shōzui.
Note 48.—These details were first published by Mr. W. Gowland.
Note 49.—It is related of Hidari Jingoro that when a friend recommended him to exercise more caution with the view of emerging from a condition of extreme poverty, he replied, "Pleasure lies hidden in poverty. Does not the plum blossom in snow?"
Note 50.—This was called nata-gake, nata being the term for hatchet.
Note 51.—Round the four sides of a Japanese chamber, at a height of six feet, runs a horizontal beam of finely grained knotless timber, nailed at intervals to similar vertical beams. The beauty of the timber being a cardinal feature, it is necessary to conceal the nail-heads. That is effected by fastening over them pieces of metal chiselled in various shapes and designs.
Note 52.—The mirror is said to have belonged to the Emperor Shomu.
Note 53.—Mr. Bowes maintained his views with remarkable firmness. No Japanese collection, public or private, contained any specimen of the wares which he supposed to have been produced and preserved in temples and noblemen's residence during nearly three centuries. No Japanese connoisseur had any knowledge of such objects having been manufactured previously to 1837. All the circumstances under which their production had commenced at the latter date, were well known and had been officially recorded. The artisan who had originated the work was living and had received a reward from the Government for his invention. Some of the specimens which Mr. Bowes attributed to the seventeenth century were unhesitatingly identified by artisans of the present time as their own work, and the signatures which certain of these specimens bore were claimed by the men who had actually signed them. But none of these things shook Mr. Bowes' faith. He thought that he could detect in the wares themselves technical evidence, or signs of wear and tear, justifying his theory, and he clung to that theory with a tenacity which, considering the testimony on the other side, is probably unique.
Note 54.—A possible exception is a Koto (musical instrument) said to have belonged to the poet Chōmei in the twelfth century. It has mosaics of cloisonné enamel on the face and sides.
Note 55.—Kaji supposed that the specimen was Dutch. There can be little doubt that it was a Chinese enamel imported by the Dutch at Nagasaki.
Note 56.—It will be at once understood that such a method, to be successful, implies great command of coloured pastes. Indeed, no feature of enamel manufacture is more conspicuous than the progress made by the Japanese in that respect during the past twenty years (1880–1900), and much of it is due to the assistance of a profoundly skilled German expert, the late Dr. Waagener.
Note 57.—It is a mere accident that the representatives of the Kyōtō and Tōkyō schools are both called Namikawa. There is no relationship. Moreover, the Kyōtō Namikawa is himself an expert of the highest skill; the Tōkyō Namikawa is only an enterprising and resourceful employer of experts.
Note 58.—In connection with the question of technical processes a fact of some interest may be mentioned. Up to the year 1890 the cloisons were attached to the base with solder which, when repeatedly exposed to the heat of the furnace, showed a tendency to "boil," thus causing holes in the enamel. Hence it often happened that vases or plaques upon which great labour had been expended, were found to be disfigured by pittings and scars when they finally emerged from the fire. These defects were usually hidden with wax, the result being that a specimen showing a glossy uniform surface at the time of purchase, was subsequently found to lose its lustre and develop unaccountable blemishes. From 1890, when the choicest kinds of enamels began to be manufactured, a glue obtained from the root of the orchid (ran) was substituted for brass solder, the danger of flaws being thus avoided at some expense of durability.
Note 59.—The most scientific and exhaustive information with respect to lacquer manufacture is to be found in the "Industries of Japan" by Professor Rein, who studied the processes by engaging in them with his own hands. The practical experience he thus gained, supplemented by scientific knowledge, enabled him to publish the first really satisfactory monograph, to which free recourse has been made for the details here given.
Note 60.—The process of evaporating the moisture is constantly seen in the streets of cities. The lac is put into large pans, and these being placed in an inclined position, their contents are stirred for several hours with a large spatula.
Note 61.—The drying of lacquer is not effected by heat: a damp, cool atmosphere is essential. The object is usually enclosed in a wooden chest of which the sides and cover have been saturated with water.
Note 62.—Many collectors have been betrayed into purchasing, as genuine tsui-shu, specimens which are simply carved wood overlaid with red lacquer, in the manner of the Kamakura-bori mentioned in the text. Note must also be taken of imitation tsui-shu, of which the surface is a putty,—composed of lacquer, ochre, glue, and wheat-flour,—having a decorative design impressed on it. This kind of lacquer is largely applied to articles of wood or porcelain, such as trays, tobacco-boxes, vases, lecterns, etc.