st evils, from impending
bankruptcy or cutaneous diseases to unrequited love or ill-luck at
play. It is annually visited by thousands and thousands of pilgrims."
The Japanese artist in constantly reproducing Fusi-Yama has merely
voiced national sentiment and feeling.

[Illustration: VIEW OF FUSI-YAMA FROM A TEA HOUSE
FROM A PRINT BY HIROSHIGE]

The substance applied to wood to produce what is called lacquer, is
not what is generally known in England as varnish. It is really the
sap of the _rhus vernicifera_ which contains, among other ingredients,
about 3 per cent. of a gum soluble in water. It has to undergo various
refining processes before being mixed with the colouring matter, while
the greatest care is exercised throughout with a view of obviating the
possibility of dust or any other foreign matter finding its way into
the mixture. The fine polish usually seen on lacquer work is not
actually the result of the composition applied, but is produced by
incessant polishing. The lacquered articles in old Japan were used for
various purposes--mirror cases, fans, letter-carriers, the inro, which
was at one time a necessary part of every Japanese gentleman's attire;
it was secured to the sash, and utilised to hold medicine powders, for
perfumes, as a seal-box, &c., seals being at one time, as indeed they
are to some extent still, in use in place of a signature. But the
amount of ancient lacquer ware now in Japan, or, indeed, of artistic
articles made solely for use and not merely to sell, is, as I have
said, small. European collectors have denuded the country; the
treasures of the Daimios, which were almost recklessly sold when they
were disestablished, and to a large extent disendowed, have been
distributed all over the globe, and a large quantity, perhaps the
largest quantity, of the lacquer work now made in the country is
manufactured solely for the purpose of being sold as curios either at
home or abroad. That this fact has largely lowered the artistic ideals
and debased the artistic taste in Japan appears to be the general
opinion. Much of the present-day work of Japan in lacquer, as in other
articles, is certainly to my mind artistic and beautiful in the
extreme, but obviously, men working almost against time to turn out
"curios," for which there is a persistent demand on the part of
visitors who are not always by temperament or training fitted to
appreciate the artistic or the beautiful, are unlikely to pro