Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/342

 slender rim of gold, silver, or shakudo into the petals, leaves, and stalks. The rim has to be fitted exactly so that it shall seem to be a natural growth, not an artificial addition. The effect produced is that of transparent blossoms tipped with gold, silver, or dark-purple shakudo. Another achievement of Suzuki Gensuke is designated maze-gane, or "mixed metals." It is a singular conception, and the results obtained depend largely on chance. Shibuichi and shakudo are melted separately, and when they have cooled just enough not to mingle too intimately, they are cast into a bar (called namako) which is subsequently beaten flat. The plate thus obtained shows accidental effects of clouding, or massing of dark tones, and these patches are taken as the basis of a pictorial design to which final character is given by inlaying with gold and silver. Such pictures partake largely of an impressionist character, but they attain much beauty in the hands of the Japanese artist with his large repertoire of suggestive symbols.

Yet another device practised by Suzuki Gensuke is to mix two kinds of shibuichi, and having beaten them together, to add a third variety, after which the picture is completed by putting in rocks, trees, birds, etc., by the kata-kiri process. This method did not originate with Suzuki. It was employed by eighteenth-century experts, who gave to it the name of shibuichi-dōshi. But Suzuki has carried it to a point of unprecedented excellence. The charm of the shibuichi-dōshi and of the maze-gane processes is that certain parts of the decorative design seem to float, not on the surface of the metal, but actually within it, an admirable effect of depth and atmosphere being thus produced.