Untitled

62 THE WONDERFUL CITY OF TOKIO.
As he spoke a middle-aged Japanese advanced to the front
of one of the stores, and bowing, murmured:
"I trust your honorable excellency is in the possession of
good health. Since I left your honorable care,
I have been
perfectly free from sickness. I have thanked the gods every
day, and made an offering to Bindzuru (the helper
sick)."
"I like that," whispered Fitz.
:t
of the
You, Oto, have cured the
fellow, and he pays your fee to the old wooden god, Bindzuru.
I think he ought to have given you the money."
" Hush," breathed Sallie. "The man will hear you."
Oto introduced the lacquer-maker as Nishi Gori Yoheye.
The man bowed repeatedly, sucked in his breath, and said,
as he led the way into his store:
"
I understand from the honorable doctor that you wish to
see the process of lacquering goods. I must tell you one
and cannot be
thing, the urushi (lacquer) is very poisonous,
worked by any one but a Japanese."
" We are not desirous of going into the business," said
Johnnie.
"
Our countrymen would like to know how you
use the lacquer, and we wish to be able to inform them."
'*
are man} 7
Yes, yes, I understand," was the smiling response. " There
ways of preparing the liquid. I use principally black
and red lacquer please come with me."
He drew aside a sliding-door, and conducted them into a
little apartment, filled with covered tubs containing an acrid-
smelling substance, that looked like molasses.
"This is urushi (lacquer)," he said. "It is the sap of a tree
that is found all through Central Japan, and is obtained by
incisions in the stems and branches. When we desire
making
to make the lacquer black, we add to it a small quantity of
water that has stood for several days in a vessel containing