CHAPTER VII

LACQUER

The most wonderful of all Japanese arts is their lacquer-work, and, perhaps, in this more completely than in any other medium does the peculiar genius of Japan find expression. For the combination of qualities required for the production of a piece of fine lacquer are such as could have been found in no other people. And it comes to us with a shock of surprise that this work, so free and spontaneous and yet so delicate, is wrought in, perhaps, the most difficult and intractable material ever used by man, and built up slowly and by infinitesimal stages, layer by layer, through weeks and months of labour.

Even were the same brilliant faculty of design the gift of the European, the amazing and unfaltering precision of hand, and the limitless patience and unceasing care required by the technical processes, place lacquer-work far beyond his scope. It is only the Eastern who can combine the imagination of the artist with the technical powers and steady perseverance of the ant or the bee. For, indeed, in examining one of these marvellous Japanese works, so full of exquisite detail, so perfect in every part, one is irresistibly reminded of the honeycombs which form the monument of the humble insect worker; but where the one is the repetition of a single design fixed unalterably the other is free and spontaneous, the product of an ever-varying fancy.

It is difficult to imagine anything more perfect than a piece of really fine lacquer--the smooth, translucent surface pleasant even to the sense of touch; the design simple and slight, and sensitively placed so as to cause the blank spaces to form essential parts of the composition; and the whole glowing with soft gold of varying tints, or, perhaps, relieved with a boldly inlaid piece of mother-of-pearl, flashing with its brilliant irridescent hues.

To one who has seen specimens of the finest work--the glorious lacquer of old Japan--the words of the French critic, M. Louis Gonse, exaggerated though they may seem to the uninitiated, appear no more than a mere statement of fact: “Japanese lacquered objects,” he says, “are the most perfect works that have ever issued from the hands of man.”

But specimens of really fine lacquer are rarely to be seen outside Japan, where they are treasured in the collections of the wealthy. The British Museum possesses hardly anything which is really fine, South Kensington only a few small pieces. The bulk of the fine lacquer in this country is divided between a few private collections, chief among which is that of Mr M. Tomkinson at Franche Hall, near Kidderminster--a marvellous collection, rich in examples of all periods, and containing many exquisite pieces of work.

Though tradition says that lacquer-work was known in Japan as early as 392 B.C. it is supposed that the art, like others, came originally from China. At first its uses were purely utilitarian. Drinking-vessels were coated with lacquer to render them water-tight, and as the surface was hard as glass, and withstood considerable heat, it was also used largely for cooking and other household utensils. Indeed, this explains the slow development of the potter’s art in Japan, for where we would use glass or earthenware the Japanese used lacquered vessels. The armour of an old Japan warrior was often leather coated with lacquer; the sword was in a lacquered scabbard. He ate off a lacquered tray, drank out of a lacquered cup, and rode in a lacquered carriage.

The lac is a natural product--the gum exuded by the urushi-tree (_rhus vernicifera_), a species of sumach. The finest lac of all was obtained from very old trees; but, as the tapping and drawing of the sap resulted in the death of the tree, the supply had to be continually renewed, and so in mediæval times landowners were compelled by law to plant annually a certain number of trees, and the export of lac was strictly forbidden. Even the Dutch traders of Nagasaki were not allowed to include it in their shiploads of porcelain and other wares, with the exception of a few pieces of inferior quality, specially manufactured, like the Imari ware, for the European market. It is safe to say that until the Paris Exhibition of 1867 no really fine lacquer had ever been seen in Europe.

[Illustration: OUTSIDE OF LID OF SUZURI-BAKO OR WRITING-CASE _In Green, Gold, and Silver, on Black Ground. Koma, Early 18th Century_ (_From the Collection of Mr M. Tomkinson_)]

At what date lacquer began first to be ornamented is unknown. The earliest known examples are preserved in the Todaiji and Shosoin temples at Nara, and date from the sixth and eighth centuries, and by the tenth century some very fine work had been produced. It was not, however, until the seventeenth century, when the country, under the firm hand of the Tokugawa Shogun Iyeyasu, after centuries of turmoil and civil war, had settled down to a peaceful existence that the period of the great lacquer workers set in. For in lacquer, as in many of the minor arts, the Tokugawa period marked the highest point of excellence. In the households of the wealthy Daimios the artist was freed from the more sordid cares of life. He need take no thought for the morrow, what he should eat or what he should drink, but could give his whole life to his art. And it was by the quality of his work, and not by the quantity, that he was judged. He had no idea of increasing his output in order to double his returns, but would spend months of labour on an object no larger than a few inches square. The larger pieces of work, exquisitely wrought outside and inside, the more delicate work being reserved for the inside, as there less liable to damage, in many cases represent the work of years.

