Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/270

 of parallel bands, divided at fixed intervals by ribs, which are obtained by merely straightening the chisel and striking it a heavy blow. The same process is then repeated in another direction, so that the new bands cross the old at an angle adapted to the nature of the design. Several independent chisellings may be necessary before the lines of the diaper emerge clearly, but throughout the whole operation no measurement of any kind is taken: the artist is guided entirely by his eye, though the slightest failure to estimate the dimensions correctly, or the slightest deviation of hand or chisel would at once destroy the work. The metal is then heated, not to redness, but sufficiently to develop a certain degree of softness, and the workman, taking a very thin sheet of gold, hammers portions of it into the salient points of the design, thus clearly marking out the spaces. In ordinary cases this is the sixth process. The seventh is to hammer gold into the outlines of the diaper; the eighth, to hammer it into the pattern filling the spaces between the lines, and the ninth and tenth to complete the details of the pattern. Of course the more intricate the design the more numerous the processes. The expert uses magnifying-glasses, but is said to depend more on the delicacy of his own sense of touch than on the power of the glasses. It is scarcely possible to imagine a higher effort of hand and eye than this nunome- displays, for while intricacy and elaborateness are carried to the very extreme, absolutely mechanical accuracy is obtained. Sometimes into the same design gold enters in three different hues, obtained by varying the alloy.

A third kind of inlaying, peculiar to Japan, is sumi-zōgan (ink inlaying), so called because the inlaid