zougan　象嵌

KEY WORD :　art history / crafts

Inlay. It is also written 象眼 (elephant eye). A decoration technique in which the surface of such materials as metal, pottery and wood is carved and filled with metal, stone, shell, ivory or horn. Inlay has been used on swords since the Kofun period, and on celadon ceramics since the 10c. Inlay variants include: *mokuga 木画 and *raden 螺鈿. In dyeing and weaving, there is kirihame zougan 切嵌象嵌 (openwork inlay). Techniques include: itozougan 糸象嵌 (thread inlay), also called senzougan 線象嵌 (line inlay), the simplest and oldest procedure in which a thread-like metal is set in carved patterns; hirazougan 平象嵌 (flat inlay) in which flat sheets are inlaid to be the same height with the ground surface; takaniku zougan 高肉象嵌 (high mounted inlay), used for swords, where material is set on a high-relief metal ground; nunome zougan 布目象嵌 (texture inlay) in which gold or silver in wire or thin sheets is hammered into a finely-carved pattern; kirihame zougan, a method of inlaying metal in an open-work design on a base metal so the same pattern can be seen from either side; and tokashikomi zougan 銷込象嵌 (rubbed in inlay), in which the shallow-carved surface of metal is rubbed with gold leaf. These techniques are used for decoration of butsugu 仏具 (Buddhist altar fittings), furniture, arms and swords.

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