Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/357

 Chiuson-ji (founded in 1109). In the centre are plaques with repoussé designs of phoenixes and angels, and the borders have floral diapers, vajras, and bells sculptured à jour. From such work to the use of wood-carving for interior decoration, as seen in temples and mausolea from the close of the sixteenth century, the transition is easily conceived.

The term "enamel decoration" is here used to indicate a design expressed by means of vitrified pastes of various colours applied to a base usually of metal but sometimes of wood or porcelain. Oxide of lead and silica, mixed in the ratio of 35 to 50, approximately, with small quantities of lime and soda and a very small admixture of magnesia, form the paste, and colour is obtained by adding oxide of copper, iron, cobalt, gold, tin, silver, antimony, or some other substance. The paste thus produced is of two kinds, translucid or opaque, and is applied to the base in one of two ways, namely, by channelling the parts of the design into which the paste is to be inserted, or by framing them with thin ribbons of metal. The former kind—i.e. where the spaces to receive the enamel paste are recessed—is called champlevé; the latter is known as cloisonné. For these terms the best English equivalents are, perhaps, "encausted" and "applied," respectively, but since the French words are much more explicit and expressive, they will be used here. Doubtless the champlevé process preceded the cloisonné, but in Japan, as in Europe, there is no certainty on that point.