For the process is long and tedious, and bristling with technical difficulties. First the wooden foundation for the box or other object to be lacquered is made of specially selected wood, generally a hard wood called by the Japanese hi-no-ki, which is not liable to warp, and admits of a very fine finish. These wooden objects are examples of beautiful cabinet making, often little thicker than cardboard, but fitting with great exactness. This foundation is strengthened with a layer of thin hempen cloth, and after laying on one or two preliminary coatings of a sort of paste mixed with lacquer, and carefully grinding down on a whetstone to ensure a perfectly smooth and even surface, the object is ready for the lacquering proper.

With a flat, short-haired brush--the hair used being generally human hair--the coating of lacquer is laid on in a thin, even layer, and the object set aside to dry, the period required for this varying from twelve hours to several days. Lacquer has this peculiar quality, that it dries best in a damp atmosphere, the moisture in the air seeming to draw out that in the lacquer. The articles are, therefore, placed to dry in a damp cupboard. On removal from the cupboard the surface is then carefully smoothed and polished by rubbing with charcoal. Coating after coating is added in this way, the final polishings being made with a fine ash of calcined deer’s horn, applied with the fingers.

Such are the complicated processes in the production of a piece of plain, unornamented black lacquer--the number of separate operations being no fewer than thirty-three, each one requiring the greatest skill and care; while for the production of one of the more elaborately ornamented pieces the number may extend to sixty or more, for the methods of decoration are many and varied, several being frequently applied to the same piece of work.

First of all we have the varieties of carved lacquer. There was the old Kamakura lacquer, in which the wood was first carved, then covered with a foundation of black lacquer, to which a red surface was added. In tsuishu and tsuikoku, carved red and black lacquer respectively, the article was first thickly coated with lacquer and afterwards carved. The process is said to have been invented by a Kioto workman in the fifteenth century, and in the time of Iyeyasu an artist, Heijuro, so excelled in it that he took the name Tsuishu Heijuro.

Chinkinbori is a form of incised lacquer, generally on a black ground. The lines are engraved with a rat’s tooth, as being less easily blunted than a metal tool, and are usually filled in with gold. Ninomya Johei, a physician of Yedo in the eighteenth century, was especially famed for this work. Raden is a form of lacquer in which mother-of-pearl and other shells, either in irregular or shaped pieces, are largely used, the colour effects obtained being of great brilliancy. A form of raden called aogai, a mosaic of green or purple irridescent shell crushed small, is especially used for the decoration of sword scabbards.

Togidashi is a style in which no rigid outline is used, but the forms left soft and blurred, being brought out by a series of rubbings. The greatest masters of this class of work were Yamamoto Shunsho and Koma Kiuhaku.

A curious and interesting form is guri lacquer. Here many layers of different coloured lacquers are applied, and the surface is then carved with conventional designs, in deep V-shaped incisions, exposing the different layers of colour.

The most gorgeous of all, however, is gold lacquer, the generic term for which is makiye, but this includes many varieties. In the same piece the gold will vary from solid masses standing up in relief to a dim, impalpable dust blending imperceptibly into the rich black ground. When the decoration is smooth and level with the ground it is termed hiramakiye, when in relief takamakiye. Kirikane is an inlay of small squares, hirakane or hirame an inlay of small pieces made from filings of gold flattened on an anvil. In okibirame, another inlay, the pieces are not dusted on but inserted singly by hand.

Giobu is a variety in which gold leaf is laid down on an irregular ground. This is covered with a deep red lacquer coloured with “dragon’s blood.” After drying the surface is rubbed down flat, and the gold is visible below, taking different tints according to its varying depth from the surface.

Nashiji (pear ground), one of the most famous styles, is a rich ground of powdered gold with the quality and texture of the rind of a ripe pear, and is largely used in conjunction with other forms of decoration.

