Shakudō

Shakudō (赤銅) is a special kind of metal used in Japan. It is made by mixing gold and copper together, usually with about 4 to 10 percent gold and the rest copper. This metal belongs to a group called irogane, which includes colored metals.

Shakudō can be treated in a special way to give it a dark, almost black color, sometimes looking like deep blue. This dark color is not natural; it is created through a process called niiro. This process involves boiling the metal in a special solution that often includes something called rokushō.

Without this special treatment, shakudō looks similar to bronze. The dark color it gets after treatment makes it look like lacquer, a shiny finish used on many beautiful objects in Japan.

Naming

The name shaku-dō means "red" and "copper". This material starts with a dark, coppery-bronze color and can be changed to a very dark, almost black shade.

History

The word "shakudō" first appears in old Japanese records from the Nara period (710-794 AD), but it is not clear exactly what it meant back then. Real pieces made from shakudō exist from the 12th century and later. Historically, shakudō was used to make and decorate parts of Japanese swords, such as tsuba, as well as small ornaments, sliding door catches, and tiny boxes.

Shakudō was shown to people in the West in the middle of the 19th century. Before, people thought materials like shakudō were only used in China and Japan, maybe in other parts of Asia too. But newer studies found that similar decorative metals were used in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

Production

Shakudō has a long history that started when Japan learned many techniques from Korea and China. During the Meiji period, people made shakudō by heating copper and adding fine gold, along with a by-product called shirome. Later, during the Edo period, they might have used a mix called nigurome instead of plain copper. After shaping the metal, they finished its surface using a special process. Today, the process is simpler and usually just uses copper and gold.

Use

Shakudō, because it contains expensive gold, was usually only used for small decorations or tiny items like tsuba. Bigger old objects, like vases, that people call shakudō might actually not be the real thing, especially if they don’t have the special blue-black shine. If shakudō is cleaned or polished, it won’t turn dark again on its own.

Today, artists are using shakudō again to make beautiful jewelry, cups, and for a special craft called mokume-gane.

Shakudō is sometimes wrongly used to talk about any fancy metal decorations from Japan that are made by mixing different metals together. In the past, these were known in other countries as Amita damascene, after a company that made them to sell to other places. Amita damascene included shakudō, shibuichi, gold, silver, and bronze for decorations.