Page:TASJ-1-3.djvu/93

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85

USEFUL MINERALS AND METALLURGY
OF THE JAPANESE.

LEAD AND SILVER.

C.
By Dr. GEERTS.

Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan on the

23rd December, 1874.

———o———

LITERATURE: Kaempfer’s History of Japan, I Book, Chap. VIII. Stan. Julien et Champion.—Industries, &c., page 40. Geerts.—Japan in 1871. “Gids,” No. 8 and 9, 1872. Japanese Technology.San-kaï mei-butsu Dzu-ku-wai, 1st Vol. Japanese Mineralogy.Seki-hin-san-sho-ko. Ko-sin-sho-ran-sen, or short indication of the chief Ore bearing mountains.

Japanese history does not mention the year when lead (yen namari, Syn. Koku yen, u-jaku) was obtained for the first time in Japan. Silver-ore was discovered accidentally in the year 667, A.D., at Tsu-shima, during the digging of the foundations of a new castle, named Kanedono-shizo;[1] this ore produced the first Japanese silver metal in the year 674.[2]


  1. Hoffmann: Japan’s Bezüge mit der Koraïschen Halbinsel und mit China pag. 133 (translation out of Nippon ki XXVII. 10 Z. Y.) edited in Siebold’s Nippon Archif VII.
  2. Hoffmann: ibidem pag. 133 (transl. out of Nippon ki and Wan-kan-nen-ki) and Wa-nen-ki oder geschichtstatuten von Japan pag 40, published in Siebold’s Nippon Archif.