ABSTRACT
The Japanese show their inventive genius, skill and perseverance in woodwork of an entirely different character from building, viz., in hundreds of little articles which they manufacture from this material. Therefore it is not as carpenters and architects that their peculiar talent and taste is distinguished, but as joiners, turners, and wood-carvers. The principal work of manufacturing few wooden household articles, such as chests, sword stands, dining-tables etc. falls to the lacquerer, who paints the light and neatly made frames and groundwork of pine with the precious varnish, and decorates them with their skilled and artistic hand. The manufacture of toys, or Omocha, belongs also to small-wood industry in which the Japanese show themselves very skilful and careful workmen. Comb-cutting: The Japanese till now have made by far the greatest part of their toilette and small-tooth combs of wood, and used for this purpose chiefly the heavy, thick wood of several evergreen trees of the southern part of the country.
