Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/263

 of much labour and skill on a small object like a guard or a dagger-haft, was careful to use iron of the highest quality only, and to anneal it by processes of which each great artist made a specialty. But no less attention was bestowed on the production of patina. The guards of early experts—the Miyōchin masters down to Nobuiye, and the Umetada prior to Muneyuki—show a curious patina called moyashi, which suggests the effect that would be produced by boiling a superficial film of the metal. But from the seventeenth century onwards, the patina changes, and the surface of the metal shows a fine satin-like texture constituting one of the most beautiful features of the object. It is, indeed, a matter of constant wonder to the uninitiated that such a surface could have been imparted to iron, and the patina-producing recipes—"rust-summoning processes" (sabi-dashikata), as the Japanese call them—of the great experts would have much interest were they accessible. But these things were among the hiden, or "secret traditions," of each family of artists. No public record of them exists. Modern experts, however, though they no longer chisel sword-mounts, treat iron for artistic purposes in a manner which is at least equal to that of the old masters, and the patina-producing process for which they claim the finest results may be described here. The first step is to obtain a mixture of finely sifted clays, red and black, which is placed in an open vessel and exposed to the action of the elements for a space of two or three years. Blue vitriol and sulphur, having then been heated together, are added to a portion of this seasoned earth, and the compound forms a paste, which is applied to the surface of the metal, this process being repeated time after time, at intervals of from four to