The breadth of his treatment is the amazing thing about Korin’s work, large masses of mother-of-pearl, the body of a bird, for instance, being laid in boldly in one piece, as in the inro with cranes here reproduced. Metals also, such as lead and pewter, were used just as daringly. But in the refinements of his art Korin was equally great. His gold mat grounds were especially famous, and were imitated by many of his successors. They are characterised by a steady, rich, full tint with a glow in it, and vary from a silvery to a deep copper hue, and in texture from an impalpable dust to an inlay of square dice. Then from the solid mat the gold will thin out into the lacquer till lost in its depths. His bolder work earned the same sincere flattery of imitation, but the imitator can easily be detected. Mr Tomkinson’s collection is especially rich in fine specimens of Korin’s work, and through his courtesy I reproduce one or two characteristic examples.

Ritsuo, a pupil and contemporary of Korin, was born in 1663. Like his master, he was celebrated in many branches of art; not only a lacquerer, he was a skilful metal worker, a carver, a potter, and a painter. In his more richly decorated lacquer, that known as hiaku-ho-kan (a hundred precious things inlaid), he often introduced pieces of his own pottery. His work is very distinctive, bold, and strong, with firm modelling and rich, full colouring. In his suzuri-bako he appears to special advantage; the outside of the box rough and bold, the inside enriched with work full of delicacy and refinement. One fine example in Mr Tomkinson’s collection has the outside in rough wood, the grain being made more prominent by the soft parts having been eaten out with acid. In the centre the wood is cut away, and a figure of Daruma, in pottery, is inlaid. The inside of the lid is a complete contrast to the rudeness of the exterior, and is wrought with the utmost delicacy and beauty of finish.

Ritsuo’s pupil Hanzan also did very fine work in a similar manner. South Kensington Museum possesses a very beautiful little inro from his hand, inlaid with fish in rose-tinted mother-of-pearl.

Of modern masters the most famous is Zeshin, born in 1807, died in 1891, and both as a lacquerer and painter he was worthy to rank with his great predecessors. Zeshin is almost the only one of the moderns whose work could at all compare with that of the old masters, but he lived and died in poverty and obscurity.

Modern industrial conditions hardly admit of the same patient workmanship—months, and perhaps years, being expended on one article. Speedier results are required, and this causes the use of inferior but quicker drying lac, which has neither the beauty nor the durability of the finer quality. A proof of this was given after the Vienna Exhibition of 1872. The vessel which was taking back a number of pieces of lacquer, old and new, was wrecked off the coast of Japan. Eighteen months after the pieces were recovered, the new utterly ruined, but the old work entirely unharmed, bright and untarnished, as if fresh from the maker’s hands.