A silver ground is also often used with charming effect. In Mr Tomkinson’s collection two very fine pieces of silver lacquer by Goshin, a lacquerer of the eighteenth century, deserve special mention. The ground is of a dim, misty grey, and on this is depicted a landscape with fir-trees on black lacquer. The nearest trees stand out bold and clear, those farther off seem embedded in the mist.

Another style largely used for sword scabbards was samé-nuri, shark-skin lacquer. The skin of a species of ray was stretched over the surface, the rough nodules filed down partially, and the whole covered with black lacquer. On the lacquer being rubbed down smooth and polished the nodules show as white discs on a ground of black.

Such are a few of the leading styles of lacquer; but numberless variations exist, and one piece often includes work in several different styles.

As already pointed out, the use of lacquer was at first entirely utilitarian; its adaptation to the purposes of ornament belongs to a later date. Perhaps the first ornamental lacquer was that applied to sword scabbards, horse furniture, and other warlike trappings. With the growth of a more peaceful civilisation came its application to the arts of peace.

[Illustration: A GROUP OF INRO (_From the Collection of Mr M. Tomkinson_) 1. Cock and Flowers (in gold and shell on brown ground). Kajikawa, 18th century. 2. Flowers and Paper Packets for Perfumes (ivory and gold, on black ground). Kajikawa, 19th century. 3. Pier of Bridge (in gold and shell, on black ground). By Kwoyetsu (Korin’s master). 4. Well overshadowed by Tree (gold and shell on black ground). Kajikawa, 18th century.]

A very favourite object for the lacquerer is the inro or medicine-box--a little box made in three or four separate sections and hung from the girdle by a cord. On the small surface here available he lavished all the resources of his art, and in inro we find many of the finest specimens of lacquer-work. Indeed, few things are more beautiful than a fine inro, with its rich but exquisitely judged ornamentation, for the Japanese artist possesses in a marvellous degree the power of working on a small field without loss of power or dignity. Even a specimen in plain black lacquer, unornamented, is a thing of beauty, pleasing to touch and to handle, and so perfectly made that the divisions between the sections are often invisible until they are pulled apart. This perfection of fitting is one of the tests by which the work of the old masters can be distinguished from that of their modern imitators.

Of the larger pieces of work the chief is the suzuri-bako, or set of writing materials. Then we have the jisshu kobako, or implements of the perfume game, comprising a cabinet containing the koro or miniature brazier, the kobako or perfume-box, fuda-bako or counter-box, and several other articles; and the sagé-ju, or portable picnic case, containing boxes, trays for sweetmeats, saké bottle, and so on.

Japanese authorities divide the history of lacquer into four eras--that of Nara, prior to 784 A.D.; Heian, 784-1185; Nanbokucho and Ashikaga, 1397-1587; Toyotomi and Tokugawa, 1597-1867. Of the earlier lacquerers little is known. In the fifteenth century, during the reign of the Ashikaga Shoguns, fine work was produced by Igarashi, the first of a line of lacquerers of that name. Little progress was made, however, until the beginning of the seventeenth century, when, after years of strife, the turbulent Daimios were finally subdued by Iyeyasu, the first of the Tokugawa Shoguns, and the country entered on a period of peaceful development. Towards the end of the seventeenth century began to rise the first of the great lacquerers, whose works are still the envy and wonder of their successors.

As in other branches of art, the traditions of this craft were handed down from father to son, and certain families became famed for lacquer. Two stand out especially as masters in the art--the Koma and the Kajikawa families.

The Komas were Court lacquerers for more than two hundred years, the first of the family, Koma Kiui, who died in 1663, being lacquerer to the Shogun Iyemitsu, and the line lasted until the nineteenth century.

The rise of the Kajikawa family was somewhat later; the first, Kajikawa Kujiro, one of the most excellent artists in lacquer, and famous for his giobu nashiji, lived about the end of the eighteenth century. He also was followed by a line of famous artists.

Both the Koma and the Kajikawa families were especially famous as inro-makers, and in this branch of the art it is difficult to say which was the greater. The Koma were remarkable for their coloured decorations, in which the design looked at by oblique light appears to be of gold but by direct light shows in brilliant colour.

