Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/372

 the effects of time, and are now as perfect as when they emerged from their makers' hands. This admirable durability, especially remarkable considering that the base used by the lacquerer is wood of exceeding thinness and frailty, must be attributed in part, of course, to the preservative properties of the lacquer varnish itself, but largely also to the skill of the experts by whom these fine specimens were produced.

Japan derived the art of lacquer manufacture from China. There can be no doubt of that. The tools used in both countries are almost identical and the methods have such a likeness that their common origin is unquestionable. But as the time of the art's introduction into Japan was pre-historical, the date cannot be fixed accurately. Certainly, however, it was not later than the beginning of the sixth century, and it will probably be right to conclude that, like many other products of civilisation, this also came in the train of Buddhism. At first the art does not seem to have extended beyond the manufacture of plain black lacquer, but antiquarians allege that from the early years of the eighth century ornamentation with dust of gold and mother-of-pearl began to be practised. There is a measure of conjecture in this statement, for the oldest specimens of artistic lacquer known to exist in Japan are two boxes, one of which was made to order of the celebrated priest Kuki, better known as Kōbō Daishi, at the close of the ninth century, for the purpose of containing the Shingon Sutra which he had conveyed from China, and the other is a receptacle for jewels believed to date from approximately the same period. Both objects are decorated after the manner called maki-kin-iro; that is to say, gold and silver dust hav-