SPECIAL SUBJECTS
preparation, the basic material disappears altogether from view, and the lacquerer ultimately works on a surface of paper or cloth. Such is not the invariable process, however. In two favourite varieties of lacquer—kiji-nuri and shunkei-nuri—the grain of the wood is shown, no veneer of paper or cloth being employed. To produce these the wood is first "consolidated" by a pore-filling paste; it is then covered with pure translucid lacquer and polished. Thereafter, in the case of the shunkei-nuri, a light coat of yellow dust is applied, omitted in the case of kiji-nuri. The latter presents the appearance of highly polished mahogany or rosewood; the former suggests maple.
An object which, by the various processes described above, has developed a perfectly smooth, lustreless, greyish-brown surface, is said to have reached the "medium" stage (naka-nuri). It may now be finished by the application of a single coat of lacquer, without any subsequent burnishing, the result being nuri-tate, the commonest kind of lacquer, so called because the striations (tate) produced by the strokes of the brush with which the last coat is applied, are clearly visible. It may here be stated that in fine lacquer no semblance of brush-marks should be perceptible.
When the artisan desires to produce a better class of lacquer than the nuritate, he has merely to expend more material and more labour: additional coats of lacquer and additional rubbing and polishing. All this is only a question of patience and manual dexterity. Indeed, Japanese lacquers may be conveniently divided into "artisan lacquers" and "art lacquers;" the former comprising all varieties that owe their beauty solely to the quality of the ground
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