One of the earliest lacquerers of whom there is any record is Honami Koyetsu, 1590-1637. Korin is said to have founded his style on that of Koyetsu, whose work certainly resembles to some extent that of the later and more famous artist. In Mr Tomkinson’s collection are two inros by Koyetsu and Korin respectively, each decorated with the same design--the pier of a bridge in mother-of-pearl and gold--and treated in an almost identical manner.

The greatest of all names in lacquer is that of Ogata Korin, born 1660, died 1716. As a painter he is entitled to a place among the highest, but as a lacquerer he stands alone. His absolute originality and boldness of conception, his masterly instinct in design, and his splendid draughtsmanship are seen equally in his lacquer as in his paintings, but it is in his lacquer only that his unrivalled decorative powers find their fullest scope.

If the Japanese decorative artist has a fault it is that he is too pictorial in his methods, that he is almost invariably endeavouring to tell a story. But Korin does not lacquer like a painter, he paints like a lacquerer. He is first of all boldly and frankly decorative--the literary appeal is secondary. And though to one not thoroughly in sympathy with the artist there is much in his work that appears obscure or unintelligible, to the eye of the enthusiast these “obscurities” are splendid and triumphant pieces of decoration. Mere prettiness appealed little to Korin, but his work has on this account the greater dignity. Even when at first sight it startles and almost repels it soon grows on one; the longer one looks the stronger is its fascination.

[Illustration: A GROUP OF INRO BY KORIN (_From the Collection of Mr M. Tomkinson_) 1. Deer (in lead on gold ground) 2. Biwa in the Waves (gold and shell on black ground) 3. Fukurokujiu (lead and shell on gold ground) 4. Storks and bamboo (in pearl and lead on gold ground)]

The breadth of his treatment is the amazing thing about Korin’s work, large masses of mother-of-pearl, the body of a bird, for instance, being laid in boldly in one piece, as in the inro with cranes here reproduced. Metals also, such as lead and pewter, were used just as daringly. But in the refinements of his art Korin was equally great. His gold mat grounds were especially famous, and were imitated by many of his successors. They are characterised by a steady, rich, full tint with a glow in it, and vary from a silvery to a deep copper hue, and in texture from an impalpable dust to an inlay of square dice. Then from the solid mat the gold will thin out into the lacquer till lost in its depths. His bolder work earned the same sincere flattery of imitation, but the imitator can easily be detected. Mr Tomkinson’s collection is especially rich in fine specimens of Korin’s work, and through his courtesy I reproduce one or two characteristic examples.

Ritsuo, a pupil and contemporary of Korin, was born in 1663. Like his master, he was celebrated in many branches of art; not only a lacquerer, he was a skilful metal worker, a carver, a potter, and a painter. In his more richly decorated lacquer, that known as hiaku-ho-kan (a hundred precious things inlaid), he often introduced pieces of his own pottery. His work is very distinctive, bold, and strong, with firm modelling and rich, full colouring. In his suzuri-bako he appears to special advantage; the outside of the box rough and bold, the inside enriched with work full of delicacy and refinement. One fine example in Mr Tomkinson’s collection has the outside in rough wood, the grain being made more prominent by the soft parts having been eaten out with acid. In the centre the wood is cut away, and a figure of Daruma, in pottery, is inlaid. The inside of the lid is a complete contrast to the rudeness of the exterior, and is wrought with the utmost delicacy and beauty of finish.

Ritsuo’s pupil Hanzan also did very fine work in a similar manner. South Kensington Museum possesses a very beautiful little inro from his hand, inlaid with fish in rose-tinted mother-of-pearl.

Of modern masters the most famous is Zeshin, born in 1807, died in 1891, and both as a lacquerer and painter he was worthy to rank with his great predecessors. Zeshin is almost the only one of the moderns whose work could at all compare with that of the old masters, but he lived and died in poverty and obscurity.

Modern industrial conditions hardly admit of the same patient workmanship--months, and perhaps years, being expended on one article. Speedier results are required, and this causes the use of inferior but quicker drying lac, which has neither the beauty nor the durability of the finer quality. A proof of this was given after the Vienna Exhibition of 1872. The vessel which was taking back a number of pieces of lacquer, old and new, was wrecked off the coast of Japan. Eighteen months after the pieces were recovered, the new utterly ruined, but the old work entirely unharmed, bright and untarnished, as if fresh from the maker’s hands.