Studio: international art (52.1911)

Japanese Art and Artists of To-Day.—V. Metal-JVork

the desired colour combina-
tion. The principal ones among
them are gold, silver, copper,
brass, iron, shibu-ichi and
shakudo. There are no less
than seventy different alloys for
bronze, of which about thirty
are more or less commonly used
in Japan at the present time.
Shibu-ichi is composed of cop-
per and silver in varying pro-
portions, so as to get the desired
shade. In order to make a
darker shibu-ichi called kuro-
shibu-ichi, to three or four parts
of silver ten of shakudo are
used. Shakudo is obtained by
combining one hundred parts of
copper with from three to six
of gold according to the shade
required. To get a violet

silver vases with engraved decoration by unno shomin shakudo, Sulphate of coPPer,

salt and water are used."
periods. Two centuries after firearms were - Before referring to individual artists and their
imported from Europe, the decorative work on works, it should be noted that there existed in
armour and arms began to de-
cline, while articles requiring
artistic metal-work for decora-
tive purposes increased to a
considerable extent.

" There are five distinct me-
thods of decoration in metal,
namely (l) katakiri-bori, a
method of engraving with chisel-
like tools, the chief aim of it
being to reproduce the move-
ment and qualities of the brush-
work found in Japanese paint-
ings ; (2) hira-zogwan, in which
different metals are inlaid to
obtain different colour effects;
(3) taka-zogwau, in which a
somewhat similar method to
hira-zogwan is used, the differ-
ence being that here the inlay
is in relief; (4) uki-bori, which
means chasing; (5) kiri-hame,
which literally means ' cut in-
laid,' the inlaid material being
inserted into holes cut through
the foundation so that the same
design is shown on both sides
of the work.

Different alloys are used
for this work chiefly to obtain silver vases

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