MANUFACTURES. China is the original home of the highly perfected arts of lacquer-work, fine ceramics, chasing and inlaid work, ivory,'bone, stone, and wood carving, in most of which Japan now excels its ancient tutor. The most authori tative writers on the industries of Japan agree that the Japanese have regarded China as their model in all these departments for many cen turies. They have developed great aptitude fog imitating these art products, and but very little independent creative power. The fact that Japan now far surpasses its old master in the most extended blanches of art-handi•raft is to be attributed to this very gift of imitation, and most of all to the awakened sense of beauty in nature and art that has been applied to worthy and useful ideas as models which originated on foreign soil.
In the latest development of the industries of Japan the same limitations are observed. It has been shown thus far that while the Japanese artisan has great manipulative skill and can turn out indifferent sewim±-machines. typewriters. and many other mechanisms with an imitative art in superficialities that amounts almost to genius, still for the fundamental elements of his industry he must yet depend on the assistance of forci[me•s. The national character in its re cent approximation to Western civilization is what it always has been, imitative. not origi native; and is almost wholly devoid of that rude energy of initiative which constitutes such a marked difference between the inhabitants of the East and the West. This detracts nothing from the merit and value of the industries for which the Japanese are famous. In wood-work their buildings lack ouch in solidity. adaptation, and elegance. It is not as carpenters and architects that they are distinguished. but as joiners, turn ers, and wood-carvers. The frames of their win do•-panes, the wainscoting of the walls of many of their temples, and numerous other works. are samples of fine and careful joinery. They make many small wooden wares. excellent in design and utility. Comb-cutting is a large house industry, small-tootb combs of the thick, heavy wood of several evergreen trees being used in the native toilet.
Lacquer-work takes the first place among the Japanese art industries. In no other braneh of art have the Japanese so completely disengaged themselves from their Chinese masters, displayed so much fancy and taste, and won smeh eminenee among all civilized peoples. The laequentree is grown chiefly in llondo or the main island, be tween the parallels of latitude 35' and 40' north. Its sap is distinguished from all other varnishes by its greater hardness, its high lustre preserved for centuries, and its resistance to agencies that destroy other resinous varnishes. The lacquer
varnish is applied to wooden or metal articles. Every layer must be thoroughly dried and pol ished before another is placed. A fine piece of work, with twenty to thirty coats of lacquer. may be many months in making. The antiquity of the industry is attested by some lacquer boxes in one of tile templ••s where they have been kept. it is said, in a state of perfect preservation for seven teen centuries. Among the choicest exhibits of the museums in the Occident are Japanese lac quers fixed on copper, or more frequently on the wood of the Pious retinosporu, and ornamented with gold. silver, or mother-of-pearl. The best specimens have a metallic lustre, can scarcely be scratched, and arc almost indestructible. In 1599, 20,373 persons were engaged in the lacquer in dustry in 4147 establishments. The value of their output is given as $2,820,114.
.11uch broken pottery has been discovered in mounds in Japan dating from prehistoric times, but it was only after contact with China through Korea, and the introduction of Korean potters, that Japan began to progress in an art which has made it renowned. The most famous of the pot tery wares are the choice imitation porcelains known as 'Ohl which have become ex tremely rare. All Japanese pottery, however, is traced back to Seto in Owari, and from this circumstance Setomono has become the general name for all Japanese ceramic ware. The number of ceramic works was never greater than at present. The art has spread into many districts where it has been hitherto unknown. Wares serving the humblest utilities or expensive pro ducts for collecting connoisseurs are produced, many of them being remarkable for richness of color and originality of floral and animal designs. Many of the potters' villages are famous, though they do not differ in appearance from ordinary hamlets. Each workshop comprises the members of a single family, every member watching in his turn over the baking of the materials in the public oven of the commune. Japanese porcelain is one of the important articles of export to Occi dental countries. The chief manufactories for the finest porcelain ware are at Arita in the Province of Ilizen, in Kiushiu, where the best clays are found in abundance. It was here that Gorodayu Shonsui set up his first kiln on his return in 1520 from China, where he had learned the art of porcelain-making. In 1899 the number of engaged in pottery and porce lain making was 4604. the number of persons employed 19,454, and the value of the product $2.933,916.