Mokume-gane

木目金 / 17th century– / Technique / Vessel and Craft Techniques

Mokume-gane is a Japanese metalworking process that bonds layers of different metals into one billet, then cuts and rolls it so the surface takes on a pattern like wood grain. The figure is a cross section of the stack rather than a decoration laid on top, so filing or polishing cannot remove it. It began as a way of decorating sword fittings.

Mokume-gane — Hamano Masanobu, sword guard (tsuba) with hawk and sparrows, 1836, Walters Art Museum — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Hamano Masanobu, sword guard (tsuba) with hawk and sparrows, 1836, Walters Art Museum — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Mokume-gane — Mauro Cateb, mokume-gane billet (silver, copper, brass) — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 — Mauro Cateb, mokume-gane billet (silver, copper, brass) — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Mokume-gane — Mauro Cateb, two mokume-gane rings — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 — Mauro Cateb, two mokume-gane rings — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0

At a glance

Visual cues

The stripes close into rings and whorls that read like the end grain of a log
Reddish copper, white silver and darkened layers sit directly against one another
No two pieces from the same workshop carry the same figure, even at the same shape
The stripes do not stop at the edge; they continue through the thickness of the sheet

Best used for

When a ring or a vessel should be patterned by the colour of the metals themselves, with no plating and no inlay
When a small production run needs every piece to carry a different figure

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Dictionary entry

Type: Keep any stamp to a single small mark. Place it clear of the strongest stripes and cut its lines finer than the grain.
Composition: The pattern is the subject, so keep the form plain. Let the grain follow the outline of the object and close the edge with one narrow band left blank.
Material: Stack sheets of metals that differ in colour, such as copper, silver and shakudo, and bond them into a single billet under heat and pressure. Gouge into the face to expose lower layers, roll the billet flat, then raise it into shape. Finish by polishing and colouring so the layers separate.
Caution: Thin the layers too far while chasing a particular figure and one cut goes straight through, breaking the pattern.
Further study: why the Getty AAT places mokume-gane (300455807) under metallizing / the twenty one layers and the chisel cut grooves on Ian Ferguson's bowl in the V&A (O120544) / its origin as decoration for sword fittings, and the difference from present day workshop pieces

Related entries

Suminagashi (墨流し)Shared effects: Technique.Compare Mokume-gane and Suminagashi
Shibori (絞り染め)Shared effects: Technique.Compare Mokume-gane and Shibori

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