put on to the surface while hot with a large brush. It is usual to put
on two coats, and a contrivance in the shape of a cross piece of wood at
the back of the frame is used for straining the silk more tightly after
the first coat of size. The colours that the Japanese use are mixed and
prepared in the following manner. Whitening, which is the basis of most
colours, is pounded with a pestle and mortar into a very fine powder;
then a little size which has been boiled and strained is poured in, and
the whole is beaten up and worked into a ball. This ball is thrown over
and over again into the mortar until it is well beaten. A little water
is poured over the lump, which is then heated over a fire until it
breaks and spreads. In this state, after cooling a little, it is well
worked up, with perhaps the addition of water, until a white pulpy putty
is produced; the artist is very careful all the time to avoid grit.
Other colours are principally prepared from powders, which are beaten up
in little porcelain cups with small pestles, and are mixed with a little
size and water into saucers, stirred all the while with the finger and
heated over the fire until dry, or nearly so. When required for use they
must be worked up again with the finger and water, and it is a good plan
when first mixing the colours to paste paper over the saucers, leaving
a small hole for the insertion of the brush. Gamboge and a vegetable red
resembling crimson lake are both used without size. The latter is
prepared from a woollen material which is torn up into shreds and put
into a saucer; then it is mixed with boiling water and afterwards
strained through paper. It is drawn off in small quantities into several
saucers and carefully dried over the fire. There is a colour which is
much used called Taisha, which is like burnt sienna; then there is Tan,
a sort of orange, and Shi, a vermilion red. The red is prepared in two
different ways, first by being mixed cold in a cup with a pestle, a
little size, and water. In this preparation the colour separates into a
deep red and orange, the latter floating on the top. The orange is
afterwards saved and used instead of Tan--Tan, not being permanent,
turns black and disappears; it is used sometimes to shade ladies' faces,
but fades very much. In using this preparation of orange and red, the
brush must be first dipped in yellow and then the tip of it in the red,
so as to take up both portions of the mixture.

Anothe