japanning

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of japan.

   The craftsman spent the whole afternoon japanning a set of metal serving trays.

   Japanning the cabinet required several coats of dark, glossy lacquer.

   Note

   Here the verb is at work. To japan is to coat something with japan, a hard black enamel varnish containing asphalt. The final n doubles before -ing, so the spelling is japanning, never japaning. As a gerund it shades into the European lacquering craft. In obsolete British slang the same form could also mean ordaining someone.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   A European technique for making lacquerware that imitates the traditional Japanese style.

   Like a Western imitation of a prized Eastern craft, copying its mirror-bright shine.

   The museum displays several trays finished with japanning in the eighteenth-century English style.

   Japanning allowed European workshops to produce glossy black goods resembling imported Asian lacquerware.

   Note

   A craft term from woodworking and the decorative arts, built from japan plus -ing. It names the European imitation rather than the Asian original. Lacquerware made in East Asia is lacquer, while trays and cabinets finished in Europe to resemble it are japanning. As a mass noun it takes no article and no plural: a tray is finished with japanning, never with a japanning.

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