Gold Engraver

Metal plates are hammered onto various parts of Japanese craft products, such as furnishings and buildings. You can find them on the edges of tables or stools, the roofs of buildings, the handles of fusuma sliding doors, or around pillars. Though metal plates are for reinforcing and hiding joints like nails, they elicit a decorative effect. These metal plates are usually made of copper. They shine gold because they are gold-plated.

A gold engraver draws a design on the copper plate and engraves it with a hammer and a fine-pointed tagane chisel. They draw various paintings along with the design and pattern, and they expand or dent the plate by striking it. Using the viscosity of the metal, three-dimensional patterns are created in a very delicate, beautiful, and sometimes powerful way.

Almost all designs found in common paintings and sculptures can be drawn on metal plates, such as traditional geometric Japanese patterns, animals or divine beasts which are also found in wood engraving, and floral and botanical designs. In addition, there are various other expressive techniques created on a thin copper plate, such as tsuchime, or ishime, which make the surface uniform and control the texture.

The gold engraver's job is to hammer small impressions, one at a time, onto a flat copper plate. This may seem like very simple work when you imagine it.
However, when you actually see the work being done, it does not look simple at all. The metal seems to move freely and weave lively scenes, just like in the world of animation, as the engraver's hands change the shape of an ordinary copper plate from moment to moment and draw new patterns and designs one after the other. The engraver draws the world on the copper plate using a variety of techniques, such as shading, depth of engraving and edges, depending on the design to be drawn and the place where it is to be placed.

The liveliness and dynamism of the work can be seen not only in the finished product, but also in the work itself. There is a distinctive rhythm to the artisan's work, depending on the pattern, design and technique used. The rhythm of tagane chisel is sometimes constant and tense, and sometimes open, as if playing a free melody. The patterns drawn on a changing melody, as if listening to jazz music, convey a sense of dynamism different from the impression of the original simple metal plate.

There are various engraving techniques, including kebori and keribori - linear engraving techniques, sukashibori - sawing metal plate through with a thread saw, and takanikubori - creating difference in height by hammering in and out.

Nanako - named after fish roe - is a pattern drawn by striking a series of small, even circles. This pattern is mainly applied to areas where there is no design. The size of nanako is varied, but for the finest ones, a continuous striking of grains with a diameter of about 0.1 mm is used. The nanako are placed in the margins as an expression technique to highlight the pattern and make it appear more beautiful, but this does not mean that they should be filled in at random. It is the most delicate, precise, steady and arduous work in the technique of engraving, which requires a truly sharp nerve to create a beautiful pattern with uniform vertical, horizontal and diagonal rows.

The finest pieces, which are designated as national treasures or important cultural assets in Japan, require this fine nanako to be continuously hammered in, one by one, point by point. It takes a endless amount of time and skill to fill even a margin of a few centimeters. The skill is evident in the nanako that fill the margins. The beautifully arranged nanako do not make a statement, but they play a supporting role in enhancing the main character of the design.