I went to the "Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan" exhibition at the British Museum a while back (it ended on 21 October, so this isn't hugely on-the-pulse). Not massively exciting, but as you'd expect, some amazing examples of lacquerwork, intricate sewing, woodcrafting etc. The Japanese have a system of denoting craftsmen/women as Living National Treasures (ningen kokuho) if they are a) dead good at what they do and b) really old, without being quite dead. As I'm a fine of both metallurgy and words, I made a note of the following alloys which are specifically used in Japanese metalwork:
Rogin ("Hazy Moon Silver") = 3 Copper : 1 Silver
Shakudo = Lots of Copper with a bit of Gold - used for inlays, a pale goldy colour
Sahari = Copper + Tin, Lead, Silver - black colour, like lacquer and makes a lovely noise when struck, therefore used in gongs
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