During the Middle Ages, the arts of pottery, lacquering, gilding, bronze-casting, engraving and chasing, chisel and pouch work, sword-making, goldsmiths work, were brought to a perfection never since excelled, if indeed It has been equaled. In enameled and inlaid metal work the hand of the Japanese artisan has undoubtedly lost its cunning. Native archeologists assert that a good catalogue of “lost arts” may me made out, notably those of the composition and application of violet lacquer, and the ancient Cloisonne enamel.
The delicacy of tact, freedom of movement, and perfection of finish visible on Japanese work, are the result of long hereditary application and concentrated skill. Hidden away in sequestered villages, of occupying the same workshop in cities for centuries, generations of craftsmen wrought upon one class of objects, until from the workmans hand is born the offspring of a long pedigree of thought and dexterity.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
