Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/271

 design gives the impression of having been painted with Indian ink beneath the transparent surface of the metal. The difference between this process and ordinary inlaying is that for sumi- the design to be inlaid is fully chiselled out of an independent block of metal, with sides sloping so as to be broader at the base than at the top. The object which is to receive the decoration is then channelled in dimensions corresponding with those of the design-block, and the latter having been fixed in the channel, the surface is ground and polished until absolute intimacy seems to be obtained between the inlaid design and the metal forming its field. Very beautiful effects are thus produced, for the design seems to have grown up to the surface of the metal field rather than to have been planted in it. Shibuichi inlaid with shakudo used to be the commonest combination of metals in this class of decoration, and the objects usually depicted were bamboos, crows, wild-fowl under the moon, peony sprays, and so forth.

It remains to refer to a variety of decoration specially affected by the early experts and subsequently carried to a high degree of excellence, namely, mokume-ji, or wood-grained ground. The process in this case is to take a thin plate of iron—if iron is to be treated—and beat into it another plate of similar metal, so that the two, though welded together, retain their separate forms. The mass, while still hot, is coated with hena-tsuchi (a kind of gray clay) and rolled in straw ash, in which state it is roasted over a charcoal fire raised to glowing heat with the bellows. The clay having been removed, another plate of metal is beaten in, and the same process is repeated.