At what date lacquer began first to be ornamented is unknown. The earliest known

examples are preserved in the Todaiji and Shosoin temples at Nara, and date from the sixth and eighth centuries, and by the tenth century some very fine work had been produced. It was not, however, until the seventeenth century, when the country, under the firm hand of the Tokugawa Shogun Iyeyasu, after centuries of turmoil and civil war, had settled down to a peaceful existence that the period of the great lacquer workers set in. For in lacquer, as in many of the minor arts, the Tokugawa period marked the highest point of excellence. In the households of the wealthy Daimios the artist was freed from the more sordid cares of life. He need take no thought for the morrow, what he should eat or what he should drink, but could give his whole life to his art. And it was by the quality of his work, and not by the quantity, that he was judged. He had no idea of increasing his output in order to double his returns, but would spend months of labour on an object no larger than a few inches square. The larger pieces of work, exquisitely wrought outside and inside, the more delicate work being reserved for the inside, as there less liable to damage, in many cases represent the work of years.

For the process is long and tedious, and bristling with technical difficulties. First the wooden foundation for the box or other object to be lacquered is made of specially selected wood, generally a hard wood called by the Japanese hi-no-ki, which is not liable to warp, and admits of a very fine finish. These wooden objects are examples of beautiful cabinet making, often little thicker than cardboard, but fitting with great exactness. This foundation is strengthened with a layer of thin hempen cloth, and after laying on one or two preliminary coatings of a sort of paste mixed with lacquer, and carefully grinding down on a whetstone to ensure a perfectly smooth and even surface, the object is ready for the lacquering proper.

With a flat, short-haired brush—the hair used being generally human hair—the coating of lacquer is laid on in a thin, even layer, and the object set aside to dry, the period required for this varying from twelve hours to several days. Lacquer has this peculiar quality, that it dries best in a damp atmosphere, the moisture in the air seeming to draw out that in the lacquer. The articles are, therefore, placed to dry in a damp cupboard. On removal from the cupboard the surface is then carefully smoothed and polished by rubbing with charcoal. Coating after coating is added in this way, the final polishings being made with a fine ash of calcined deer’s horn, applied with the fingers.

Such are the complicated processes in the production of a piece of plain, unornamented black lacquer—the number of separate operations being no fewer than thirty-three, each one requiring the greatest skill and care; while for the production of one of the more elaborately ornamented pieces the number may extend to sixty or more, for the methods of decoration are many and varied, several being frequently applied to the same piece of work.

First of all we have the varieties of carved lacquer. There was the old Kamakura lacquer, in which the wood was first carved, then covered with a foundation of black lacquer, to which a red surface was added. In tsuishu and tsuikoku, carved red and black lacquer respectively, the article was first thickly coated with lacquer and afterwards carved. The process is said to have been invented by a Kioto workman in the fifteenth century, and in the time of Iyeyasu an artist, Heijuro, so excelled in it that he took the name Tsuishu Heijuro.

Chinkinbori is a form of incised lacquer, generally on a black ground. The lines are engraved with a rat’s tooth, as being less easily blunted than a metal tool, and are usually filled in with gold. Ninomya Johei, a physician of Yedo in the eighteenth century, was especially famed for this work. Raden is a form of lacquer in which mother-of-pearl and other shells, either in irregular or shaped pieces, are largely used, the colour effects obtained being of great brilliancy. A form of raden called aogai, a mosaic of green or purple irridescent shell crushed small, is especially used for the decoration of sword scabbards.

Togidashi is a style in which no rigid outline is used, but the forms left soft and blurred, being brought out by a series of rubbings. The greatest masters of this class of work were Yamamoto Shunsho and Koma Kiuhaku.

A curious and interesting form is guri lacquer. Here many layers of different coloured lacquers are applied, and the surface is then carved with conventional designs, in deep V-shaped incisions, exposing the different layers of colour.

The most gorgeous of all, however, is gold lacquer, the generic term for which is makiye, but this includes many varieties. In the same piece the gold will vary from solid masses standing up in relief to a dim, impalpable dust blending imperceptibly into the rich black ground. When the decoration is smooth and level with the ground it is termed hiramakiye, when in relief takamakiye. Kirikane is an inlay of small squares, hirakane or hirame an inlay of small pieces made from filings of gold flattened on an anvil. In okibirame, another inlay, the pieces are not dusted on but inserted singly by hand.

Giobu is a variety in which gold leaf is laid down on an irregular ground. This is covered with a deep red lacquer coloured with “dragon’s blood.” After drying the surface is rubbed down flat, and the gold is visible below, taking different tints according to its varying depth from the surface.

Nashiji (pear ground), one of the most famous styles, is a rich ground of powdered gold with the quality and texture of the rind of a ripe pear, and is largely used in conjunction with other forms of decoration.

A silver ground is also often used with charming effect. In Mr Tomkinson’s collection two very fine pieces of silver lacquer by Goshin, a lacquerer of the eighteenth century, deserve special mention. The ground is of a dim, misty grey, and on this is depicted a landscape with fir-trees on black lacquer. The nearest trees stand out bold and clear, those farther off seem embedded in the mist.

Another style largely used for sword scabbards was samé-nuri, shark-skin lacquer. The skin of a species of ray was stretched over the surface, the rough nodules filed down partially, and the whole covered with black lacquer. On the lacquer being rubbed down smooth and polished the nodules show as white discs on a ground of black.

Such are a few of the leading styles of lacquer; but numberless variations exist, and one piece often includes work in several different styles.

As already pointed out, the use of lacquer was at first entirely utilitarian; its adaptation to the purposes of ornament belongs to a later date. Perhaps the first ornamental lacquer was that applied to sword scabbards, horse furniture, and other warlike trappings. With the growth of a more peaceful civilisation came its application to the arts of peace.